A Shot in the Moonlight, page 7
“Did you all meet there on regular occasions?”
“No, sir.”
“Did they stop at the house of anybody before they got to Dinnings’?”
“Yes, sir,” Freeman said. “At three places.”
“Did the party have any guns or pistols?”
“Some of the party had some guns.”
“Any of them pistols?”
“If they did, I didn’t see them.”
“How many guns in the party?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Was the party all armed?”
“No, sir,” Freeman said. “I was not.”
“In your opinion how many of that party were armed?” Grider asked.
“About ten or twelve.”
“What kind of guns did that ten or twelve have,” Grider asked. “Shotguns or rifles?”
“Shotguns.”
“Was anybody disguised with any apron or cloth over their face?”
“No, sir.”
“Did you stop on the way down to George Dinning’s, at Ben Conn’s?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you go to Ben Conn’s house?”
“No, sir,” Freeman said. “I was out in the road.”
“You were looking towards the home—did you see some parties go to the house?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Didn’t you see a man standing on one side of his door with a gun at ‘carry arms’ and another by his side with an apron over his face?”
“No, sir,” Freeman said.
“Did you see anybody down at Dinning’s house that night with anything over their face?”
“No, sir.”
“Now just repeat as near as you can what occurred at Dinning’s house that night,” Grider said.
“We went to the door and said, ‘George, George!’ And knocked on the door, I think—I ain’t certain—and he says, ‘Heh!’ And he says, ‘Come to the door.’ And George remarked, ‘Who is that?’ And he remarked back, ‘Your friends.’ And George says, ‘I ain’t coming.’ And he says, ‘If you won’t come to the door—we didn’t come here to hurt or harm you—listen to see what we have to say.’”
“Was Dinning downstairs or upstairs when that conversation occurred?”
“Downstairs,” Freeman said.
“Who was doing the talking to Dinning?”
“Doc Moore,” Freeman said.
“Did you notice any light in the house?”
“No, sir.”
“What time was it?”
“Ten or 11 o’clock.”
“Were the Dinnings in bed when you got there?”
“I reckon they had,” Freeman said. “I didn’t see any light in the house.”
“Were you doing any talking?”
“No, sir.”
“Did you hear parties talking at the doors on both sides of the house?”
“No, sir.”
“You say you told Dinning he must get away from there in ten days?”
“We told him there had been a great deal of stealing going on in the neighborhood and he was the cause of it and he must get away in ten days,” Freeman said.
“Did you tell him at what distance he had better not stop?” Grider asked. “Did you tell him he had better not stop within forty miles of there?”
“No, sir.”
“You say that these instructions was all said kindly to Dinning, in a kind manner?” Grider asked, as if he was rolling his eyes.
“Yes, sir,” Freeman said. “And he said he didn’t do any stealing and could prove by his neighbors that he didn’t.”
For the next few minutes, Grider asked Freeman to explain how the men were situated around Dinning’s house, and how it came to be that they were all walking away when they heard a shot ring out from the upstairs window. He asked what Conn was doing when he was shot, and Freeman testified that he was walking away, just as all of them were. Grider interrupted.
“At the time Conn was shot, was he standing still or moving off?” Grider asked.
“He was standing still,” Freeman said.
“He was not moving at the time he was shot?”
“No, sir,” Freeman said. “He had turned back when he heard the racket upstairs.”
“You all turned back to the house when you heard the noise and racket upstairs?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And were standing still?”
Freeman must’ve realized his mistake. “I did not look to see,” he said. “I could not see what Conn was doing when he was shot.”
“You all turned around when you heard the racket upstairs and saw the fire come from the window?”
“Yes, sir,” Freeman said. “Some of us did, I know.”
“You all fired into the house after Dinning shot?” Grider asked.
“Yes, sir. Someone asked if anybody was hurt and Jodie Conn said he was and they ordered for us to shoot from where the blaze came from.”
“You all were on the east side of the house?”
“No, sir,” Freeman said. “Some were on one side and some another and some were on the southeast and some on the northwest.”
“How many shots did you all fire?” Grider asked.
“I don’t know,” Freeman answered. “I can’t tell you.”
“How many shots did Dinning fire?”
“I do not know. When he shot they ordered for us to shoot where the blaze come from, and I couldn’t tell how many he shot.”
Hoping to catch Freeman off guard, Grider quickly switched subjects.
“Did you go back to that house the next day?”
“No, sir.”
“Have you ever been back there?”
“No, sir.”
“Do you remember Mr. Doc Moore calling the negro out when you got there?”
“No, sir,” Freeman said. “He never called him out. He told him to come to the door.”
“Do you remember Doc Moore talking to Dinning in a disguised voice?”
“No, sir.”
“Didn’t he have something over his face?”
