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Thursday, August 22, 2024

E.E. Clark, Accused of Raping Two 10-Year-Old Girls, to Face Jury, Aug. 22, 1924

To Try Clark for His Life. . . Special Venire of 150 Drawn for Jurors in Case to Appear Friday Morning

E.E. Clark, 55-year-old typewriter mechanic of the city, who was to have been tried for a crime against nature on the person of two 10-year-old girls, was sent back to jail from Superior Court Thursday morning when the Grand Jury return bills for criminal assault or rape on the girls, the penalty to which is death.

Clark will be tried for his life Friday morning when a special venir of 150 men will appear to furnish a jury. The court did not have enough available men from which to select a jury on Thursday, when the case was brought up for trial instead of the case of John Swindell who was shot in his cell. Clark was close to Swindell at the time he was shot.

When Clark appeared in court Thursday morning, he looked little the worse for his long day in jail. He had been in jail since his arrest on May 28. Clark has been held in default of $7,500 bond since the hearing on May 31 when the little girls, Gladys Berry and Ruth Rhodes, testified that he had enticed them to his shop on Poindexter street, and after making them gifts of candy and trinkets, committed the acts which which he is charged.

Other Cases Tried

Several other cases have been disposed of in Superior Court this week before Judge Lyons, who allows no delay and who in charging the Grand Jury said that crime was on the increase in North Carolina and could be only checked effectively by punishment. Judge Lyons believes in the certainty, rather than the severity, of punishment.

District Riddick and Allan Woodhouse, negro boy, indicted for rape of a 13-year-old negro girl, were found guilty only of carnal knowledge of a girl under the age of consent, and were each sentenced to two years on the roads. One of the negroes was 14 years old. the other was much older. Other cases disposed of were:

Malachi Costen was sentenced to four years on the roads for burglary of the home of G.F. Wright. Wheeler Smith and Irving Whitehouse were each sentenced to two years on the roads for breaking into the warehouse of the Elizabeth City Milling Co.

Lucius Holly was given 12 months on the roads for possessing and transporting liquor. a number of smaller cases were disposed of, and several defendants were found not guilty, among them being Moses Rareo, who was charged with forting checks on D.E. Williams of South Mills, but who got off by a cleverly constructed defense that his brother, who is out of the state, did the signing.

From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, August 22, 1924

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn83025812/1924-08-22/ed-1/seq-1/#words=AUGUST+22.+1924

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