SOMETHING NEW IN ALABAMA MOB INFLICTS LYNCH LAW ON TWO NEGRO WOMEN
Item
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Title
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SOMETHING NEW IN ALABAMA MOB INFLICTS LYNCH LAW ON TWO NEGRO WOMEN
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Source Type
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Newspapers
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Publisher
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The Raleigh Daily Tribune
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Publication Place
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Raleigh, North Carolina
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Publication Date
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5/13/1897
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Transcript
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SOMETHING NEW IN ALABAMA MOB INFLICTS LYNCH LAW ON TWO NEGRO WOMEN- Repeated Cases of Poisoning In vhlch They Were Concerned the Crimes for Which They Suffeted. Nashville, Tenn., May 12. Xews was received -to lay cf the lynching of two colored women named Mollie Smith and Mandy Franks by a mob last night In Alubama, on the road leading from the tow n of Jeff, to the- city of Huntsville. The lynching was the work of about twenty men, and so far as is known no clue to theLc identity has been discovered. After the lynching the mob dispersed, but as soon as the news of the hanging reached Huntsville Sheriff Fullgam left for the scene. He is making a thorough investigation of the affair The women's bodies were found this morning by people passing along the road, and the authorities in Hunts-vine were notified. " The crime the girls were, charged with ' was - the repeated wholesale poisoning of the Joshua O Kelly family at Jeff. The first poisoning occurred two months ago and resulted in-the death of the head of the family. This was taken fo be accidental; but on the following night several members of the family and a number of guests were poisoned, but they recovered. Clues leading to the supposed guilty parties were being followed, when, last Friday morning, another wholesale poisoning occurred. Suspicion was directed to a girl named- Molie Smith, who worked in the house. Circumstances having fastened the crime on Mollie Smith, she was put under a close watch and taken into custody last night-while she was making her way rapidly towards the Tennessee line. She wore a pair of men's boots. Mandy Franks, believed to be her accomplice-was arrested at her home. The place of execution chosen was at the edge of the road in a stretch of woods. It is said that Mandy Franks readily confessed that she had taken part in the crime. She said Mpllie Smith poisoned the coffee two months ago and the sausage on the following night. The confessor, herself, it is said, poisoned the flour -last week at Mollie's direction. She did it while taking the food, from the pantry to the kitchen. A "fence rail was arranged between two trees. Over this ropes .were thrown and the two women were drawn up and left hanging.