The Murder Trial of Judge Peel by Jim Bishop

Author:Jim Bishop [Bishop, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, Wars & Conflicts (Other), United States, 20th Century, Civil War Period (1850-1877)
ISBN: 9781787204065
Google: 1xkkDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2017-04-07T15:55:38+00:00

EIGHTH DAY

A sad-eyed Negro with hair like a tight caracul skullcap walked into court with his manacled hands in a prayerful attitude, and, momentarily free of his federal guards, sat uneasily on the witness stand to save his own life and help hang Judge Peel. For the state, Bobby Lincoln was the most expensive witness in history. He was granted immunity from prosecution in three murders in exchange for his testimony in the Chillingworth case.

O’Connell’s unquenchable thirst for Judge Peel’s blood led him into an awkward tactical position. It is said that, when Peel was arrested in October 1960, he offered to tell old friend Phil the complete story of the Chillingworth murders in exchange for immunity. The state attorney declined the offer. He felt that the young judge had devised and engineered the killings, and he wanted to see Peel punished.

The state attorney knew, from Lovern’s reports of the past two years, most of the story of how and why the Chillingworths were killed, and who took part in it. He could not, in good conscience, excuse the man he regarded as the chief malefactor, just to put two hired killers—Bobby Lincoln and Floyd Holzapfel—in the electric chair at Raiford, Florida.

One of the worst things that might have happened would have been if all three men had confessed. Three defendants cannot establish a corpus delicti in Florida. The best situation, for O’Connell, would accrue if he had one defendant (Peel); one plea of guilty (Holzapfel); and one eyewitness to the crime (Lincoln). This is precisely what happened. Lincoln, in a federal prison for moonshining, read about the arrest of Holzapfel and Peel, and fearing that either of his dear friends might crack and implicate him, offered to assist the state. At the Chattahoochee Prison, Lincoln confessed the two Chillingworth murders, and the killing of fellow moonshiner Lew Gene Harvey. He was granted immunity from prosecution in all three cases.

It was a doleful decision for O’Connell because a state attorney cannot enhance his popularity among the electorate by doing favors for Negroes at the expense of whites. Bobby Lincoln was disliked everywhere, even among his people whom he swindled of their pennies in his bolita racket.

On this day he was prepared to repay what he owed Phil O’Connell. He sat uneasily and spoke in a deep solemn voice as O’Connell snapped the questions at him.

Q. Have you been granted immunity for the Chillingworth and Harvey murders?

A. Yes.

Q. On what grounds?

A. That I’d tell the truth...[There was an objection by Mr. Carlton Welch about truth. It was overruled by Judge Smith.]

Q. What else?

A. That I tell the truth, the whole truth and testify that I took a lie detector test. [There was another objection by Mr. Welch on the ground that the phrase “lie detector test” might prejudice the jury. The judge ordered the phrase stricken from the record and admonished the jury to give it no weight in subsequent deliberations.]

The witness testified that he met Floyd Holzapfel and “Floyd asked me how many houses I had selling shine.

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