SWINGING TO A TREE
Item
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Title
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SWINGING TO A TREE
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Source Type
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Newspapers
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Publisher
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The Montgomery Advertiser
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Publication Place
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Montgomery, Alabama
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Publication Date
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5/13/1897
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Transcript
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Huntsville, May 12;(Special.) This morning near the home of the Kelly family, who have, three times been poisoned recently on the Pulaski Pike, 'twelve miles from town two young negro women, Mollie Smith and Mandy White were found swinging by their necks between two forest oaks; : The first poisoning was supposed to have been accidental but when it was ascertained that it was intentional, detectives, neighbors and the family have been buey trying to apprehend the guilty fiends. Their first suspi-cijns were directed to a .noase; irl who, it was learned, feigned sickness the last time when so many "Were yots-oned. She became uneasy and left the place, but was all the i while spotted. - In the meantime from the restless and ' suspicious action of' ber associate 6n the place, Mandy, White, she was approached and made a full confession. She said that Mollie put the poison in the coffee the first time and in the sausage tbe second time, but last Thursday night she herself put the poison in the flour from which the fatal biscuits . were cooked that made so many Bick Friday morning Yesterday Mollie Smith was captured in Limestone- Count7 near the Ten nessee line, speeding on toward Ten nessee wearing a pair of men's boots. Last night between midnight and day a posse of about twenty determined men took the two criminals in hand, examined them, found tfaey were beyond doubt the guilty parties, repaired to a forest hard by and after giving them a chance to make their statements tang them and Quietly dis persed. While there Is no doubt that the d reot agents have been dispatched,, it ia believed the instigator Is yet frae. The Smith negroes hive long been a terror to that community. Members of the family or different offenses have ben to the coal mines and Jails. Ia the same neighborhood two years ago J. a Tally lost a splendid barn by, fire,, an! suspicion pointed strongly to Mollis Smith as being the perpetrator. Jeflr nie Burwell. another tenant on the Kelly place, last night admitted ". that she knew Mollie Smith was tbe person who put the poison In the coffee the first time, and she knew she would vei poison the family. Something more startling may yet develop, as there is no doubt but What there has been a deep laid plan to poison the Kellys. Mo reason for these dastardly acts has been assigned, save that for ner ltia lence MolUe Smith was dismissed A snort while ago as the house servant