| Examination of Ruby Bates by the Defense MR.
LEIBOWITZ: Bring out Victoria Price, please.
Q: Is this woman Victoria Price (indicating)?
A: Yes sir.
Q: You are a younger girl than Victoria Price,
aren't you?
A: Yes sir.
Q: How long before this ride on the freight
train did you meet Victoria?
A: I knew her for some time; we had worked in
the mill together.
Q: For how many years?
A: About two and a half years.
Q: When did you first start taking up with
Victoria Price-when did you first start to become
friendly with her, going out with her?
A: After I went to work at the mill.
Q: Were you a good girl before you met her,
good decent girl before you met that girl?
MR. KNIGHT: We object.
THE COURT: You were a worker in the mill
before you met her?
A: Yes sir, I was working in the mill when I
met her.
Q: Were you a good girl before you met her,
good decent girl?
A: Well, yes.
Q: After you started taking up with her did
you continue to go around with her in Huntsville?
A: Yes sir.
Q: You were never convicted of any crime?
A: No sir.
Q: You were never in jail?
A: No sir.
Q: Do you know a man by the name of Lester
Carter?
A: Yes sir.
MR. LEIBOWITZ: Bring out Lester Carter.
MR. KNIGHT: Wait a minute, I would like for
her to describe him.
Q: The attorney asked that you describe him;
describe Lester Carter, tell
us what kind of looking man is he?
A: Well, he is blond-headed, he has blond
hair.
Q: Tall or short?
A: He is not so tall.
Q: Would you recognize him if you saw him?
A: Yes sir.
Q: He was one of the boys in jail with you
after the train stopped at Paint Rock?
A: Yes sir.
Q: You knew him before you ever got on the
train?
A: Yes sir.
MR.LEIBOWITZ: Bring out Lester Carter.
Q: Who is this boy (indicating)?
A: Lester Carter.
Q: Did you ever have occasion to visit
Victoria Price in the Huntsville jail when she
was in jail, go to see her?
A: No sir, I never did go to see her.
Q: Where was it you saw Victoria Price shortly
before you met Lester Carter?
A: Well, Victoria and myself went down to the
chain gang where him
and another fellow was.
Q: You met him at the chain gang?
A: Yes sir.
Q: You were with Victoria at that time?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Who was the man on the chain gang with
Lester Carter?
A: Jack Tiller.
MR. LEIBOWITZ: Is Jack Tiller in court, in the
room there?
MR. KNIGHT: I think he is.
MR. LEIBOWITZ: Bring out Jack Tiller.
Q: Do you know that man that just came in with
the blue tie?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Who is he?
A: Jack Tiller.
Q: Some time ago before you went on the
freight train did you meet
Lester Carter?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Victoria Price, Lester Carter, and Jack
Tiller, did you meet them?
A: Yes sir.
Q: After Carter got out of the chain gang and
Tiller got out of the chain gang, did you meet
with Victoria Price?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Was that a short time before you left
Huntsville?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Where was the first place you met up with
them when they got out of jail?
A: They came to the mill one afternoon where
we were, on Monday afternoon before we left on
Tuesday.
Q: What happened?
A: Well, Victoria and Jack and myself and
Lester all left and walked up
the Pulaski Pike.
Q: Did you go along on the railroad known as
the L. & N. Railroad there?
A: When we got bac we went down the N. C.
Q: That was at night?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Did you have intercourse with Lester Carter
that night?
A: I certainly did.
Q: Did Victoria Price have intercourse with
Jack Tiller?
A: She certainly did.
Q: In your presence?
A: Yes sir.
Q: That night it started to rain, didn't it,
and you got in a boxcar?
A: Yes sir.
Q: How long did you stay in that boxcar?
A: Stayed there the rest of the night.
Q: With whom?
A: Lester Carter and Jack Tiller and Victoria
Price.
Q: The next day did you make an appointment to
go out of town?
A: We made the appointment that night.
Q: To go out of town?
A: Yes sir.
Q: You went out of town on Tuesday?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Did Tiller go along with you or did he
remain behind?
A: He remained behind.
Q: What was the reason for that?
A: I couldn't say.
Q: Were you, Lester Carter, and Victoria Price
on the freight train?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Did you go to Chattanooga?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Where did you spend the night that night at
Chattanooga, did you spend the night at Callie
Brochie's?
A: No sir.
Q: Where did you hear of the name of Callie
Brochie, who told you that name?
A: Victoria Price.
Q: Where did you spend the night that night?
A: Spent the night, I think it is called Hobo
Swamp.
