Show TWO NEGRO BURGLARS I ARE LEGALLY HANGED I IN NORTH CAROLINA ASHEVILLE N. N C C. Feb 26 Dudley Dudley J Johnson white and Ben Foster Foster colored were hanged here today at 12 1230 30 for burglary They were given a church burial during the afternoon Burglary at night at-night night t in North Carolina is a capital offence and today's executions executions were the final inal chapter chapt T In a case a attended tt c d b by many exciting indents Th The crime wras aa com committed Itt t ir h in t the ec combined com cen- post postoffice and store k kept by Samuel Samuel Samuel Sam Sam- uel Alexander at t Emma a little hamlet a few miles out of Asheville on the night of February 14 1901 Four m men n pl planned nned U the e robbery at Asheville walked down the railroad i track t to Emma called Alexa Alexander Alex Alex- a ander r to the thedoOr door u under der pretext of buying buy buy- in ing groceries and forced him at the point of a pistol to take them to his room w which they searched finding his re revolver olver They then ten made him open the safe I Dudley Johnson white and Ben Foster Foster Foster Fos Fos- ter colored were Inside and Russel I Gates white and Harry Mills colored guarded the outside Johnson laid his revolver down to take the money out of the safe when a cat moved in the back part of the store which attracted the attention of Foster who vho was holding his revolver at Alexander's Alexanders Alexanders Alexander's Alexanders Alexander's Alex Alex- anders ander's head Quick as a flash Alexander grabbed Johnsons Johnson's gun shot Foster and snapped the weapon at Johnson who grappled with him The struggle was long and fierce Foster Joining in The Th rh shooting aroused the citizens of ot f the and on their appearance th the 1 ran A posse was quickly org or- or t g 1 and the men were captured a aj aY few tv days later and placed in Jail at at J. J Asheville Two of the prisoners were badly wounded but recovered The trial was held last June the four men were convicted of burglary in m the first degree and condemned to die August August August Au Au- gust They appealed for a new trial on the ground that the store was not nota a dwelling but the court ruled that It was one under the act of 1898 1198 Foster on the morning of his capture when it was thought he was made a confession in which he stated that the burglary had been planned in Asheville by Gates and Johnson who had asked Mills and him to accompany them on the expedition The Governor a short time ago commuted the sentence of Gates and arid Mills to imprisonment for life |