David marshall williams biography

Williams — Department of Cultural Resources, Region Statewide. Business and Industry. Dawson testified during the preliminary hearing of Williams, but only after a lengthy defense argument to keep him from testifying by Williams' attorney and Dawson's attorney, followed by an admonishment by the judge that whatever he said could be used against him in any future proceedings.

The Fayetteville Observer news reporter covering the hearing indicated Dawson was an unwilling witness for a time. But when recalled to the stand indicated he was going to tell the whole story of what had happened. Dawson testified he had been at the still but fled into the woods just prior to the arrival of the officers. The reporter followed this with Williams gave Dawson a rifle and told him to keep it safe, that Dawson took it home.

Dawson claimed Williams had come to his home the night after the shooting and discussed the raid saying he had done some shooting but didn't think he had hit anyone. The information on the rifle Dawson was given and the reporter stating three guns were identified as belonging to Williams, were not elaborated on by the reporter. This occurred on a number of occasions throughout the reporting of the various events and should not be construed as anything but the work of the reporter and his editor.

At the end of the preliminary hearing the judge ruled Williams should be held for trial in superior court. Within the coverage of this hearing Fayetteville reporter stated "Deputy Sheriff C. Drivers testimony kills the effort of the defense to lay the actual shooting to Dawson". Deputy Pate was 62 years old at the time of his death and had been a Cumberland County Sheriff's deputy for 19 years.

His son Leon had died June 26, of cerebral apoplexy stroke , four days after his 29th birthday [death certificate]. At the time of Deputy Pate's death, his daughter Ellen was away on a honeymoon after having been married two weeks prior. He was arraigned the same day with his attorneys claiming he could not be tried for the charges against him due to insanity.

The case was continued to the next court session for a jury to be impaneled to determine the issue of insanity. On the same day Williams and three of his workers were indicted for "Making Liquor". This case was held pending the outcome of the murder case. North Carolina courts, then as now, use the "M'Naghten Rule" to determine insanity. This rule is a presumption of sanity, unless the defense can prove "at the time of committing the act, the accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing or, if he did know it, that he did not know what he was doing was wrong".

Simply put, the defendant must have a mental illness to the degree they cannot tell the difference between right and wrong. On October 11th, a 12 man jury was impaneled to hear the testimony and decide the issue of Williams' sanity. Testimony started on October 12th and continued for four days. The majority of articles and other sources that have been published to date have reported the testimony of this Insanity Hearing as a criminal trial, which wasn't the case.

The issue of sanity had to be decided prior to the criminal trial. The sheriff and deputies again testified to the circumstances of the shooting with Deputy Driver identifying Williams as the shooter. Ham Dawson testified regarding his involvement with Williams and indicated when Williams met him the night after the shooting he accused Dawson of being the sheriff's informant and threatened him.

The next morning when Williams brought the rifle to Dawson to hide, Williams threatened to shoot Dawson if he revealed anything Williams had told him about the shooting. The defense called to the stand several members of the Williams family including his father , a number of his school teachers, the Colonel who owned Blackstone Academy, and a psychiatrist who interviewed the Williams family and teachers but not David Marshall Williams himself.

The prosecution countered with cross examination of the defense witnesses then called to the stand several more teachers, neighbors of David Williams, the county coroner and three psychiatrists. The coroner and psychiatrists for the prosecution had personally examined Williams and all testified it was their opinion he was sane. The jury adjourned October 15th when the jury to decide the issue.

On October 17, the jury announced to the court they were deadlocked with 11 voting for sanity and one voting for insanity. The judge declared a mistrial and ordered Williams held until the next court session in November. When a jury deadlocks with a verdict indicating a strong likelihood of sanity, or in the case of criminal trial a strong indication of guilt, the prosecution has the option of requesting the judge to empanel a second jury to decide the issue.

Williams was held pending the next court session when another jury would be impaneled to decide the insanity issue. This avoided a possible 1st degree conviction and death penalty. The same day Williams and all five workers, Dawson included, plead guilty to "Making Liquor". Those not indicted earlier for the still came into court and waived the indictment.

Judgment for Williams was suspended. With the exception of Dawson, the other workers were sentenced to 90 days, during which they could be hired out for work by the Cumberland County Commissioners. Dawson was not sentenced this day, possibly due to his pending indictment. On November 25, Williams was sentenced to 30 years at hard labor and prison stripes for the murder of Deputy Pate.

This was the maximum sentence allowed by law. Williams was 21 years of age at the time of his sentencing. The judge issued an order for the prison warden to constantly monitor the physical and mental well being of Williams, given the previous claim of insanity. Back in Cumberland County, he set to work perfecting his inventions, filing his first patents on February 2, This application detailed his concept for the use of the high-pressure gas in or near the breech to operate the action of a semi-automatic firearm.

The application and subsequent patent detail several different designs to accomplish this, including the floating chambers he manufactured on the four rifles he built while imprisoned. This pistol was specific to the. In , Williams was contracted by Colt to redesign the Colt Ace with his floating chamber. In , Colt introduced the Colt. Also designed by Williams, the conversion unit could be used to convert the A1.

