36_wgw/ballad_of_delia_green.htm

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  10 <title>The Ballad of Delia Green and Moses Houston</title>
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  15
  16 <h2 align="center">The Ballad of Delia Green and Moses &quot;Cooney&quot; Houston</h2>
  17
  18 <p align="center"><strong><big>A murder tale in three posts</big></strong></p>
  19
  20 <p align="center">Dug up by&nbsp; John Garst<br>
  21 jfgarst@home.com</p>
  22
  23 <p>June 10, 2000</p>
  24
  25 <p>When I told John Cowley I had found Ella Speed, he said, &quot;Well, go find Delia.
  26 &nbsp; You live in Georgia, and Robert W. Gordon wrote a letter saying that Delia was
  27 killed in Savannah.&nbsp; His papers are lost, so we don't have his interviews with
  28 Delia's mother or the detective who investigated the case, but this ought to be enough
  29 information for you to find it.&quot; <br>
  30 &nbsp;<br>
  31 So it was.&nbsp; I got around to looking seriously for it after lunch today, and within
  32 two hours I had it.<br>
  33 &nbsp;<br>
  34 Delia Green, age 14, was shot and killed by Moses &quot;Coony&quot; Houston, age 16, in
  35 the Yamacraw section of Savannah (characterized for me by a local historian as &quot;poor,
  36 black, and violent&quot;) at about 11:30 pm on Christmas Eve, 1900.&nbsp; She died early
  37 Christmas morning in her bed at her home.&nbsp; She had been receiving Coony's attentions
  38 for several months, but when Coony claimed her as &quot;his girl&quot; she denied it. This
  39 enraged Coony, who shot her without saying another word.<br>
  40 &nbsp;</p>
  41
  42 <hr>
  43
  44 <p>June 14, 2000</p>
  45
  46 <p>The information at the trail, evidently, was that Delia Green died in the afternoon of
  47 Christmas day, not at an early morning hour as reported in an earlier article, and that
  48 Coony was 15 years old, not 16.&nbsp; Delia is consistently reported to have been 14.<br>
  49 &nbsp;<br>
  50 All accounts, from the very beginning, emphasize how calm, cool, deliberate, and polite
  51 Coony was.&nbsp; He maintained that the shooting was an accident, but there were at least
  52 three witnesses against his testimony. He appeared in court wearing short pants (on the
  53 advice of his lawyer, I suspect).&nbsp; The jury asked the judge for a clarification at
  54 one point, &quot;What would be the sentence for a murder conviction with a recommendation
  55 of mercy?&quot; The judge replied that the law specified life imprisonment. Shortly
  56 thereafter the jury returned with that verdict and the judge sentenced Coony to
  57 &quot;life.&quot;&nbsp; He replied, &quot;Thank you, sir.&quot; <br>
  58 &nbsp;<br>
  59 When asked how he liked the verdict and sentence he said that he didn't like them at all
  60 but that he would have to stand them.<br>
  61 &nbsp;<br>
  62 It appears that the shooting occurred at the home of people named West. Mr. West had asked
  63 Coony to pick up and deliver to him a pistol that West had in a repair shop.&nbsp; Coony
  64 duly did so.&nbsp; The pistol was on the table (I suppose that they were sitting around a
  65 table) under a napkin.&nbsp; That is the pistol used by Coony to shoot Delia.<br>
  66 &nbsp;<br>
  67 Delia and Coony had been &quot;more or less intimate&quot; (newspaper) for several months
  68 and Coony said something to the effect that he would or wouldn't let her do this or that.
