aa a I WL | ; pe eA HE NEVER LEARNED TO READ Mail amazes Jimmie Wilson This interview appeared in the New York Post on -Sep- tember 3. It is to our knowl- edge the only interview with Jimmie Wilson to have ap- peared anywhere, and we re- print it here in part because .of the intense interest in the man whose fate has now be- come the cause of world-wide concern. By GAEL GREENE New York Post Carrespondent ATMORE, Ala. — It is im- possible for Jimmie Wilson to comprehend his sudden fame. To understand the world’s concern over his fate would be to understand concern. And it has been a long time since Jimmie Wilson has known: anyone to be concern- ed over him. That is immediately ap- parent in am interview with Wilson in the warden’s office at Atmore Prison Farm. A few days ago Warden Stephen Hixon handed Wilson five letters, one in French. They were a sampling of the mail that has been ~ pouring into Hixon’s office, asking mercy for the 55-year-old Negro sentenced to die in the electric chair. His formal charge: stealing three half-dollars, a quarter and 20 copper coins bearing the profile of Abraham Lincoln. Wilson ‘studied those letters. He looked at the stamps and at the firm handwriting on the envelopes. He turned the envelopes over and over, and then he put the letters away. Wilson did not — could not — read the letters,.not even those in English. He cannot read or write. His © proudest accomplish- ment is the careful printing out his name in a child-like hand: JIMMIE WILSON bos bes os Wilson sits on a cot in a special security cell. His = fev ork are three convicted murderers.. Jimmie Wilson sings. His song is invariably a tuneles chant, “Live So That the Lord Can Use Me:” Unlike the other prisoners, Wilson does not work on a road gang or tend crops. “T just been thinking most of the time, but sometimes I gets to wipe off the bars,” he said. “They’re all clean ‘but it’s something to be doing.” He has a rag and he mops the floor. His meals are brought to him on an alumi- num tray. (“Just like a cafe- teria,” according to the warden.) All Jimmie Wilson is ask- ing at this moment is to spend his life in this prison. He does not hope aloud for anything more than that. “J don’t want to die in that electric chair. I pray every night. I feel like God will answer.” Atmore prison is a cluster of modern white masonery buildings on 8,400 acres of state-farm land, 10 miles from Alabama’s Florida bor- der. It is the state’s Negro prison, but some .40 white convictts are“also held there. (“There are jobs you just don’t want n s to do,” Pros- ecutor Blanchard McLeod ex- plained.) The men of Atmore raise food to feed the entire prison system. Convict crews can be seen throughout the southern portion of the state, marked by their white cotton uni- forms, mowing grass along the highways and _ keeping roads in repair. Jimmy Wilson himself help- ed build the prison that now holds him. In 1951, while serv- ing 18 months for selling an- other man’s cotton. he was one of the construction crew that worked on the main building. Wilson has served a life- time in another prison, Ala- bama-built: that of ignorance. It kept him “in his place.” “T never did learn my AB- C’s’ Wilson confessed with an embarrassed grin. “I had to work.” “Pq say Wilson’s intelli- gence is average for a n——z” Prosecutor McLeod told the Post.) Wilson worked in = saw- mills, as a farm hand at odd jobs for anyone who would hire him. 4 Somewhere, said Wilson, he has a wife. Her name 1s Widie Gillie. He doesn’t know how to spell it. He thinks she is in.Chicago. There has been no word from her. “IT keep thinking — she’s going to write soon as she finds where to send the let- ter,” he said. He had a son. The son died the year before last. be xt x Nine times in his life Wil- son has been arrested. Three times he has been convicted on grand larceny charges. The FBI has his record and finger- prints. Apparently several of the charges were dropped be- cause no dispositions are given. He had been*in Marion, Ala., two months when he took (he now says “borrow- ed’) $1.95 from Mrs. Estelle Barker, an elderly ~ widow who had hired him two weeks earlier for yard work. | Wilson was indicted on three charges—robbery, night- time burglary with‘attempt to steal and night-time burglary with attempt to rape. Each carries the death penalty. McLeod said he _ could only prosecute