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| Sho Grand Jury Will Act Monday, Lane Announces Probe to Open in Mob Slaying Of Matthew Williams After 101 Days HANGED, BURNED DEC. 4 List of Witnesses To Be Made Public Next Week ActioH toward punishing the lynchers of Matthew Williams will be taken Monday, when 75 persons will be summoned to testify before the Wicomico County grand jury, Attorney General W. Preston Lane announced today. The summonses will be issued by Levin C. Bailey, state's attorney of Wicomico County, Lane said. Williams, a Negro, was lynched on the courthouse square at Salisbury on Dec. 4, a day after he had shot and killed Daniel J. Elliott, a lumber manufacturer of the town. The first official action toward punishing the lynchers will come, therefore exactly 101 days after the crime occurred. Make List Public Monday Announcing that the witnesses would be called, Attorney General Lane gave no indication as to the sort of evidence, if any, which has been gathered, nor would he disclose the names of the witnesses. The entire list, he said, will be made public- on Monday morning by the Clerk of Court at Salisbury. The investigation by the grand jury, which will meet in regular session Monday, means that the prosecution officials have deviated from the plan they originally announced. That plan called for an investigation of the lynching by a coroner's jury which was selected the day after Williams was hanged. The grand jury viewed the body of the lyncher's victim and adjourned indefinitely, pending further developments in the case. It was announced then that when information had been gathered, the coroner's jury would be called back into session in an effort to fix responsibility for the mob action. 3,000 Saw Lynching Since then, according to Attorney General Lane, he has been working to get evidence despite a reported lack of co-operation from most of the Salisbury residents. The lynching, which was the first in Maryland in" over 20 years, was witnessed by over 3,000 persons. Many times since then, however, the Attorney General has reported that he was finding it difficult to get information. , Lane was ordered into the case by Governor Ritchie the day after the lynching. He has taken charge of the investigation despite the fact the crime occurred in a jurisdiction where Bailey, as state's attorney of .the county, is the chief prosecuting official. City Police Aided Probe The Baltimore Police Department was called in to help and city detectives have made several trips to Salisbury in an effort to elicit information. Summoning of witnesses means that all further action in the case is now up to the county authorities. The county grand jury will decide if any indictments are to be brought. If indictments are brought the trials will be held in the Wicomico County courts. The Williams lynching created at least as much interest in Maryland as any crime of the decade. It brought comments from all over the nation. Residents Blame 'Reds' Salisbury residents contended that the lynching was caused by action of Communists who had interested themselves in the defense of Euel Lee, another Negro who was then accused—and has since then been convicted and sentenced to hang— of the murder of four residents of Worcester County, about 15 miles from Salisbury. Eastern Shore mobs had made several efforts to get possession ox Lee. The latter had been rushed to the Baltimore City Jail for safekeeping. That was followed by more mob action in Kent County, where a Negro had attempted an assault on a white woman. Dragged From Hospital Cot Mob feeling was running high and, when Williams shot the lumber dealer by whom he had been employed for 15 years and then was shot by the lumber dealer's son, the mob dragged the Negro from the hospital, took him to the court house square and hanged him, and then |