  69 &nbsp; Delia reacted with strong words to the effect that he had no control over her
  70 whatever. Then he shot her.</p>
  71
  72 <hr>
  73
  74 <p>June 20</p>
  75
  76 <p>This morning I obtained the clemency file for Mose Houston.&nbsp; (In newspapers, he is
  77 &quot;Moses.&quot;&nbsp; In court and prison records he is sometimes &quot;Moses&quot; but
  78 more often &quot;Mose.&quot;&nbsp; In the latter records he is usually &quot;Cooney&quot;
  79 but rarely &quot;Coonie.&quot;&nbsp; In the newspaper he is &quot;Coony.&quot;)&nbsp; The
  80 file contains a &quot;Brief of Testimony&quot; that appears to be close to a verbatim
  81 transcript of Cooney's trial.<br>
  82 &nbsp;<br>
  83 Newspapers estimated his age at 14-16.&nbsp; He claimed to be 14, so apparently he wasn't
  84 much older than Delia Green.&nbsp; The most precise time of the shooting given in the
  85 record is &quot;about 11:20 pm&quot; Christmas Eve night, 1900.&nbsp; Like the first
  86 newspaper reports, but not like those surrounding the trial, Delia's time of death is
  87 given as early Christmas morning, about 4 a.m.&nbsp; The testimony is conflicting -
  88 somebody was lying or had a poor memory, most likely both, it seems to me.&nbsp; Some say
  89 that there was a crowd in the house, drinking and carousing.&nbsp; Others say there was a
  90 small group, no drinking, everyone was sober, and the main activity was playing &quot;Rock
  91 of Ages&quot; on the organ while the group sang.<br>
  92 &nbsp;<br>
  93 Cooney and Delia argued earlier in the evening.&nbsp; About 3 minutes before the shooting,
  94 Cooney was said to have been cursing and was told to leave. He promised to behave and was
  95 allowed to stay.<br>
  96 &nbsp;<br>
  97 The conversation before Cooney was told leave went something like this: <br>
  98 &nbsp;<br>
  99 Cooney: &quot;My little wife is mad with me tonight.&nbsp; She does not hear me. She is
 100 not saying anything to me.&nbsp; (To Delia:) &quot;You don't know how I love you.&quot;<br>
 101 &nbsp;<br>
 102 This was followed by mutual cursing.<br>
 103 &nbsp;<br>
 104 Delia: &quot;You son of a bitch.&nbsp; You have been going with me for four months. You
 105 know I am a lady.&quot;<br>
 106 &nbsp;<br>
 107 Cooney: &quot;That is a damn lie.&nbsp; You know I have had you as many times as I have
 108 fingers and toes.&quot;<br>
 109 &nbsp;<br>
 110 Delia: &quot;You lie!&quot;<br>
 111 &nbsp;<br>
 112 This is when Cooney was warned.&nbsp; Cooney was said to have been &quot;full,&quot; but
 113 not from drinking at the scene.<br>
 114 &nbsp;<br>
 115 A few minutes went by and Cooney started out the door.&nbsp; As he approached the door, he
 116 pulled out a pistol and shot Delia in the stomach (left groin, according to newspapers).<br>
 117 &nbsp;<br>
 118 Cooney left the premises but was chased and caught by Willie West, whose house was the
 119 scene of the killing.&nbsp; West turned him over to patrolman J. T. Williams, who
 120 testified that Cooney told him that he shot Delia - they had a little row and were cursing
 121 one another.&nbsp; He shot her because she called him a son of a bitch.&nbsp; He shot her
 122 and he would do it again. <br>
 123 &nbsp;<br>
 124 Cooney made a statement at the trial, presumably unsworn.&nbsp; (This is allowed in
 125 Georgia - there was no direct or cross examination.)&nbsp; He described going to the
 126 West's house at about 7 pm, looking for but not finding Delia.&nbsp; Willie West sent him
 127 out to get his pistol from the gunsmith.&nbsp; He brought it back and put it under a
 128 napkin.&nbsp; Everybody there was &quot;full&quot; and they sent him out for beer and
 129 whiskey.&nbsp; When he got back, he and another boy had a little &quot;fun.&quot;
 130 &nbsp; &quot;...he got hold of the pistol and in fun we struggled for it.&nbsp; I told him
 131 what are you doing with that pistol, and I got it and it went off and struck Delia.&quot;<br>
 132 &nbsp;<br>
 133 A witness named S. Thomas started to testify for the defense.&nbsp; He said, &quot;I am
 134 familiar with the character of the house in which Willie West and his sister and wife
 135 stay.&quot;&nbsp; This evidence was objected to and he was not allowed to proceed with it.
 136 &nbsp; Raiford Falligant, Cooney's attorney, later represented the situation as follows:
 137 &quot;That upon Christmas Eve night about 11 oclock in the year 1900, when he was only a
 138 boy 14 years of age, he got into bad company in a rough house and got to drinking and
 139 tusseling with another boy over a pistol which went off and hit and killed a girl in the
 140 house where all of the parties were drinking.&quot;<br>
 141 &nbsp;<br>
 142 Willie Mills testified that he witnessed the shooting.&nbsp; He supported Cooney's
 143 statement, but Willie Glover testified that Willie Mills was not at the scene of the
 144 shooting.<br>
 145 &nbsp;<br>
 146 Cooney served 12 1/2 years, the last several years at a facility in Commerce, GA.&nbsp; He
 147 was granted a parole in October, 1913, by Governor John M. Slaton (the same governor who
 148 eventually commuted the death sentence of Leo Frank, for killing &quot;Little Mary
 149 Phagan,&quot; to life imprisonment, after which Frank was lynched - Governor Slaton knew
 150 that the commutation would bring his political career to an end, which it did.&nbsp; This
 151 story has been told recently in the musical &quot;Parade,&quot; by Alfred Uhry and Jason
 152 Robert Brown, and everyone knows the ballad, &quot;Little Mary Phagan,&quot; by Blind
 153 Andrew Jenkins, as I recall.)<br>
 154 &nbsp;<br>
 155 In 1917, The Prison Commission of Georgia recommended to the governor that Cooney be
 156 pardoned.&nbsp; The file did not contain the governor's action. <br>
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