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Show I II nil P in P fir vaulc nropDiDrnl fiHniiinii ur iftnivo ucdbniDCUi OK PILE I , UP AGAINST I ! MAJOR OPIE I j E?. Former Soldier Says He Saw f; Officer Take Gun and 6; Shoot Man E HANGINGS DESCRIBED Witness Avers Condemned Yanks Were Doped Be- '. fore Being Executed f WASHINGTON. D. C. Jan. 5. Further testimony relating to the hanging of Vmoncm soldiers at Is-Sur-Tille France vas presented toda; to the Sen. ite committee Investigating IH charges by Senator Watson, Democra- jH Georgia, thai aoldlera had been executed wit hour trial. Herbert L. IjB Cadenhead of Greenville. Miss., a I former service man. declared he had I witnessed. ieM or twelve, executions, t Is-JJur-Tille while' engaged in trans-porting trans-porting German prisoners by truck ' in the vicinity of that place. War Department records previously submitted to the Committee showed That two soldier were hanged at Is-Sur-Tllle after conviction by general 11 court martial and gave Hie trial cxe- H ctitldns in the A. E. F. as eleven, all after formal trial before military H I courts. DEATHS MIX RIBKD jfc. Ca i-ni.ead did m. know whether jE'. 0j of the men he saw hanged had met their death without trial. He described In detail the executions which be ''aimed to have witnessed, 1 lone of them being a lieutenant who. Cadenhi id said, had been charged fith assault upon a seven-year-old girl. H i tdei head produced several small I . photographs of purported hanging scenes. 'Your main criticism about the exe-I exe-I cutlon as set forth In your letter t.. 1 I Senutor Watson, was that ithe French . per. pie should nv' have been permltteu H , see them '' Chairman Brandegee j ailced. 'Yes sir." "See barbarity0" H DVGED MI N DOPED I No. The only thing I saw was that some ff th( men hanged were doped" Senator Overman, Democrat, Nortli Carolina, wanted Co know who wab ; with Cadenhead when he looked .at the executions. j "About 200 or 300 French people jH .Hid HUH -oldiers " ', . u saw the other five or seven 1 exe ut on fro n a truck while haulins I 'German prisoners?" "Yes. V hen wo saw a hanging from the road we stopped to look." Cadenhead declared he had no feel-ling feel-ling against officers and that ho vol- H un'urdy oil', red to come forward af-ter af-ter seeing the statement printed that 1 there w ere only two hangings at Is- 'H J Sur-Tille THIMvs OFFICERS GUILTY "I had seen more than that' b said, and it seemed to me that some officers were guilty." H Senator Brandegee asked if Caden- head could produce witnesses to sup port his statement. He mentioned Amir w Saloon." h,it explain. . 1 thai i the spelling was ' Chelume" and that ! ' he lived at Elmhurst, Long Island. 1 Chelume Will he summoned. Two witnesses called to testify as 'M to the Charges that Major L OplS pf ' Staunton. Va . had shot two soldiers H In France were excuseel after It was H developed they had no personal know- H i ledge of the matter. A moment later, H I however, lemuol O. Smith of Dublin. I Ya . who has been In an institution H I for the Insane in e the war. declared H he saw Major Ople shoot a soldier H SHOT BY MAJOR "While in a dugout with three com- H ! rades and four German prisoners," s-wd i Smith "1 saw Major Ople take a gun H and deliberately shoot a man The H I man was William Woolwine. Ople w. H i ren steps from Woolwine." H What did Major Ople say"" he was asked H "lie said. T shot him, take him out " !H "Whit was said before tho shoot- PJH ing?" IH "Not a word was passed Major H Opie gave no reason." "How many shots wcr fired?" 'ne. It hit Woolwine in the chv. He was dead when we picked him up." Smith. In a letter to Senator Watson, said he had been decorated by the French and American governments. 1 but In testimony he said that he had H received no such decoration 'Why did you say it then?" he was J asked. H A friend of mine, a patient In tlu hospital at Marion with me. wrote tho letter and I signed It without read- Ing it H Chairman Hrandegee. calling attention atten-tion to discrepancies In statements In . Smith's letter and testimony, as to the dugout shooting, asked which was cor- ; What I testified was right " he aid, He was excused. Osborn Kllison, of Pulaski, Ya.. j mentioned by Smith an having been In the dugout with him at the time of the W ..'twine shootfhc declared h.. j was not present, never saw Major Opls (Continuetl on Page Two. I YANK HANGING CHARGES AIRED Pitiful Wreck of War Is Witness Against Accused Officer Continued from Pnjcc One) hoot any soldlor. was not with SnrVh and never M w him hut onoe. DIDN'T SEE IT i.ne Collins of Dublin. Yn.. next called, call-ed, said he was not with Smith In thf iuffOUt ami did nut MC Major Opto whoot Woolwlno or anybody else-Edwin else-Edwin Duner of San Francisco, a voluntary Witness, stopped forward and declared h wanted to extlfy concerning concern-ing prison atrocities In France "I was at Bnssenfi prison, tn-ar Bordeaux, Bor-deaux, where I was sent up for hree months for RolnK across the street -Jftut of my area to get two egg sand- it hca," he said. . While nt the prison Duner said he sw a Bervesjv! while drunk kill n prisoner for asUinc for a slice of bread. TnV sergeant, he added, was not court-martialed court-martialed as far as ho knew. John Fitzgerald of Pennsylvania, who was locked up for belli drunk, was named by Duner as the prisoner killed. The scrjreant he said, WM named cooper. 