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THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY*More Light on the Trial of W. C. Walters—A Methodist of OpelousasWrites That in His Opinion Religf. ion Had No Influence On the Case | Whatever.When a mass meeting was held in Lumberton some weeks ago to hear the story of the trial of W. C. Wal_; ters of Barnesville, this county, at Opelousas, La., on the ..charge of kidnaping—to hear the story of the trial from a witness, Mr^ Murray of Barnes.I ville, the statement was made that the •Dunbars, whose child Walters was ac. cused 'of kidnaping, and convicted— j most unjustly, many claim — were• Catholics and that the fact that the j great majority of the people of Ope-• lousas are Catholics was responsible for Walters not receiving a fair trial. Mr. C. B. Redmond of Lumberton attended the mass meeting and de-j cided to investigate for himself as to• j what part religious beliefs played in -, the trial. He wrote to the Catholicj priest at Opelousas and besids writ-; ing himself the priest sent Mr. Red-j mond the following letter which speaks for itself. (The letter head under which this is written is “Little Lawler, Real Estate and Abstracts, Opelousas. La., h E. Little, J. G. Lawler,' so it appears that the writer is junior member of the firm):- “TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:J “I learned that a report had gain. f ed circulation to, the “effect that W. C. Walters did hot get a fair trial for r the reason that the people of Opelou-• sas were all Catholics, he being a I Protestant prejudiced his case., The writer is a Protestant member of the Methodist church, and has . lived in Opelousas 18 years and amlocl conditions, ind while the court house was very - much crowded during the trial of W. C. Walters, 1 was fortunate enough to secure a good comfortale seat near the •?*»ltness stand, arhong thenews* paper reporters, where I could hear all the evidence and keep in close touch with the surroundings.“I will say that a great majority of the local defense witnesses for Walters were Catholics. The writer does not recall but three local defense witnesses that were Protestants, all the balance being Catholics. The local defense attorney, who by the way has reputation of being one among the best criminal lawyers in this section, a man of good reputation, is a staunch ‘ Catholic. One of the prosecuting attorneys, Mr. John W. Lewis, is a Methodist. Mr. Dunbar himself and all his family are Protestants and a good many of his wife’s family. Quite a number of the' State’s witnesses from Louisiana were Protestants, two of them from Beauregard parish, who were strong witnesses for the State, were preachers, one being a Methodist and the other a Baptist preacher.“Regarding the report that there are no churches here except the Catholic church, will say that there are four other churches, a Methodist, Baptist, Episcopalian and Presbyter, ian, the Methodist and Baptist having their local ministers, the Presbyter ian and Episcopalian churches hold services twice a month. It is the opinion of the writer that religion had no influence in this case whatever, and the writer is thoroughly convinced that W. C. Walters was shown more courtesy that he ' would have been shown in any other parish in this State. His attorneys, Dale Rawls on several occasions expressed-themselves as being highly pleased, with the courteous manner they had been treated by the people of Opelousas, and will further state that they made quite a number of friends during their stay here.“It is regretted by the writer that such report as mentioned above, has been circulated, and hope this will have some effect in correcting the error.J. G. LAWI.ER. Opelousas, La., May 29, 1914.Miss Sue May Kirkland, lady principal of the State Normal and Industrial College at Greensboro since it was opened 22 years ago, died suddenly Monday in Raleigh at the home of her sister Mrs. C. C. Crow. Death was due to heart failure.Health is not put up in bottles and cannot be bought at the drugstore.Indigestion* and Constipation.“About five years ago I began taking Chamberlain’s Tablets after suffering from indigestion and constipation for years without finding anything to relieve me. Chamberlain’s Tablets helped me at once and by using them for several weeks I was cured of the complaint,” writes Mrs. Mary E. McMullen, Phelps, N. Y. For sale by all dealers.
Newspaper Details
Robesonian
Lumberton, North Carolina, US
Thu, Jun 11, 1914
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Barret R.
NA, 11 Feb 2025
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