The kit allowed for the pistol to be converted back to its original A1. The kit was also used to convert the earlier Colt Ace pistol for use as a Colt Service Ace with the floating chamber. After two years, he went to Washington, D. He received his first contract to modify the. His conversions were permanent. The original Williams design was redesigned and improved upon by others into a.

David marshall williams biography

Subsequent versions were created for the A4 Caliber. Around , Remington Arms contracted Williams to produce a. The Williams design was not accepted by Remington. The rifle was redesigned by Remington employees K. Lowe and C. Loomis using the Williams floating chamber. The rifle was designated the Remington Model and introduced in This rifle was the first semi-automatic rimfire rifle capable of operating with either the.

Management at Winchester Repeating Arms Company was already aware of the work of Williams when in one of its patents U. Winchester agreed with Williams and negotiated a settlement. The Ordnance Department's General Julian Hatcher was impressed by Williams's work and in recommended Winchester hire him because he showed the greatest native ability of anyone Hatcher knew.

Winchester entered into negotiations with Williams, who was hired full time by Winchester on July 1, Williams was assigned the task of redesigning a semi-automatic rifle invented by Jonathan Edmund Browning, half brother of John Browning and Matt Browning. The design had been purchased by Winchester, who had also hired Jonathan Browning to improve the design.

Winchester hoped the Browning design might replace the M1 rifle invented by John Garand. One of the problems encountered was the gas system that operated the rifle's semi-automatic action. By May , Williams had fitted the rifle with a short-stroke gas piston outside the bore of the barrel that used the gas forward of the breech to cause the piston to strike the operating slide and cycle the action.

Winchester designated this rifle the Model G30M. Ordnance Department trials at Quantico, Virginia, and Aberdeen, Maryland, from March through April , followed by trials with the Marines in San Diego, California, during the fall and winter of Based on the experience gained during these trials, Winchester directed Williams to redesign the rifle to correct additional problems, chamber it for the standard military rifle cartridge.

Williams completed the changes by May , with the result weighing only 7. Winchester designated this rifle the G30R. By May , the U. Ordnance Dept. Winchester initially decided against developing a submission because of other commitments that included the Browning prototype being worked on by Williams. When Williams produced the 7. The challenge for Winchester was producing a working light rifle in time for preliminary tests pending a second set of light rifle trials.

Williams had already shown he worked at his own pace, so Winchester assigned two other employees to head up the project. When Williams was not included, he was livid. Williams refused to have anything to do with the gun and did not want his name associated with it. Thirteen days after they had begun, Winchester employees completed the first prototype.

The receiver, rotating bolt, slide, and short-stroke gas piston used on this first prototype were based on those used by Williams to produce the Model G30R. Of these four parts, three were designed by Williams from parts already in use on other rifles. The one part Williams could take sole credit for was the short-stroke gas piston that accessed the high-pressure gas near the breech to operate the semi-automatic action.

Fay Ridenour". The "script" is not the actual lines of the actors, it's an overview of the story. A cover page indicates the script was prepared by a member of the MGM script department March 15, The library does not allow the script to be copied or photographed. Fay Ridenour was a newspaper reporter for the Charlotte Observer. The original story of the "Army Carbine: The Rifle that was Born in Prison", as authored by Williams and told by Ridenour, was published in the Charlotte Observer newspaper on February 25, prior to the movie script.

The article includes an introduction by Ridenour declaring the article to be a correct accounting of events. Within the article Williams is quoted: "In I went to work for Winchester and it was while working for them that I invented the U. Army Carbine that is in use today". Reality "The Legend" The document copyrighted as "The Williams Story" may have been authored for the specific purpose of inclusion in the movie script as it hadn't appeared prior.

While it can be argued "The Williams Story" was intended as a work of fiction, the "Army Carbine: The Rifle that was Born in Prison" and it's introduction by Ridenour published by the Charlotte Observer clearly present the story as factual and as told by Williams. Over the years Williams also made the claim of having invented the M1 Carbine during interviews with a number of authors and periodical editors.

From the article: "With the Winchester staff of gun designers, he produced the pilot model of the carbine in just 13 days! Royalties soon began coming in on the carbine, and Williams was on his way to fame - and considerable wealth. Williams himself indicated he had originally negotiated with Winchester for royalties on any of his inventions but did not receive royalties from the development of the M1 Carbine, he was paid with a lump sum payment.

This is supported by other documentation covered in the pdf's of the original documents whose links follow. Captain Peoples also indicated Williams had been pardoned. Williams received a sentence commutation not a pardon. A pdf of the commutation document is provided in the pages that follow. A warden would know the difference between a pardon and a sentence commutation, as do the majority of prison inmates.

Why Peoples would indicate Williams was pardoned when it wasn't the case is not known. It was a team effort to produce two prototypes with the second prototype being the one chosen by the Ordnance Department as the U. David Marshall Williams was hired by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company on July 1, and assigned to work on firearm design, research and development.