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Title
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TWO NEGRO GIRLS LYNCHED.
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Source Type
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Newspapers
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Publisher
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The Lancaster Examiner
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Publication Place
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Lancaster, Pennsylvania
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Publication Date
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5/15/1897
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Transcript
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TWO NEGRO GIRLS LYNCHED. Posioners Pay the Death Penalty at the Hands of the Mob. A farmer passing along the road leading from Jeff. Ala., to Huntsville, at day-break Wednesday, discovered the life-less forms of two negro girls swinging from the same limb of an oak tree. The bodies, which were not yet cold, were those of Mollie Smith, 18 years old, and Amanda Franks, 19 years old, both of whom had been servants in the employ of the lare Joshua O. Kelly, of Jeff. Three times within eight weeks the Kelly family have been poisioned. Not until the last poisioning, on Friday of last week, did the finger of suspicion point to one of the girls. The capture and confession Tuesday night of Amanda Franks was followed by the speedy lynching of the pair. Two months ago Joshua O. Kelly, his wife and six children were taken violently ill be night after supper, They suffered from intense pains and spasms. All the physicians in Huntsville were summoned and pronounced it a case of poisoning. The elder Kelly died in great agony, the others recovered after a long and difficult siege. It was at first thought that the poisioning was accidental, but, on the night after it happened, when six of the watchers, friends and realtives of the family, who were sitting up with the corpse of Kelly, were taken ill after eating lunch, the belief obtained that the work, in both instances, was the result of a carefully-planned plot to murder the family. Last Friday morning witnessed another poisioning. Soon after partaking of breakfast the seven remaining members of the Kelly family, together with a traveling salesman from Knoxville, Tenn., who happened to be the guest of the house over night, and six colored laborers, who were fed from the kitchen, fourteen persons in all, were thrown into violent convulsions. Neighbors summoned all the physicians for miles aorund, and panic took possession of the entire community. Again the lives of the victims were saved but several were left is such a state that they are still unable to leave their beds. This last act aroused the citizens of JEff to a pitch of wildest frenzy. Every man for the time became a detective, and an organized effort was made to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice. The Kelly family, one of the most prominent in Madison county, was known to be without enemies, and on that account the motive of the deed was inexplicable. It was suspected that the deadly work had been done or instigated by a negro who, becasue of his general worthlessness, had been discharged from Mr. Kelly's employ ten weeks ago, and who had been driven out of the community by the Kelly boys because of his insolence to their father, This clue was followed until Tuesday, when suspicion was directed to Mollie Smith, the colored chambermaid of the family, because on Monday she had suddenly disappeared. A band of men Tuesday night got track of her and captured her while she was making rapidly for the Tennessee state line. It was then concluded to arrest Amanda Franks, who also was a servent in the famly. She was found at her home. When taken into custody the Franks girl said that she and Mollie Smith has placed arsenic in the food of the Kellys. Mollie has poisioned the coffee two months ago for the purpose of killing the entire family. As only one death resulted, she determined to repeat her effort the night afterward, when she placed poision in some sausage which the watchers over Kelly's corpse ate. Amanda said she herself poisioned the flour from which which biscuits were made last week, and that itr was done under the direction of Mollie. The Smith girl denied the truth of her companion's confession and disclamied any guilt. She wept bitterly. The two girls were held under guard to be taken to the jail at Huntsville. Their arrest created intense excitement, which grew as the night passed. An hour before daylight Wednesday morning twenty masked men, heavily armed, broke into the room in which the prisoners were held, and overpowering the single suard, placed the girls on horses and led them hurriedly out of town. The The lynchers dispersed quitely, and, as usual are unknown. The latest from Jeff says that more hanging are expected to follow. Jennie Burwell, a nregress, a friend of the dead girls, says she kmew that Mollie Smith and Amanda Franks were poisioning the Kellys, but did not dare to tell on them. She may be lynched. The suspected instigator of the crime, the negro who was discharged from the employ of Kelly, and who desired to wreak revenge upon teh family for his treatment is named Williams. A posse is after him, and if caught he is sure to die, and if caught he is sure to die. The citizens of Jeff are aroused to high pitch of excitement, and open threats are made that every negro connected with the poisoning will be lynched as fast as his guilt is proved. The negro population is panic-stricken and the officers of the law seem powerless.