CHESLEY GRAHAM FOUND GUILTY OF MURDER OF ALLEN 

By E. A. Roper (Staff Representative)

Savannah, Tennessee, May 3 (1920)

Chesley Graham, negro, was found guilty by a jury today of murder in the first degree of harry Allen, and will pay the supreme penalty to the state.  Decision was reached on the first ballot.  At the same time verdicts of not guilty were returned in favor of Ernest Graham, 13, and William Graham, 15, tried jointly with their brother for the same crime.

The jury has fixed electrocution as the penalty for the crime.  Attorneys for the defense immediately entered motion for new trial, and hearing on the plea will be held Tuesday.

Trial of Will and George Allen, the other two negroes, held in connection with the killing, was to begin this afternoon.

In the alleged confessions of Will and Ernest Graham, which were read to the jury, the state scored a big point.  The confessions implicated Chesley Graham and Will Allen, negroes, as the prime instigators of the crime, and showed the younger Graham boys were forced to act as sentinels by a threat with a pistol.  Ernest Graham’s confession declared he was given $3 to keep still about it after the killing.

Their confessions were made at different moments in the city jail at Savannah, a few minutes after their arrest, and corroborated each other in every particular.  Chesley Graham and Will Allen entered the store of Harry Allen, the confession read, and found him stooping over a case of eggs.  They remarked about the shipment of eggs, the negro boys said, and immediately struck him.

Will Allen, who denied any connection with the crime, used the sledge hammer on the victim’s head, the Graham boys declared in their confession.  Chesley Graham struck the grocer on the side with an iron bar, they said.

Bloodhounds were put on the trail when the deed was discovered, but the turpentine, which the Graham boys declared Will Allen stole along with the grocer’s money, threw off the scent.  The negroes were arrested the next day on account of their general reputation, officers said, and the confessions of the youths followed.

Authorities are now doubtful if they will be able to convict George Allen, brother of Will, who is charge with first degree murder.  Little evidence has been introduced as yet to show that he was connected with it.  Little evidence has been introduced as yet to show that he was connected with it.  The confessions of the Graham boys do not implicate him.