Show TWO BOLD BURGLARS V ARE LEGALLY HANGED V VV V IN NORTH CAROLINA j k- k V 1 s 11 1 f F 45 a i 4 tV ASHEVILLE N. N C. C Feb 26 Dudley Dudley 1 Johnson white and Ben Foster colored were were hanged le heije e e today toay at 12 0 for for ry They v vere r giVen a ch I burial during th afternoon Burglary at night In North Carolina Carolinas Is s a capital offence and nd today's executions executions tiona were th the final chapter in ii n ase attended Incidents attended by many exciting I The crime was committed in the combined combined com corn and store kept by Samuel Samuel Samuel Sam Sam- uel Alexander Alexander at Emma a a. li little t hamlet a few miles mlles out of Asheville on the night of February 14 1901 V V V VV V Four men planned the robbery at Asheville walked down the railroad track to Emma called Postmaster Alexander Alexander Alexander Alex Alex- ander to the door under under pretext t of buyIng buying buy- buy Ing log groc groceries rl s and forced him at the point of a pistol to to taKe talce them to his room which they searched finding his revolver They then made him open the safe V V V V Dudley Johnson white and Ben Den Foster Foster roster Fos- Fos ter colored were Inside and V Russel Gates white and H Harfy ry Mills colored guarded the he outside Johnson laid his re revolver down to take the money out of the safe when a cat moved in the back part of t the e store which attracted the attention of Foster who 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 Johnson Jphnson s gun shot Foster Poster and snapped the weapon at Johnson who grappled him The struggle was long and fierce Foster joining in inThe in V The shooting aroused the citizens of the hamlet and on their appearance the burglars ran A posse was quickly or organized organized or- or and the men were captured a afew afew afew few days later and placed In Jail jaB at Asheville Two of the prisoners were badly vo but recovered V The trial was held last June the four I men roen were convicted of burglary In the first degree and condemned to die A August August Au Au- gust h. 7 They appealed for a new trial on Von the ground that the store was not nota a dwelling but the court ruled that It t was one under the act of 1898 Foster on the morning of his capture V when it H was thought he was dying made a confession in which h he stated that the burglary h had d be been n pla planned In Asheville by Gates and Johnson JOhnson- vho who had asked Mills and him to accompany them on the expedition The Governor a. a short time ago commuted th the sentence of Gates and Mills to imprisonment for fon life |