Gastonia's Gastritis

Mistrial. Into the courtroom at Charlotte, N. C. last fortnight was wheeled a ghoulish plaster-of-paris effigy clad in a blood-caked, bullet-ridden police uniform. Its face, beneath a broad-brimmed black hat, was a ghastly image of Police Chief Orville F. Aderholt, for whose murder during labor troubles in the Gastonia textile mills, 16 strikers and strike-organizers were on trial (TIME, Sept. 9). Effective--all too effective--was this theatrical gesture of the prosecution. Juryman Joseph G. Campbell, an "eccentric" newsvendor, blanched and stared popeyed. That night he begged the deputy sheriff for a pistol to kill himself. Next day he confessed his sins to the sheriff, asked to be buried face downward. Then the sheriff reported: "I found him crawling under the beds, and it took all the strength I had to get him up on his feet." Said a doctor: "Acute emotional insanity." Said the judge: "Mistrial." New trial will begin on Sept. 30. Mobbery. Five other jurors, released from their oaths of secrecy, hinted that the State's case was weak, that their verdict would have been "Not Guilty." Newspapers carried to Gastonia this inflammatory revelation. One night last week scores of grim, Communist-hating Gastonians, doubtful of justice by jury, determined on southern-style vengeance for their police chief's murder, crowded into automobiles. Descending on a Communist haunt, they laid hands on three unwary strike-organizers: Cliff D. Saylor, C. M. Lell, Ben Wells. Then, hankering for more distinguished victims, they set off for Charlotte. Midnight pedestrians in Charlotte, startled by the procession of packed automobiles, scuttled when they heard the cry: "Get Tom Jimison and string him up!" But Tom P. Jimison, attorney for the defense of the accused murderers, eluded the rampant Gastonians. Nor could they discover any other satisfactory lynchees. The mob dwindled. A few cars, bearing the three Gastonia captives, sped away northward. In one car crouched pudgy Ben Wells, recently arrived British Communist. He was shown a rope and given broad hints as to its purpose. Then he was black-jacked. When he came to, the cars had stopped in a secluded spot. His trousers were stripped off. He was thrown to the ground. While one mobster sat on his head, others took to larruping his bare withers with branches. Suddenly rose a cry, "The Law!" The mobsters vanished, leaving Wells to be picked up by his fellow captives Saylor and Lell. "The Law" proved to be a carload of 'possum hunters. Communists Saylor, Lell and smarting Ben Wells wearily trudged eight miles to Concord, told their story. For the harassed courts of Charlotte there was no respite. Fourteen alleged flagellating kidnappers were arrested. Then eight Communists were detained for col- lecting arms "to protect themselves'' at a much-bruited Communist mass meeting. Murder. On the fateful day of the mass meeting, an open truck lumbered out from Gastonia, bearing 22 Communist men and women. After it raced several automobiles. One car passed the truck, swerved sharply in front of it, forced a collision. Men in the following cars shouldered their guns. Fusillade after fusillade they pumped into the unarmed herd in the truck. One woman fell dead. Others, fleeing across the cotton fields, were pursued, shot at, clubbed. Several were wounded.

The overtaxed Charlotte judiciary functioned rapidly. Within 24 hours after the truck massacre, seven alleged murderers were arrested.