Mob Seizes Five Negroes
Item
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Title
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Mob Seizes Five Negroes
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Source Type
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Newspapers
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Publisher
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The Sun
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Publication Place
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New York, New York
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Publication Date
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06/17/1898
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Transcript
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MOB SEIZES FIVE NEGRO ES. It will Give Them a Trial in the Woods and Dispose of Their Cases. WETUMPKA, Ala., June 16. - A mob of 400 angry farmers took five negro prisoners from the county jail here to-night and made off into a remote section of the county with them. On Tuesday night an old farmer, William Carden, his wife, and her brother were murdered in their dwelling seven miles from Wetumpka. Their house was then robbed of several thousand dollars and burned. Five negroes living in the neighborhood were suspected. Their footprints matched those about the charred remains of the dwelling. They were thought to act suspiciously. To-day they were arrested and jailed here. Carden's farmer friends gathered here this afternoon armed with shotguns and axes. They determined to get hold of the negroes. It was urged that they did not have evidence sufficient to prove their guilt. It was therefore resolved that a committee of ten of the mob be appointed to ascertain the guilt or innocence of the prisoners after any persons had been captured. If guilty it was decided that they should be hanged at once; if not found to be guilty they were to be returned to the authorities. For several hours the mob stormed the jail and hammered with sledgehammers on the doors. Montgomery was called on by the authorities for assistance. The National Guard was off with the regular army. but those National Guardsmen who remained responded with a will, and with. in an hour and a half after the riot alarm WRB sounded 130 men from Montgomery were on a special train for Wetumpka. They reached there after clock, half an hour after the mob had effected an entrance into the jail and had made away with the five prisoners ID the direction of the scene of the crime. It is thought certain that they will he hanged before morning, as the trial before the jury of lynchers is considered a farce. The negroes are Sol. Jim and Reese Jackson, brothers; Louis Speer and Jeff Thompson.
Mob Seizes Five Negroes