R. J. (‘Willie’) Watson Writes Dramatic End to Life at Jacksonville Hotel

CAUSE STILL A MYSTERY

Two Efforts to Poison Self Preceded Young Slayer’s Release From Prison

Attempting suicide twice last fall supposedly for the purpose of creating sympathy for his release from the state penitentiary, R. J. (“Willie”) Watson of Blaney shot and killed himself in a Jacksonville, Florida, hotel last week.

Reports of Watson’s death reached Columbia yesterday only about three months after Governor Blackwood extended clemency to the 22-year-old ex-soldier and saw him off to Charleston in high spirits to join his bride and occupy a job there.

Two brothers of young Watson left their home at Blaney upon receiving the news of Watson’s death. They had him buried at Jacksonville, and returned home yesterday.

Watson’s aged father declared at Blaney that his son had taken his own life Thursday night, seemingly in a fit of despondency. The father said he did not known the boy had left Charleston until he received news of his death at Jacksonville.

Drama is Ended.

Efforts to locate the young wife, whom Watson married while on a leave of absence from the penitentiary last July, proved fruitless at Charleston, it was learned.

The suicide terminated one of the most dramatic episodes in recent criminal history in South Carolina.

Watson literally threatened to poison himself if his 20-year sentence for manslaughter was not terminated. Twice when leaves fo absence drew near an end, Wat-

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MAN PAROLED KILLS SELF

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son was brought writing into the Baptist hospital .

Doctors pumped what they had believed to be poison from his abdomen in time to save his life. Governor Blackwood was asked to commute his sentence in September after the second attempt at suicide.

Dr. C. Fred Williams, directed by the governor to examine Watson’s sanity at this time, reported that the young man was sane and probably had feigned poisoning to arouse sympathy for his cause.

Given Liberty.

It was disclosed that Watson had married a young woman on his first leave of absence during the summer while at the home of his father at Blaney.

The young man declared that he preferred “facing a firing squad” to re-entering the state prison. He declared that he had expected to receive a two-year sentence and got 20 years.

Finally Senator J. C. Long and the late Sam Rittenberg, representative from Charleston, interceded with the governor for Watson. Senator Long said he would see that the young man got a job, and the governor ordered him liberated.

Watson at the same time had served nearly 3 years for shooting Earle R. Fetter, a fellow-soldier, in a drinking bout on Christmas eve at the Isle of Palms, near Charleston.

Why his effort to settle down in Charleston after his release ended in failure and death remains for the most part shrouded in mystery last night.