“If he did, I didn’t see it.”
“Didn’t he say he had put something over his mouth to disguise his voice?”
“He didn’t tell me so.”
“Now, Mr. Freeman, you say you didn’t see any man with a white rag or apron over his face there that night?”
“No, sir. I never saw anything over their faces.”
“You are certain that none of them had anything over their faces?”
“If they did, I didn’t see it.”
“You do not know whether or not they did anything down at Ben Conn’s and if there was anything over their faces down at Ben’s you didn’t see it?”
“Yes, sir,” Freeman said. “I didn’t see it.”
“Had three shots not been fired through that door before Dinning went upstairs?”
“No, sir.”
“What side of the house were you on?”
“South side.”
“You were not around at the door on the north side?”
“No, sir.”
“You do not know what occurred at that door?”
“No, sir,” Freeman said. “If there were any shots they didn’t make any noise.”
“You do not know what parties were around there?”
“No, sir.”
“You do not know when Dinning went upstairs?”
“No, sir.”
“You saw Mr. Conn after he had been shot at his house the next day, didn’t you?”
“No, sir. I never saw him next day. I saw him on Saturday.”
“Where was he shot?”
“In this side of the face,” Freeman said, pointing to the left side of his own face. “Down along here.”
“What appearance did the shot place or the wound seem to have?” Grider asked. “How did the shot range?”
“It ranged downward,” Freeman said.
With that, Grider returned to his seat and Finn again rose to question the witness. The room was quiet.
“You say that you had started off and heard a noise and stopped and turned around?” the prosecutor asked.
“Yes, sir,” Freeman said. “There was a noise like something had shot the shutter against the house, had thrown it back.”
“That is what attracted your attention?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How long after the noise of the shutter or whatever it was before the shot was fired which struck Conn?”
“A few seconds.”
“How many could you count?”
“I couldn’t count very many,” Freeman said. “By the time I looked back, the blaze came from the upstairs.”
“You say that before that racket had occurred Mr. Conn was leaving the house?”
“Yes, sir. Went out of the yard with me.”
“You and Mr. Conn were both leaving when you heard the racket?”
“Yes, sir.”
“That is what attracted your attention and caused you to look around?”
“Yes, sir. We left together and went out through the palings and he went out the palings a little lower down than me.”
“Mr. Grider asked you where all those parties stood down at the house,” Finn said. “I understood you to say that so far as you knew that they were out on the east or southeast and southwest, is that correct?”
“Most of them had stopped at the door, the south door,” Freeman said, “and some of the others had come in the yard, sorta down at the corner of the house. The most of them was standing right around me.”
“Was there any noise or any other violence offered?”
“No, sir,” Freeman said.
“And Conn was about fifteen steps away?”
“Yes, sir. About fifteen steps from the house.”
The lawyers wrapped up with A. G. Freeman, and the judge dismissed him. One remarkable fact never surfaced during his questioning. Freeman’s wife was the sister of two other men there that night: the Flowers brothers. And two of his sisters were married to men there that night as well: Joseph Copeland and Thomas White. The mob was a family affair.
A reporter noticed that George Dinning’s face was twitching occasionally and presumed it was due to fear.
Men gather at the Simpson County Courthouse in Franklin, Ky. (Courtesy of the Simpson County Historical Society)
Chapter 6
To Defend Ourselves
As the afternoon dragged on and the mercury continued to climb, the state next called William S. “Doc” Moore, fifty-two, the man who had done the talking that night. He was an ex-Confederate soldier who had served with the Kentucky Mounted Infantry during the Civil War. After the war he had patrolled Simpson County for some years as a constable. He was ten years older than George Dinning, and they’d lived in the same neighborhood all their lives, save the war years.
Moore put his hand on the Holy Bible and promised to tell the truth. He had met Jodie Conn only three or four times, but his testimony was key to the state’s case against Dinning.
“Do you know George Dinning?” prosecutor G. T. Finn asked.
“Yes, sir,” Doc Moore said.
“State what occurred there,” Finn said.
