Report of the Joint select committee appointed to inquire into the condition of affairs in the late insurrectionary states, so far as regards the execution of laws, and the safety of the lives and property of the citizens of the United States and Testimony taken.

ALABAMA-SUB-COMMITTEE. 1583
They said, "Mr. Sheriff, we knew nothing about that." "Well," said I, "That makes
the offense nothing less in the eyes of the law."
By the CHAIRMAN:
Question. Did you not understand from them that they supposed this was a body of
Ku-Klux, in which Collins was killed?
Answer. I understood from them, as they told me afterward, that they supposed they
were the same men they had seen going in the morning and at night coming out there,
and who had been disturbing them. This is what they said to me.
By Mr. BLAIR:
Question. Did you know this was Zeke High's house?
Ansioer. Only from what I heard.
Question. From whom?
Answer. From various parties that passed there daily, ever since I lived there, before
Zeke High ever came there.
Question. And the body was lying in front of the house?
Anszier. No, sir; on the north side of the house, out in the woods. It had been
moved from nwhere it was shot.
Question. Where was he shot?
Answer. At the corner on the south side of the house.
Question. At the corner of Zeke High's house?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. His wife stated that there was no gun fired from that house at all?
Answer. 0, well, that is all stuff. I can make a little diagram and explain it. [Ii
lustrating by marking on the table.] Here is Belmont and here were the stores up
here. You come down and then turn down to the Bigby River, and here was Zeke
High's house on the road, and he was killed on the corner on the south side going from
Belmont; and when I found the body it was on the north side, in the bushes. I didn't
see the body.
Question. Did they say they had moved it from where it was shot?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. It was lying near the road?
Answer. Yes, sir; as far as thirty yards from the road.
Question. Was there any other house near there?
Answer. None, sir, within half a mile, that I recollect now.
Question. Where does his brother-in-law Peter live?
Answer. I can't tell you. Peter who?
Question. Peter High or Peter Williams.
Answer. I don't know him, sir. I never heard the name before, if you had not mentioned it.
Question. What was Collins's employment?
Answer. He was a railroad man, sir.
Question. Was he employed by the railroad, working on the construction of the
road?
Answer. He was employed on the railroad. I think he was a brakesman on the train.
Probably at that. time he might not have been, because he was here a few days. He
had been knocking around town for a day or two; but he had been employed at it.
By the CHIAMAIAN:
Question. Was he a dissipated man?
Anlswer. To tell whether he was or not, I don't know. He was a native of Tennessee. I don't know anything about him. I suppose he was like many others, took a
little more at times than was necessary.
Question. Was he regarded as rather a wild, reckless man?
Answer. Yes, sir; le was rather a wild, reckless fellow; that was my notion, because I have met very few fellows I could not take and make thenl quiet; but he was
one of these damned fools, I never could do anything with him. When I tried to
keep him out of the swamp he wouldn't stay out.
By Mr. BLAIR:
Question. This Doctor Choutteau had lived here some time, had he not?
Aniswer. He had been practicing physic here long before the war.
Question. Did you hear of his making a proposition to his partner to poison, the
negroes, and get rid of them in that way?
Answer. I heard such reports, not to his partner, but to the citizens; that so far as
the negros were concerned, he didn't care a damn, and if the citizens wanted it done
he could damn soon poison them out of the way, or words to that amount.
Question. That was before he joined the radicals here?
Anstver. Yes, sir; about the time the war closed, I think.
Question. He was anxious, then, to go into a general poisoning?