Who Killed Jim Williams?

Who Killed Jim Williams? That is the question that I intend to answer in this essay. Jim Williams was a black militant captain and an outspoken member of the Klan. I will compare the testimony of the three people who where called before a committee to testify as to what they knew about the murder of Jim Williams. The three people are; Mrs. Rosy Williams, John Caldwell and Dr. James R. Bratton. I will compare the three testimonies, as well as finding the discrepancies that arise from the testimonies.

Mrs. Rosy Williams is the wife of the late Jim Williams. She was called before the committee to answer questions regarding what she knew of the night that Jim was murdered. I believe that she was called before the committee to give basic knowledge about what happened, because she did not have intimate details of what truly happened that night. She lives on Bratton’s place in York County. When asked who came to the house she responded with, “Disguised men. I can’t tell who it was. I don’t know any of them. ” The interviewer, Mr. Corbin then asked Mrs. Williams what she called the men and asked how many came. She informed him that thought it was the Klan and reckoned that there where 9 or 10 men came to the house that night. Then men then proceeded to take her husband away and the next morning went looking for him but could not find him. When Mrs. Williams tried to get one of her people to come and help her, they informed her that he was dead, they had hung him.

The next piece of testimony that I will look at is that of John Caldwell. John is 27 years of age and who has lived in York County all his life. John is a member of the Klan, who joined the order in 1868 and was initiated in to the organization by Major J.W. Avery. John was approached by Dr. Bratton an asked to go on a raid. When John had told him he had never been on a raid, Dr. Bratton asked for his local leader was. John told him William Johnson or Alonzo Brown was the leading man in his county. William then told John to meet at a muster patch, where Dr. Bratton and a few other men arrived. Mr. Corbin the asked if the men had put on there disguises then and asked what they looked like. John replied that they had indeed put their disguises on and that they where black or dark colored hoods with false faces. John goes on to tell us that Dr. Bratton was leading the party of men and they where headed to Mr. Moore’s place in search of a black man with guns. When they arrived at Mr. Moore’s place the party asked about Jim Williams, how far away he lived and how many guns he had in his possession. They let Mr. Moore go and the party rode for about 3 miles until they came to a piney thicket on the side of a hill. Someone called for 10 men and those 10 men went off. The party was gone for roughly an hour and no one could hear what the men where doing. John went to go speak to Dr. Bratton and asked him if he found the Negro, Dr. Bratton replied that they had. John asked where he was and the doctor replied that he was probably in hell. John asked if they had killed him. Dr. Bratton replied, “We hung him.”

The last testimony