"I worked in a restaurant 11 South Forsyth street, 11 and 13 South Forsyth. I was helping George Poulos in the restaurant. He is the boss. Pete G. Poulos was working in there with us. He is dead. Will Johnson killed him. That is the man right there who shot him. It happened on the 21st day of November. Every morning we came to meet my cousin about 3:15. That was the regular practice in going to work at that time. We went to work the morning Pete got killed about 3:15. I opened the door. I got in and let Pete come in. I fastened the front door—just half locked it, because the door is too hard to close. After I got inside the restaurant Pete G. go down stairs. We have a stepladder in the kitchen [referring to diagram]. The Kitchen is in the back end of the store. I don't know whether the trapdoor over the stair door and the ladder was locked the night bef&re, because Pete went down first. I don't know how long it was before I followed Pete down stairs. The door was hard to close, and I take the door key out of the restaurant door and left it half locked. I knew nobody could get in. I go inside and light the gas, made the coffee. I went down stairs. Pete was already there when I got down. Peter tried to change his clothes. Pete and I changed our clothes every morning down stairs. Each one had a locker. I opened the locker and hung my clothes inside. There was just one locker between Pete and my locker. Some one else had a locker in the middle. I did not get a chance to change my shoes. It was my custom to change my shoes there. I sat on a chair to change my shoes. I sat down in the chair and just put one leg on the top like this, and looked down to untie my shoes to change them. While I was that way I heard somebody say, 'G—— d—— you, I have got you.' Will Johnson said, 'G—— d—— you, I have got you now.' Peter was in the chair two feet from me. Will Johnson had been working there a long time. I had not seen Will Johnson that particular morning when I heard somebody say, 'G—— d——you, I have got you now.' He had a black mask and a shiny pistol. I saw another man with him. I don't know who he was. I looked up and saw Will Johnson with a shiny pistol. I thought it was like I was dreaming, the talk. Will Johnson said, 'Stand up.' I stand up, and Pete stand up, but Pete had his shoes off, and had unfastened his breeches. Pete tried to fasten his breeches, and Will said, 'No, G—— d—— you, don't do that.' Will said that. Then he said to the other one, 'Give me your pistol.' They tied both me and Pete—tied our arms. Will had two pistols. He took the other boy's pistol too. At that time they tied Pete first. After they tied me, then the other one taken one pistol. When I say the other one, I mean the same man that tied me and got the pistol. I forget his name. I recognize Will by his voice. He was the one that gave the orders. Will had worked for us before that, a right smart while. I knew his voice. After he had tied both of us, he said, Will says, 'I want you to show me where you have the money.' It looked like he was talking to me. Pete tried to say something, but he don't let Pete say nothing. Theother one found the plaster. It looked like plaster. Will said, 'Hey, what is that?' He stuck it on Pete's mouth. Will said stick it on Pete's mouth, the plaster. Yes; that is the thing. Will said, 'G—— d—— you. He has it on his nose.' He moved it from his nose. Then he talked to me. He said, 'I want your money.' I said, 'I have not got any money.' He got $10 from me. $10 in ones. He said, 'I want you to open the safe.' I played that I could not understand the combination. Then he said, 'Well, bust it.' I said, 'I can't bust it.'
"Will went up stairs. Then the other one was near the dark place, near the place for coal. There is a light and dark place in the basement. One held Pete with a gun. They had me maybe this many feet from Pete. I saw Pete standing like this. Saw Pete standing like that, and grabbed the negro. They light. I went with my hands tied though, and I went there. Got to help Pete. I could not stand to see my partner fight. They went to the dark place; when I went to the dark place I was walking. Pete and the other fellow were fighting. I went to help Pete. I heard him say, 'Help!' I don't know how many times. The one that was fighting said, 'Help!' the one that was fighting Pete. Then I heard the steps —noise like coming down the steps near the dark place. Pete being in his undershirt, I saw him shoot Pete. He knocked me here with the pistol [indicating his head]. Will hit me. The same one who killed Pete—shot Pete. I fell in the floor, then I heard a shot up stairs. * * * I ran up stairs, and found Pete near the table in the kitchen. He says, 'They got me. Now I want you to do something of me.' I saw a hole right here made by the bullet. I tried to call up. I seen the police in the telephone book; I goes to the phone to call. I could not get the number. Every second seemed like a whole year to me. I said, 'Pete, you call up; I am going to run across to the Constitution building and tell them to call for an ambulance.' I got back. I met four policemen with two cars cording. I told them. I go inside with the policemen in the kitchen. I got Pete out of the room. One of the policemen there left the room and carried him out. When they came out of the kitchen door, Pete said, 'I want to put on my shoes.' The policeman said, 'That is all right; you'll get your shoes next time.' They carried him out the front door. Pete says, 'I cannot see. Carry me somewhere to die.' The ambulance took him— the car—and the policemen called up the boss of the place. He came down and found him dead. After that, after he said, 'I cannot see; take me to some place to die, ' I never heard him say who shot him.
"Yes; I was down there the day those pictures were made. Yes; when I was down in the basement, before I went up stairs, I heard a shot fired. I don't know where Pete was at that time. I had been down stairs when I heard the shot; after Pete was shot, I heard one shot up stairs. My mind came back to me. I went up stairs quick. Pete was standing near the table in the kitchen. No. I never saw that hole in the transom over the door before Pete was shot. I have seen it afterwards. Yes; that picture shows where we were sitting down to undress. The smaller fellow in the picture is me. Yes; that is the way we were dressed at the time Will
came in. The other fellow was my brother. He was sitting down at the same place Pete was sitting when I first saw Will. Yes; he is dressed just about as Pete was at that time. Yes; that is the way we all was sitting at the time we heard Will say, 'I have got you now.' Yes; that picture with the chicken coop in the back of the basement is where the fight took place when I went to try and help Pete. Yes; the fight took place where the chicken coop is. I don't know whether the door that goes into the stairway from Forsyth street was closed or not the night before Pete was shot. The cook fastens that. Yes; it is my practice to keep that fastened. Yes; that picture there with a latch and pin run through a staple is the way we kept the back door to the basement fastened up. We usually kept both of these fastened up. Yes; the pin as shown in the picture stayed there all the time. The other fellow is the one that ties me. He tied me with wires. Will had two guns in his hands While the other fellow tied me. Yes; I saw those wires before. The wire with two loops on it, I don't know whether it was the one that tied me or not. It was that kind of wire. He tied me this way. My elbows were behind me, and he tied me with my elbows behind me. I just got loose and took the wire off. Slipped off one [of the wires] one end. I went up stairs and told Pete to turn aloose the other one. Pete untied me the other one. I don't know whether Pete got loose or not. He was loose when I found him up stairs. The wire was off. Will Johnson was up stairs when Pete and the other fellow started a fighting. Pete's hands were fixed this way when they started to fight. They started to fight between the light and dark place. Pete started that fight just—he had been standing like this. His arms were still pinioned when he made a grab at the fellow. I went to his help. They fought just a few minutes before this other negro hollered 'Help!'—when this other darkey hollered for help. Will came down stairs from the steps, the one back in the kitchen. When he got down there he stood in the dark and shot Pete. No. Pete was fighting when he got shot. He was on his feet. Will shot Pete before he hit me with the pistol. I don't know what became of Will and his partner after I got struck and knocked down and my partner was shot. I did not see them any more. That's the last I saw of them. * * * I don't know who fired the shot up stairs. These folks had a black mask over their heads. Yes; that looks like what they had over their heads. It was that color. Both of them had them on. They had gloves on their hands, I never paid any attention to the gloves, the color of their hands; they both...
