Wilcox-Crisp County GaArchives News.....Luther Aiken Convict Guard December 3, 1897
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Clyde Watson clyde.nell@gmail.com November 5, 2008, 7:48 pm

Savannah Morning  News December 3, 1897
Luther Aiken, the convict guard at Pitts, says the convict who confessed to him
that he murdered John M. Clayton of Arkansas, made the following statement: "I
am a prisoner, and have been for six years. In 1894, in March, I began to get on
to the murderer. The man told me that he was the murderer of John M. Clayton,
and that the way that he came to tell me about the case was this: He got into
trouble in the camp and his punishment was so great he could not be punished
anymore. On the fourth Sunday of April 1894, I was passing through the building,
and this man called me and I went to him, where he was on his bunk, wrapped up
in chains. If you were me what would you do about that Arkansas matter? he said:
there is $5,000.oo reward for me, and I had rather be there and take the chances
of being hung than to stand what I have to in this state, and stand the
punishment that I have to stand. I will plead guilty to the murder of John M.
Clayton, and I think that they will give me a life term. I killed Clayton for my
two friends, who had a grudge against him. I had been watching for him all day a
t Plummerville, but got no chance until just before going to bed. I stepped to
the window and shot him through the window with a shotgun, and then left there
and went to my friends for a few days, and then left there and went to my home
in Florida, near Live Oak station, and stayed until everything got still, when I
came to Georgia."   

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