482 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

Here is the translated text as follows:

450

X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

I heard the expression, "let us go to the main guard"; Captain Goldfinch was still on the steps. I heard his voice still talking, and I think he desired every person to go away. While he was talking, I heard the report of a musket, then the report of a second gun, and presently a third. Upon the firing of the first gun, I heard Captain Goldfinch say, "I thought it would come to this, it is time for me to go." I then saw a soldier come down the alley from Cornhill and go up to the steps where the officers stood. He said they fired from or upon the main guard. Then I heard the drum at the main guard beat to arms. I came downstairs and did not go out until I was sent for to attend to some of the wounded people. I was sent for to Maverick about two hours before his death. I asked him concerning the affair; he said he went up the lane, and just as he got to the corner, he heard a gun. He did not retreat back but went to the Town House; as he was going along, he was shot.

Benjamin Davis, Jr.

On the evening of the 6th of March, near the bottom of Royal Exchange Lane, I saw a mob by Mr. Greenleaf's. I went right along into King Street, where I saw the sentinel. A barber's boy, who was there crying, said the sentry had struck him, and I asked him what business he had to do it. I went home and stayed at the gate in Green's Lane for some time. Samuel Gray (one of the persons killed that night in King Street) came along and asked where the fire was. I said there was no fire, it was the soldiers fighting. He said, "damn it, I am glad of it, I will knock some of them on the head"; he ran off. I said to him, "take heed you do not get killed in the affray yourself"; he said, "do not you fear, damn their bloods"; he had a stick under his arm.

Alexander Cruckshank.

I am a jeweler. On the evening of the fifth of March, as the clock struck nine, I came up Royal Exchange Lane. I heard some boys abusing the sentinel. I often saw the two boys go towards the box and back to the sentinel with a fresh repetition of oaths; they called him lobster and rascal, wished he was in hell's flames, often and often. Neither heard nor saw the sentinel do anything to them; he only said it was his post, and he would maintain it, and if they offered to molest him, he would run them through. Upon his saying this, two boys made up some snowballs and threw them at the sentinel, who called out, "guard, guard," two or three times, very loud. Upon that, some soldiers came from towards the main guard, seven or eight; some had bayonets, some swords, others sticks in their hands. On their approach, these people and the boys who stood before the box went up to the back of the Town House, by the barber's shop. I crossed King Street; three or four of these soldiers came down to me, damned me, and asked who I was. I said I was going home peaceably and interfered with neither one side nor another. One of them, with a bayonet or sword, gave me a light stroke over my shoulder and said, "friend, you had better go home, for by all I can foresee, there will be the devil to pay."

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