1FRAID OF PIOTOL6 Duner also gave the names of wit-nODece. wit-nODece. saying 150 negroes and 200 white men were present. "Wo were Kolng to mob the sergeant, but there wore too many automatics, " he continued. con-tinued. "iAter the eoldnel, a big I'o-look, I'o-look, ranio up In his limousine and asked If anybody there saw tlm shooting. shoot-ing. Seven of us stepped forward and they put us right away In solitury on lireiul and water " Duner. tall fair-haired chap, (rave the committee a refreshing rfoueh ot romedv In describing some of the hardships at a Coblenz prison " They had a Lieutenant, a regular snowbird all 111 up." he said. "He used to come back from Italy where he went for his dope, and then' he would stand up and lay boys I am Klad to see you.' I guess he wis for hej KOt us out at midnight for Inspection." Inspec-tion." Duner. complained because .in the voyage home after the war the soldiers "aboard one of those ninety day boats built to win the war" had no sugar for their coffee. There was a great outburst of cheering cheer-ing when Duner. explaining thai bo hafl conic here to testify at bis own expense declared "I am 100 per cent American and there are few of us left " At this point the committee adjourned adjourn-ed until 2 pm. Before the session adjourned Senator Sena-tor Watson suggested that inasmuch as Duner had come here at his own expense. ex-pense. It might be proper for the committee com-mittee to pay his traveling expenses Chairman Brandegee said the question Would be taken under consideration. As the crowd, which had cheered the witness, went out they surrounded ' Duner and asked hi trade. 'I am Edward Duner, known also ns Hobo Kelly, the famous tramp." he j declared, as a bunch of motion picture j operators seizing him bv the arm and dragged him Inward tho light. Duner gae his San Francisco ad-1 dress as 1 S Market street Accuser and at eused faced each othor Wednesday before a senate com-mlttec com-mlttec investigating charges that American Am-erican soldiers had been hanged without with-out trial In France. Near the close of the session Major H. L. Ople of Staunton, Va.. commander com-mander of the Third battalion, llbth infantry overseas, wont on the stand to enter emphntic denial of charges, bv former service men that he had I shot down some of his soldiers In cold j blood on tho battlefield. He was asked, however, to step aside until ether witnesses testify against him, meanwhile being given the right through counsel to cross-examine them. Grayson H- Withrow, of Baltimore, sWIl In his early twenties, testified i hat he saw the officer seize a piii from a private and fire at a man In his command. Shells were falling, he 1 alt. and there was tremendous excite- , ment, but Withrow swore that from his retreat In a shell hole ho saw the 1 man fall as tho major's gun barked, j But he could not say whether Opic had killed him. declaring that the latter, standing out in the open, wa-s Within arm's reach of half a dozen I officers when the shot wus fired. At ( USED AGAIN As Withrow left the tunJ William F. St John, of Lynchburg, Va., suffering suf-fering from nervous troubles resulting result-ing from service overseas, accused the Virginian of shooting down a " runner" run-ner" at the front becauso he failed j to heed after thrice being orderea to ! halt. Four other men saw the killing he declared, but he refused to their names on tne ground that he bad not been able to confer with them j and that it would not be Just to him i If they should appear and "not back up" his charges One, he said, had j "developed cold feet" and was un- I willing to come. HE GIVES NAMES, Reminded by Chairman Brandegee that the names must be submitted. John complied, mentioning first the cousin of one of Major Ople's counsel It was while Sr. John was being cros-examlnrd by John A. Cutchins. of Richmond, Va.. Major Ople's counsel, that he lost control of his shattered nerves and shouted he was dealing with a bunch of fanatics fa-natics who "are trying to prove 1 ;ni nutty." Mr. Cutchins disclaimed such an Intention Seeing that the young man was worn out by excitement. Senator Watson. Wat-son. Democrat, Georgia. whose churges of Illegal executions are under un-der Investigation, declined to question him Starting out with the testimony ot Rufus P. Hubbard, of New York, who. as an embalming nsslslsant with tho American graves registration service, declared he found a noose and black cap on tho bodies of three American soldiers dug up in the little French, cemetery at Bazoilles. the committee permitted the Inquiry to run Its course. Another witness, who assist-1 ed In n legal execution, declared that the body was burled, noose and black cap Intact, in tho same cemetery where Hubbard said three so marked had been found. SOLDIER I HHOl A farm boy from Georgia. who frankly but pathetically announced ho could not read or write, cleared up his statement concerning the shooting of a soldier because he had sneaked away from hla command to quench his thirst nt a spring. It developed that the command was trying to conceal con-ceal ltt position from the enemy and that all hands had been warned that the flrit man attempting to walk out In the open would ho shot. The soldier sol-dier walked o0 yards beyond tho deadline, dead-line, refusod to halt when ordered, and they shot him In his tracks. |