Chesterfield, S.C., Sept. 23—Following a swiftly moving trial replete with dramatic moments, Mortimer N. King and Frank Harrell, young cotton mill workers, were given death sentences late today in sessions court for the murder of Major Samuel H. McLeary, United States army officer, on July, which they had both admitted in signed confessions.
Judge C.C. Featherstone, presiding, set November 21 as the day when they should be electrocuted in the state penitentiary at Columbia, advising them that he was giving them ample time to repent of their “most horrible” crime and to make peace with their Master.
Taking the stand as the first witness for the defense, King produced one of the dramatic moments of the day that kept the little court room, packed and jammed with humanity, silent by the drama being enacted. The 23-year-old defendant, after making a brave effort to conceal his emotions, broke down and sobbed. Pleading for mercy to both himself and his companion, he attempted to take the entire burden of the crime upon his own shoulders. Harrell, he declared, had never had a chance, and had a wife with a baby born just six days ago, depending upon him for support.
Harrell, he admitted, was not at hand when he fired two bullets into the army officer’s head with fatal effect, but was back at the automobile of Major McLeary, in which the two had been given a lift by the officer. Harrell went back at his direction, the defendant said, to turn the engine of the officer’s car off. Several automobiles had passed while they were robbing the major in the woods, King testified, and he decided to the have the engine of the officer’s car stopped to lessen the chances of detection.
Throughout his story he maintained that the murder of Major McLeary was not planned in advance. After they had forced the officer into the woods, he declared, he did not intend to kill him, but planned to tie him up with a tow road which was in the rear of the car, and to make off with the machine. Protesting that he did not realize what he was doing, King said he shot after Major McLeary had struck at him and reached toward his own pocket as if for a weapon.
He told a story of wandering with Harrell in a vain search for employment in explaining why they decided to “stick up” some traveler.
“I had not eaten a bite for a day and a half when Major McLeary picked us up,” he declared.
Harrell, while on the stand, did not break down. He told his story in untrembling, but weak voice. He insisted that he had no knowledge that his companion planned to shoot the officer, and he was not aware that King intended to rob McLeary until King produced his pistol and ordered the officer to stop the car. He himself had no weapon, not even a pocket knife, he swore, and he did not see King fire either of the two shots that killed the officer.
From page 4 of the Concord Daily Tribune, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 1924
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1924-09-24/ed-1/seq-4/
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