Chattanooga, Tenn., July 5—Dr. W.D. Mason, veterinary surgeon, and Lawrence Bowman, who have been the object of a 10-day’s search by a posse of more than 150 men since their mysterious disappearance on Signal mountain the night of June 23, were found handcuffed and chained to a tree this morning by Jim Thomas, mountaineer, at 10:30 o’clock.
Both men were alive but in serious condition due to their long exposure and insufficient nourishment. They were brought to Chattanooga in an ambulance.
Mason and Bowman, after being sufficiently revived, stated that they had been set upon the night of their disappearance by five hooded men, carried off from Dr. Mason’s automobile and chained to a tree. Each night they were blindfolded and removed to another place, they stated.
As the two men were found on a spot that was previously searched by a posse, it is believed that the men were moved each night to a section of the mountain that was searched on the previous day by the posse, their discovery being thus prevented.
While very thirsty, Bowman was able to talk, according to Thomas, but Mason did not speak. Bowman said that it had been four days since Mason had eaten, having become angry at being held captive and refused to eat or drink on one occasion. The captors then grew angry at Mason, Bowman stated, and refused to either feed him or give him water.
Finding of the men occurred when Thomas, accompanied by his 9-year-old grandson, and a German police dog, were seeking hogs that had escaped from his farm. He was amazed, he stated, when he saw Bowman, his face covered with a heavy growth of beard, thinking he was an apparition.
“I first asked him if he was thirsty,” Thomas stated. He replied, :”’H---l yes.’ I always carry water on my horse as it is impossible to secure on the mountain due to the long drought. I fetched him a bottle of water which he grabbed at greedily. I succeeded in twisting it from his frenzied grip, after he had taken about three swallows, as I feared the effects might kill him.
“I then turned my attention to Dr. Mason, who was lying in a stupor and Lawrence said he had not spoken all morning. I forced the mouth of the bottle through is lips and allowed the water to go through is teeth.
“Presently he began to show signs of life and began sucking at the bottle. I let him have about three or four spoonfuls but I was afraid to give him any more.
“Leaving my little grandson with the men I rushed off to the nearest telephone. I could not find the sheriff’s number, so I communicated with Joe Wills’ stable, where ambulances were secured for them.
“I then realized that I should not have left the boy alone for bandits might have come back and killed him, as well as spirited the men away. However. Nothing like this occurred, the men having been frightened away.
“Bowman told me that they usually kept guard over them some distance away. The sun beat down upon them unmercifully, while gnats, mosquitoes and other insects preyed on their bodies. “Dr. Mason’s wrists were badly cut by the hand cuffs, which I severed with a saw and file I secured at the home from where I called the ambulances. The handcuffs were fastened to a chain which was r=wrapped around the tree. Mason was chained the tightest, it being possible for Boman to raise himself up on his hands and knees.”
When news of the discover of the men was received in the city, Chief Deputy Nick Bash, who had headed the search for the men, leaped into an automobile and sped to the summit of the mountain, where he conducted an investigation into the affair and sought to ferret out the captors of the men.
The news of the finding of the men spread like wildfire. Crowds besieged the hospitals. By the time Mason arrived at the hospital a crowd of more than a hundred had almost overrun the institution.
The scene was reenacted at the sanitarium where Bowman was carried. Crowds and cars congregated for two blocks between the hospital and jail.
Following the finding of the two men, Sam Godsey, deputy sheriff of Sequahatchie county, declared that the disappearance of the two men “was a frame-up” designed to bring him into disrepute. He stated that Bowman and Mason had figured that if they could make it appear that they had been killed, they could pursue their moonshining activities and become rich in selling liquor.
Godsey also issued a warning to three federal prohibition officers, K.E. Grubb, Eli and Victor Williams, that he intended to clean up the liquor situation on the mountain and charged that Tom Grubb had been selling and transporting whiskey.
Sheriff Tom Selman said tonight that the stories of the men that they had been kidnapped and kept captive appeared absurd and that he would go to the bottom of the affair.
From page 6 of The Concord Daily Tribune, July 6, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1925-07-06/ed-1/seq-6/
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