on one of the three, and, he chose robbery as the easiest to prove in court. “The: amount taken doesn’t matter.” McLeod maintained. CONCERT — BANQUET Celebrating the 9th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5 CONCERT To be held at Russian People’s Home, 600 Campbell Ave. starting 1:30 p.m. Music — songs —folk dances. Special showing of color films of New China. Admission — free. dinner BANQUET To be held at Forbidden City, 90 East Pender Street. Ten-Course —-Chinese followed by speeches. Tickets — $3.00 per person, available at People’s Co-op Bookstore, 307 West Pender St. recital and “When a person goes to an occupied home at night, he is going to get what he is after. The type of person* who will do. that will kill if necessary. “J agree with the sentence. Robbery is one of. the most vicious acts that can be com- mitted.” Defense Attorney Judson C. Locke protested but his ob- jections were overruled. Wilson insists he did not try to rape Mrs. Barker. He said: “T wouldn’t do that—that’s a sin and I’ve never been a bad man. ‘Tm 55 now and why do they think I would wait till I was old and do that’ to somebody? That’s all wrong and I don’t think she would say that again if they asked her,” Wilson once signed a state- ment that said he had tried to rape Mrs. Barker. He now in- sists the confession was made because he was beaten. “He beat me and kept on, hitting me to say I tried to do that to her,” Wilson said. “He kept hitting me in the mouth so finally I said that I did.” Wilson’s own attorney, Locke, says Wilson never denied the rape attempt to him. Wilson insists that he did. “The other~attorney (Shel- don Fitts) asked me did I do it and I tell him I didn’t,” Wilson said. “After that he wouldn’t falk to me no more.” Locke and Fitts did not call Wilson to testify in his own defense, Locke said. he asked Wilson if he wanted to take the witness stand and Wilson refused. “IT warned him if he took the witness stand they would bring in all the previous ar- rests,’ Locke said. ‘“I- asked him if he had any witnesses. He said he did not.” “No one asked me (to testi- ty),” Wilson said. “Lawyer Locke come to me and Say,. ‘They’re trying you for your life. When we get to the courthouse I’m going to take you to the witness room.’ But when we got there he never did. “‘T thought if he was my lawyer I wouldn’t get up till he tell me.” Wilson got up from the chair in the warden’s office ~ to return to his cell. His, body had looked firm and young as he sat there. But when he stood up Jimmie Wilson look- ed much older than his 55 years. ® He stood hunched over in a permanent stance of subser- vience. September 26, 1958 — PACIFIC mersune filiated United Electrica} dio and Machine W: Tt which has been more bal ed and bruised than any union in the U.S. teen it is on the comeback t A spirit of optimism, dent at the UE convé held here earlier this ™ was based on. the follove three facts. @ For the first time 8 the union was expelle¢ the CIO in 1949, it hae through an entire yeat % out losing a single > AFL-CIO. raiders. f ® Sixteen plants wel 5,1] ganized by UE during year. @ Workers in several a who had been lost to aide have returned to the In the 12 raids Jaus eat t Ye against UE in the past ft UE beat its rivals by 3! ‘than 2. to’1 vote. James L. Matles, UE of izational director, $4 union has shifted from. Re fensive” position to “° ive” action. Until a year ag9 he te the union’s leaders sper ih percent of their time pe B out “fires” — raids, «tie Now, he said, the pulk ° siti? time is given to more “pos 3 ofl objectives, including | {| from workers who @ f return to UE. a: at : One indication at the vention of the offensiv® vit was UE’s initiative 1 ,d ize the shorter work W® wa manded iff this year's talks. In line with a special lution reaffiriming io —on political, economy foreign policy mattel convention. Sas te @ Declared the ~ a 4 work week the “most nee need” in face of a ae unemployment and that Supplementary : hae ployment Benefits mys? contributed to more ane have “been used for os pose of avoiding thé the shorter work wee 4 @ Pointed to its own proving that ra i £ democracy is the ance awainet etl strongly opposed ! mt nedy-Ives “labor 0 and the AFL-CIO i endorsing it. The eM! condemned as a mé cor 5 ! would establish ae 16 ing government © N10 | unions, but would in sense meet the 14 problem.