“We got down at the gate about one hundred yards from the house—a gate of bars—and hitched our horses and walked down to the house and knocked on the door and said, ‘George, George!’ And he says, ‘Who’s that?’ And I was doing the talking, and I said, ‘George, some of your neighbors and friends want to talk with you. Get up and come to the door.’ And he said he wouldn’t do it and I told him to just stay there and listen to what we had to say, and I told him there had been some stealing going on in the neighborhood, meat houses had been broken into and meat taken and the houses set on fire and chickens and turkeys and such had been taken and that we had visited some of his white neighbors and the neighborhood thought he was concerned in the stealing and that we wanted him to leave the neighborhood in ten days,” Doc said. “He remarked that he had done no stealing and I said that was alright. And I asked him if Bob Lucas was there, and he said he was not, and I told him that the neighborhood wanted him to leave also in the same way for he was concerned in the same business. And then he remarked that he could prove by his neighbors that he done no stealing. And I told him if he could do that, that was alright, and as I left the door and got about five or six steps away he said, ‘You had better take me tonight.’ And I told him that so far as that was concerned there was enough of us to do it, and I heard him say something that I didn’t understand. I was leaving the house at the time and was some five or six steps away and I heard some of the boys say, ‘Lookout!’ And at the same time, a shot was fired. My back was turned to the house, and some of the boys fired back at the house, and somebody asked if anybody was hurt or shot and Jodie Conn said, ‘Yes, I am shot.’ I didn’t shoot, and we started off to the bars and after we got a good piece from the house someone asked Conn if he was hurt much and he said he was shot badly.
“When we got to the horses, we put him on his horse and put his feet in the stirrups and had to hold him, and we took him down from his horse.”
“What became of him then?” Finn asked.
“We carried him to Mr. Williams’ house.”
“Did he die there?”
“No, sir,” Doc Moore said. “He died as soon as we took him off his horse.”
“Doc,” Finn asked, “was anything said to Dinning there on that occasion with reference to hurting or harming him?”
“No, sir,” Moore said. “We told him we didn’t come there to hurt him.”
“Did he come to the door?”
“No, sir. He said he had no business there.”
“Then it was you said, ‘Listen to me from where you are?’”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, where was he when you were talking to him?” Finn asked.
“I suppose he was in bed in the house.”
“Downstairs?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you hear him leave downstairs and go upstairs?”
“I understood him to say, ‘You had better take me out now.’ And I said, ‘George there is enough of us to do that,’ but didn’t want to do him any harm. And I heard him talking in the house and heard a racket and somebody hollered, ‘Lookout!’ And, in a second, a gun was fired.”
“You were going away from the house?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you hear anything at the upstairs window?” Finn asked.
“I heard a noise upstairs,” Moore said, “and somebody said, ‘Boys, lookout!’”
“Where did that voice come from? Somebody in the crowd say that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“That was just before the gun fired?”
“Yes, sir, and my back was to the house at the time.”
“Did the crowd disguise in any way?”
“I had a handkerchief over my mouth,” Moore said. “I was the only one.”
“Across your mouth?”
“Yes, sir.”
Finn seemed satisfied with Moore’s answers. He sat back down as Grider prepared his questions.
“Mr. Moore, when did you all make the arrangements to visit Dinning that night?” he asked.
“Mr. Conn sent me word the day before,” Moore said.
“Then you all had pre-arranged to visit Dinning and the other parties that night?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What time of the night did the party get together?”
“I suppose it was about 9 o’clock.”
“At what place did they meet?”
“In the big-road.”
“You say you all met there about nine o’clock?”
“Right about there somewhere.”
“That was rather a late hour to go out visiting wasn’t it?”
“I don’t know,” Moore said. “Sometimes that will do.”
“You think sometimes it is better to visit late at night?”
“I do not know.”
“How many houses did you stop at before you got to George Dinning’s?” Grider asked.
“Three,” Moore said.
“You came in an eastwardly direction to the house?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you go to the South door?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How many went there?”
“I think about the whole crowd.”
“How many were in the crowd?”
“About twenty-five.”
“The greater part of them went to the South door but you do not know where the balance of them were?”
“No sir,” Moore said. “Some stayed up at the horses I think.”
“How many?”
“I think about four. I do not know.”
“You had a talk at the door?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You told Dinning it was friends out there?”
“Neighbors and friends.”
“You disguised your voice so he would not know it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You say you told George that parties had been stealing and if he had been doing it he must get away within ten days?”
“I told him that the neighbors had called on him to ask him to get away.”
“Did you have a gun or pistol?”
“I did not have anything.”
“How many guns or pistols were in the crowd?”
“Not more than eight, I think.”
“Was there not twelve or thirteen guns along?”
“I do not know.”
“Was one-half of the crowd armed with guns?”
“No, sir,” Moore said. “I do not think there was.”
“You don’t know?”
“No, sir.”
“Did you see several of the party with guns?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You all started out on a friendly visit that night did you?” Grider asked, mockingly.
“Yes, sir,” Moore said. “We did not mean to do anyone any harm.”
“You were prepared?”
“Yes, sir. To defend ourselves.”
“You were afraid of having a fight and you wanted to defend yourselves?”
“I was unarmed,” Moore countered.
“You were not looking for someone to fight you were you?” Grider pressed.
“No, sir,” Moore said. “But we thought we would be ready.”
“Where twenty-five men get together and start out on a business expedition of any kind, is there any danger in being unarmed?”
