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Show MAJOR OPIE SHOT YANK IN BACK, WITNESS SAYS YANK HANGING : HEARING GIVEN i ! NEW SENSATION J : Virginian Is Positive It Was Major Opie Who Shot Soldier ;WAS RUNNING AWAY? j Letter From Former Lieutenant Lieu-tenant Now Living in Wyoming Is Read WASHINGTON. D. C. Jan. 10. Testimony that they had been eye-witnesses of the shooting of a soldier by Major Hleromc L. Opie. of Staunton. ( Va.. while the later was In France in I 1918 with the 116th Infantry, was giv-i giv-i cn today by fie separate witne;ses i before the senate committee investigating investi-gating charges of illegal executions in tho American Experiil ionary forces Tho witnesses who testified in turn I that thev saw the officer shoot a man 1 down were Charles Fox of Richmond, 1 Va., Stonewall Jackson Aloin of Kern-l Kern-l stown, Va . James E. Carlton, Richmond. Rich-mond. Va. John R Lecdy, Luraj, Va-, ' and Dewey D. Hester of Marlon. Va. I Fox placed the incident he described at "back of Verdun in 1918 " Albin and Hester did not give the location of the elleced shooting and the others agreed tha. it ocucrred in "October 1918." "The man shot was wearing the American uniform," said Fox. "I was ! 160 feet away As the boy was shot. ho threw his hands in tho air and toppled over I do not know if the i man died. Sergeant Kane also a&W j the shooting." Fox declared the soldier was witb I In six feet of the major when the .shooting t....k place, anil that he had i approached the officer and was mov-I mov-I ing off. "Do you lrnow Opie? 1 Chairman ! Brandegee asked. "I was positive It was Major Opie. i There was much talk In the company C npanj B, llth infantry The men wondered why tho boy had been I shot, but they were afraid to I ill I about it." AFRAID TO COMPLAIN "You made no complaint?" I "No, sir. I was afraid " I Asked why he el Id m t report the j case to Lieutenant Mooring of Rlch- mond. Fox said: ' That guy would shoot me; he j wouldn't take any foolishness." Fox gave Chairman Hrandegee a letter from Mooring, written from Casper Wyo.. saying h was "sorry' to hear about Major Opie." Fox did not want all the letter read, saying It contained "some rough stuff." USED TO ROUGH STUFF. "I am used to rough stuff in this case. " the chairman said. The letti r quoted Mooring as saying say-ing ho had heard the h.ildler was run- I ning away and that Qpis had a right to uhoot, and advised Fox not to say anything about the case unless you actually saw the shooting ' adding that rumors did not stand up In j court. Banging the table, Fox shouted that j h, i a . Opie shoot. ' I saw it with my own eyes " "From sfoorlng's letter, he believed j that Opie was Justified " said the ' chairman "Well, I don't " Fox declared BlTTIIKI, QUESTIONED. Complete records in the cases of American soldiers hanged after court-martial court-martial in France were reported to the war department, Colonel Walter A. Bethel assistant Judge-advocate-general in the army testified 'olmii-l Bethel lui.l be.-n pressed by Senator Watson. Oe-mocrat, Georgia,! whose' charges in the senate led to the! I appointment of the committee, as to! why no reports of legal executions, Were made public until long after the! armistice. "Wo sent the department the name, of the man hanged, the fact of the i execution and the offense." said Colonel Col-onel Bethel I do not know how j soon the department mads tbe fuctsj , public " NAMES .not GIVEN OUT. Names of men hanged were not gi-en gi-en tei tho press out of consideration for relatives the witness said Touching on the case of Benjamin I King of Wilmington. N C. who according ac-cording to previous witnesses was killed by orders of "Hard Boiled ' Smith, an officer in charge of a prison pri-son guard. Colonel Bethel reiterated tint available ar department records indicated ' that King was killed In action or died of wounds. No evidence, lie said, bad been ob-talnttO' ob-talnttO' tO support the, charge that King wail murdered and information to this efi:et hus been conveyed to his family fam-ily "Was mis effort mude- to keep hanging nejws from helng sent to thin countrj 1 halrman Brandegee asked. "Not at all," |