Q: Is that near the railroad yards?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Who spent the night with you?
A: Orville Gilley, Victoria Price, and Lester
Carter.
Q: Were you there all night?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Was there some fuss about some negroes in
the morning?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Tell us about that.
A: Well, there was two negro men passed where
Victoria and myself was; Lester Carter and this
Gilley had stepped off somewheres.
Q: To get food?
A: Yes sir; these two negroes came by where we
were, and we asked them what time did the freight
leave out going west and they said about 11: 15.
Q: That is your best recollection, isn't it?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Then when Lester came back was there some
fuss about you being with some negroes?
A: Victoria told him there had been two
negroes came down to where we were and said
something to us out of the way and Lester took
out after the negroes and had a fuss with some
negroes; I couldn't say who it was.
Q: But there was some fuss about it, something
that almost led to a fight between Carter and the
negro?
A: Yes sir.
Q: That morning did you start coming back to
Huntsville on the freight train-that morning
after you arrived in Chattanooga did you start to
come back?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Who started back with you on that train?
A: Orville Gilley, Lester Carter, and Victoria
Price.
Q: Where were you riding, what kind of car on
that freight train were you on?
A: I don't remember what kind of car it was.
Q: You got on some freight car?
A: Yes sir.
Q: All of you, Gilley, Lester Carter, and
Victoria Price.
A: Yes sir.
Q: When you got to Stevenson did you get off
or stay on?
A: We got off and got in a gondola car.
Q: How many gondolas were hooked up together,
about how many?
A: There was right around eight of them.
Q: What gondola did you get in?
A: It was either the third or second gondola
from a boxcar toward the engine.
Q: The second or third gondola from a boxcar;
here is the engine (indicating); that is the car
you got in (indicating)?
A: Yes sir.
Q: That is your best judgment?
A: Yes sir.
MR. KNIGHT: Which one?
Q: The second or third car from a boxcar near
the engine, is that right?
A: Yes sir.
Q: That is the car you and Victoria and who
else got in?
A: Orville Gilley and Lester Carter.
Q: Four of you?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Tell these gentlemen of the jury what
happened after that when you got in that car and
when the train started out of Stevenson.
A: After the train started out from Stevenson
there was some white boys come in the end of the
car next to where we were.
Q: In the next gondola?
A: Yes sir.
Q: What happened?
A: And after a while there was a bunch of
negroes come over and started fighting; they was
all fighting and Lester Carter and this Gilley
boy jumped over to help them out.
Q: You mean Lester Carter and Gilley left the
gondola in which you were in and went into the
next gondola where the fight was between the
white boys and the negroes?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Then what happened?
A: The negroes put all the boys off but one,
Orville Gilley, and he came back in the car where
we were.
Q: Then what happened, when you, Victoria
Price, and Gilley were there, did the negroes
come in that car where you were?
A: Not that I know of.
Q: Did any negro attack you that day?
A: Not that I know of.
Q: Did any negro attack Victoria Price that
day?
A: I couldn't say.
Q: Did you see any negro attack Victoria that
day?
A: No sir.
COURT: Where was Victoria Price?
A: She was in the gondola where I was.
COURT: Same Gondola with you?
A: Yes sir.
COURT: Did you stay in the same gondola until
you got to Paint Rock?
A: Yes sir.
Q: When you got to Paint Rock the train
stopped, didn't it?
A: Yes sir.
Q: What happened when the train stopped, what
happened to you girls?
A: Well, we got off the train, then Victoria
was unconscious and they carried her out there to
a store.
Q: Then what happened?
A: They arrested them.
Q: Arrested all the negroes?
A: Yes sir.
Q: They took you to Scottsboro?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Were you in jail with Victoria at
Scottsboro?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Did you talk with her at Scottsboro?
A: Yes sir.
Q: You testified on the trial, did you not;
each one of those cases in Scottsboro, you took
the witness stand?
A: Yes sir.
Q: You told the story you had seen six negroes
rape Victoria Price and six negroes raped you;
you told a story like that?
A: I told it before, but I was excited.
Q: You testified at Scottsboro that six
negroes raped you and six negroes raped her, and
one had a knife on your throat; what happened to
her was exactly the same thing that happened to
you. Who coached you to say that?
A: She told it and I told it just like she
told it.
Q: Who told you to tell that story?
A: I told it like she told it.
Q: Who told you to do that, who coached you to
do that?
A: She did.
Q: Did she tell you what would happen to you
if you didn't follow her story?
A: She said we might have to lay out a
sentence in jail.
|
