Giant Convicted on Very Flimsy Evidence

Charged with stealing, “a colored giant” is sent to the Henrico County jail, though there was a lack of strong evidence proving his guilt.

Flimsy evidence - no one of several witnesses being able to state an exact time of the crime - today sent William Dandridge, a colored giant, to the Henrico County jail for thirty days. Dandridge, who stands six feet seven and weighs above three hundred pounds, was charged with stealing two planks valued at fifty cents. The charges were brought by Frank Ford, a merchant of the county, who state on the witness stand that he knew nothing of the man’s connection with theft. J.C. Deal from whom Dandridge claims to have gotten the planks, got mad when questioned about the theft, but stated on the witness stand that he had allowed the man to take away some stove wood. Another young white man states that he saw the giant walk off with some planks, but he could give no testimony of their length, and the most damaging evidence was that in which a colored man named Hopkins said that he saw the prisoner with two planks under his arm, one of which dragged the ground. As soon as sentence was passed upon him, Dandridge dived into his pockets for his fine, and frowned when told that money would do no good. He had thirty days flat. The big giant quietly submitted to the sentence with the remark, “I didn’t steal nothing, and I’ve to go to jail for something I didn’t do.” Some of those who testified against the man made statements that his character for honesty is good, and that he had never in many year been guilty of a questionable act. Ford had offered a reward for the capture of the person stealing his wood, and while no one has claimed it, it may be that some person may be heard from now that Dandridge is in jail. James Russell, a lawyer, was engaged to prosecute the colored man, who had no lawyer and whose only method of defense was his feeble method of questioning. Dandridge was once offered a position, he says by “Mr. Pete Barnum.” He claims to have been born in Goochland, and is thirty-one years old. He employed a colored man through his cell bars to hoe his corn while he is at work, and has a wallet full of money to purchase whatever he may need in the way of tobacco and edible during his stay in jail. “They’ll have to feed me by the yard,” he remarked, “I’m a big man and a monstrous eater.”

“Giant Convicted on Very Flimsy Evidence,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed September 14, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/646.