Provided by Deposition in the December 2, 1933 trial of Clarence Norris before Judge William Washington Callahan, for the defendant:
1. What is you name? A. Ruby Bates.
2. How old are you? A. Nineteen now. I will be twenty on my birthday, March 4, 1934....
11. Prior to March 24, 1931, were you in the company of Victoria Price, Lester Carter and Jack Tiller or either of them, especially in said month of March? (This question was objected to by the State. The Court sustained the objection and the defendant excepted.) The excluded answer was as follows: A. Yes, I was in their company on March 23 and 24th, 1993...
14. Did Victoria Price have intercourse with Jack Tiller a day or two before March 25, 1931, in you presence and in the presence of Lester Carter? (The question was objected to by the State. The Court sustained the objection. Defendant excepted.) The excluded answer was as follows: A. On the night of March 23rd, yes.
15. What occurred on March 24, 1931, in your presence between Lester Carter, Jack Tiller and Victoria Price? (The question was objected to by the State. The Court sustained the objection . Defendant excepted.) The excluded answer was as follows: A. I don't know what they mean. Unless this is the answer. Jack Tiller did not go with us on account of his wife. Of course, we was all talking. There was nothing done except talking and Jack Tiller said for us to go ahead and that he would join us in a few days and that he did not go on account of his wife. Q. Did you, Lester Carter and Victoria Price board a freight train in the City of Huntsville, Alabama and proceed on said freight train to Chattanooga, Tenn.? A. Yes....
17. Upon arrival at Chattanooga, did you meet one Orville Gilley?...A. Yes. We was looking for a box car to stay in that, because we knew no one in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where we could stay. While we was looking for this box car, Orville Gilley was coming meeting us, coming in a direction to us and we coming to meet him. ...When we couldn't find a box car, Orville Gilley said that he knows a place, he knew was the hobo jungle, a place where we could rest. We all got arms' full of shingles from the box cars and took them over and built a fire. ...
19. What transpired on March 25, 1931, between the hours of 6 A.M. and 3 P.M.?... We was all sitting on this gondola, Victoria Price, Orville Gilley and Lester Carter and myself. Shortly after the train pulled out from Stevenson, Alabama, there was some white boys come to the next car from where we was, a gondola, and they said and Lester Carter was talking to them. I don't know what was said between them, but I noticed that there was some negroes come into this car from the top of the box car from the direction of the caboose. Then when these negro boys got to where these white boys was, there was a fight. I don't know what the fight was about, but most of these white boys got off the train. Lester Carter also got off the train. Orville Gilley started to get off. I don't know why Orville Gilley or Lester Carter wanted to get off, but Lester Carter got off. Gilley started tot get off, but was pulled back in the car by one of the negro boys. After then the negro boys disappeared. I did not see them any more until there was some boys taken off the train at Paint Rock.
20. Did you arrive on a freight train at Paint Rock, Alabama, at or about 3 P.M.? State in detail what transpired at Paint Rock? A. Yes, there was some negroes taken off the train and placed under arrest and Victoria Price and myself was also put under guard by the sheriff. Victoria Price made out like she fainted. She was taken into a store, where I was also taken a few minutes later. When I was taken into the store there was a doctor with Victoria. The doctor said there was nothing wrong; only that she had just gotten scared and that she had high blood pressure. I knew she was bothered with high blood pressure. When she began to talk, she was asked about what happened. So she told them that we were attacked by some negro boys. There was one man who told her to tell the story and there was another man who told her to shut up until she got to Scottsboro under protection of sheriffs. We was arrested by the sheriff at Paint Rock, Alabama, but those others were higher sheriffs. When we first arrived at Paint Rock, there was a big crowd there....
23. State what transpired in the Scottsboro jail and conversations had by and between you and Victoria Price and certain white boys confined in Scottsboro jail after March 25, 1931, up until the trail of Haywood Patterson and others....Victoria said to me that I must remember to tell the same story as she was telling me. She was at that time telling me what all she had told the sheriff. She had told the sheriff that we had been raped and she made up the story of how we had been rapped, and she was telling me the story. I told her that I do not know whether I will or not, because it is not true. She was telling me that I must tell these things, as she was pointing them out to me. She said we have been raped each of us by six negro boys and that one of the negro boys was hold her feet, another held a gun and a knife at her throat and another had intercourse. She also state that she had some money on her and that it had been taken off; also a pocket knife, that she had on her when she left home, had been taken off her from her pocket. We had clothes underneath. We had slips and a couple of dresses. As I remember, Victoria Price had a sweater--and we had overalls over the dresses. We also had lots of visitors who came to the jail to see us. They would always ask Victoria Price what had happened and she would tell them that we had been raped by these negro boys. We were then removed on Sunday from the small cell to the large cell. there was also a cage in the middle of both cells where the men prisoners was, but there was more men prisoners in the larger cell. The seven white boys that were arrested was in this large cell. Victoria Price would have conversations with the different on of the boys that was arrested and place in jail for witnesses against the negro boys...Victoria Price reminded me during all this time that I must tell what she did. She said that unless I did tell what she did, I would get her in trouble. She would have to serve a jail sentence...We was also taken out into the hospital apartment of the jail, hospital ward, to identify negro boys. Victoria Price identified a knife which she said was hers; that it had been taken off her body by one of the negro boys. Victoria Price did not have any knife when we left Huntsville, neither did she have any money. There was a lawyer by the name of Stephen Roddy, or Stevenson Roddy. He had the nine negro boys brought into the hospital where he also had us brought into the hospital where to identify the negro boys. He asked Victoria Price to take out the six boys that raped her. Victoria Price pointed out six of the boys. Then he asked me if the other three was the ones that had raped me. I was at this time frightened very badly, because there had been threats made against my life and I said "Yes." Victoria Price had also told that there was two guns that he negro boys had, I remember as being thirty-two calibre, that's what Victoria Price said. I remember as her saying there was a thirty-eight or forty-five calibre. Victoria Price and Lester Carter had a conversation. Lester Carter asked Victoria Price why she wanted to tell what she did on these boys for. Victoria Price said that she didn't give a darn for all of these niggers, let them hang them all and Lester Carter told her that he should be ashamed on herself. I don't remember whether there was anything else.
24. Did you testify on the said trials as a witness for the prosection? A. Yes, sir.
25. Did you testify on the said trials that six negroes raped you and six negroes raped Victoria Price and one of the negroes held a knife at you throat? A. Yes, sir.
26. Was that testimony true? A. No, sir. ...
28. Did Haywood Patterson, Ozie Powell, Willie Roberson, Andy Wright, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, Roy Wright, Charley Weems and Clarence Norris, or any of them, have intercourse with either you or Victoria Price on March 25, 1931? A. No, not any of them, with either of us, Victoria Price or myself.
29. Did Haywood Patterson, Ozie Powell, Willie Roberson, Andy Wright, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, Roy Wright, Charley Weems and Clarence Norris, or any of them, assault either you or Victoria Price on March 25, 1931? A. No....
The [prosecution's] cross-interrogatories, with answers thereto, were as follows:...
14. Did Mr. Jackson give you $20 while you were in Montgomery? A. He did. ...
17. Where did you get the coat and hat which you wore when you testified in the trial of Haywood Patterson in April, 1933, in Decatur, Alabama? A. I bought it at Kleins for $3.98