In November of 1908, 60-year-old Manuel Howell was imprisoned in the Richland County jail for the murder of 25-year-old Man Worthy. The death was the result of a fight between the two men, occurring about five miles northeast of Columbia. According to Howell's testimony, he had been chopping wood at around 8 p.m. outside the house of William Monckton when he decided to purchase some provisions at a nearby store. Three men - Man Worthy, Nathan Johnson, and Mack Hunter - were also in the store, and when Howell arrived, Worthy grabbed two glass bottles and tried to attack him, being withheld by the store clerk. Though he seemed to quiet down for a moment, he then brandished a knife and sprung at Howell again. The clerk advised Howell to leave, but on his way out, the three men followed him and threatened to kill him later in the evening.
Howell claimed that he outran the three men and arrived at the house of West Martin, where he managed to get ahold of a shotgun. When he left the house, he heard a voice say something indistinguishable. He asked who was there, and the voice replied, "We've got you now." Howell fired a shot into the darkness and heard the sound of footsteps running, then went home and went to bed, not learning that he had killed Worthy until the following day, when the younger man's body was found in the woods.
Evidently, the fight had broken out after Howell had forced Worthy to stop seeing his (Howell's) daughter, whom Worthy had been in a relationship with. After an autopsy, which showed that Worthy's cause of death was a gunshot wound to the throat, the coroner's jury delivered a guilty verdict, and Howell was imprisoned.
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