Typed as spelled and written
Lena Stone Criswell

THE MARLIN DEMOCRAT
Eighteenth Year - Number 42
Marlin, Texas, Wednesday, October 16, 1907
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PRELIMINARY HEARING AT OTTO.
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Investigation Indicates That Watley
Was Clubbed to Death.
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       The preliminary hearing of John Toliver, the negro charged with the killing of Aaron Watley at Otto, was set for Monday before Judge Faudi at that place.
       Sheriff Poole carried the prisoner up on the morning train.  County Attorney Connally an(d) Attorney Bounds, representing the state and the defense, respectively, also went.
       Sheriff Poole has made some investigation into the circumstances of the killing of Watley and is of the opinion, from his investigation, that Watley's death was produced by blows on the head with the gun after the loads had been discharged.  Watley was peppered in the back and neck with shot, but the fractures on his face and head were not made by shot, but with the barrel of the gun used as a club.  Watley's head was beaten into a pulp and his chin was laid open.
       Following this line, the state will make a determined effort to convict Toliver of murder.  The defense will be a plea of self defense and the case promises to be hotly contested.

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