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186 THE CRISIS

The "white man" theory of the detectives gained such strength that Chief Couch obtained legal permission to disinter the body of the victim in order to photograph the eyes of the dead girl in hope that the last object her eyes rested upon was the murderer and that his image would be revealed. Publicity of the order for this gruesome operation and the reasons for granting it were published in full in the "Memphis Press" of Monday morning, May 7. The following excerpts are from that account:

"If the film of death is not too strong over her eyes, Waggoner thinks he may be able to bring to light the features of the murderer.

"One other hope holds out from the disinterment. The matter beneath the fingernails of the dead girl will be examined. One man has been located who was present when the body was found, who declares that she had tissue resembling white skin under her fingernails at the time her body was discovered. * * *

"Indications, according to city detectives, point to the fact that Antoinette Rappal left the Macon Road voluntarily on the morning that she was murdered. * * *

"The condition of the bicycle would point to the fact that the girl was not dragged from the embankment from her wheel, for the bicycle is not scratched, nor marked as though it had been dragged. Sleuths say it looks as though it had been placed carefully against the clump of swamp willows where it was found.

"Certainly no white girl would permit a Negro to lure her into such a place, the detectives reason. A white man, known to her, would excite no such suspicion in her mind.

"They are backed in their white man theory by Dr. Lee A. Stone, resigned head of the Associated Charities, and local practicing physician. Dr. Stone claims that the deed unquestionably is the crime of a white man. He terms the man a necrophilia-one whose object would first be the death of his victim. He also states that in medical history certain abnormal men have been found who first kill their victims. Such cases are quite numerous in criminal annals, Dr. Stone says.

"'It is practically a certainty,' Dr. Stone said, 'that this terrible crime has been committed by a white man.'"

On Sunday, May 6, Ell Person and George Knox, two Negro woodchoppers, were arrested on suspicion. The clue leading to Person's arrest is stated in the following paragraph clipped from the Memphis "Scimitar" of Monday afternoon, May 7:

"An ax, bearing suspicious stains, which deputies found at the home of Ell Person, a Negro living a half mile from the scene of the murder, was turned over to City Chemist Mantell for examination by Sheriff Tate, Monday. He will endeavor to ascertain if the stains were made by human blood. Person is locked up in jail."

On Tuesday morning the Memphis papers announced that Ell Person had confessed to being the slayer of Antoinette Rappal. Person, with other suspects, had been in the sheriff's custody twice before, and twice had convinced the officers that he knew nothing of the crime. But the girl's uncle, William Wilfong, was not satisfied. After Person's second release, Wilfong and his brother-in-law, Gus Hanky, themselves seized Person and turned him over again to the sheriff.

How Wilfong had his suspicion against Person aroused and how he came to be convinced of his guilt is thus related in the "Memphis Press":

"E. J. Brooks, of Berkeley, Tenn., is the first man to accuse Ell T. Person of being the ax murderer.

"This morning Brooks told, in simple, but dramatic, language, the story of how he was led to accuse Person.

"'This Negro was working for me last February, and had been for eight months,' said Brooks.

"'One morning, early in February, he was busy churning, and my wife was in the same room with him. All of a sudden he quit churning, sprang up, and began staring wildly at Mrs. Brooks. He was in a quiver all over.

"'I had a dream about you last night,' he said, and as he spoke he made like he wanted to lunge at my wife. She ran away in a terrific fright, and told me how the Negro had acted.

"'My first impulse was to put a hole in the fiend, but rather than cause any trouble, I fired the Negro, and ordered him to stay away from my house. I wish now I had killed him.

"'I have seen him off and on in the neighborhood several times since, working as a wood chopper.

"'When I first heard the news of An-

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N. A. A. C. P. 187

toinette Rappal being murdered, I took the matter up with Sheriff Tate, and he ordered the black man arrested, but soon released him.

"'Then it was that I took the matter in my own hands and determined to prove that I was right. Sailors, at Binghamton, joined me, and we spend sleepless nights since last Thursday, on the trail of that Negro.

"'We traced him to the bridge near where the crime was committed until 6 o'clock Monday morning. Then we lost trace of him until 8:30, when we found that he has applied at the home of J. G. Moffet, near Berkeley, for work.

"'This went to prove that we were on the trail of the right man. Then next we went after some clue as to his clothes.

"'Sailors hired a Negro to scout around Person's house, and see what he could pick up.

"'At midnight, Sunday, while exploring the premises of the murderer's house, Sailors' Negro found a blood-stained pair of shoes under a stack of cornstalks. 

"'He also discovered a pair of trousers in Person's house which had been washed. They bore the unmistakable signs of blood-stains near the bottom. 

"'We gave the shoes and the trousers to the sheriff, Monday morning,' continued Brooks, 'and he arrested the Negro again. This, of course, completed the evidence needed to mark Person as the guilty Negro.'"

The alleged confession of Ell Person was obtained by "third degree" methods. How these methods were used on Person was thus told in the "Memphis Press":

"'THERE'S BLOOD ON YOUR SHOES.'
"The sheriff, with Brunner and Hoyie, past masters in the art of the third degree, coaxed, cajoled, beat, whipped, threatened, pleaded with the Negro to no avail. 

"But finally, at the psychological moment, when the black man's resistance was worn to the breaking point, Detective Hoyle pointed suddenly to the Negro's shoes.

"'There's blood on your shoes now!' he said, sharply, accusingly.

"Person faltered. He looked down. True enough, spots were on his shoes. Before he had time to gather his scattered wits, Sheriff Tate and Detective Brunner seized the clue.

"'The city chemist can tell if it is human blood,' said Tate. 'Take off those shoes.'

"Person complied. Tate and Brunner left the third degree room, taking the shoes with them. Hoyle remained with the prisoner. 
"About an hour later Tate and Brunner returned. Hoyle had refrained from questioning Person.
"'It's human blood,' Tate said dramatically, as he entered the room. 

"Person's eyes widened. He shuffled lower in his chair. He gazed down at the flood. Then he half whispered the words that cleared the most atrocious murder mystery in the history of this county.

"'I DID IT; I KILLED HER!' were Person's words."
In the same issue of the same paper there appeared on the front page, printed in heavy-faced type, the following paragraph:

No Blood Is on Clothes and Ax. 
"City Chemist Mantell reported this afternoon that he had failed to find any blood on the trousers, shows or ax of Ell Person, confessed murderer of Antoinette Rappal."

The alleged confession of Person was announced in the morning papers of Tuesday, May 8. In the "Scimitar" of Tuesday afternoon, May 8, there appeared the following paragraphs relative to the results obtained after the disinterment of Antoinette Rappal's body:

"Under the direction of Chief of Detectives Couch, Paul N. Waggoner, Bertillon expert of the police department, photographed the pupils of the murdered girl's eyes, in hope of obtaining an image of the murderer on the retina. 

"An examination of the photograph under high power lenses reveals the image of an object that appears to be the upper part of a man's head. The forehead and hair seem to be plainly visible, but the features are indistinct. Police say that the image is a likeness of Person."

The grand jury of Shelby County immediately indicted Person on the charge of murder in the first degree. It was remarked that an indictment for criminal assault was not returned. 

The following published statement of the Attorney-General regarding the methods by which the alleged confession was obtained is worthy of attention. 

How the mob and a crowd who came to look on waited all Monday afternoon and through the storm at night until the prisoner was brought in Tuesday morning was graphically told by Ralph Roddy, a reporter