Four Hanged In A Bunch
- Title
- Four Hanged In A Bunch
- Source Type
- Newspapers
- Publisher
- St. Louis Globe-Democrat
- Publication Place
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Publication Date
- 06/18/1898
- Transcript
- FOUR HANGED IN A BUNCH. Confessed Their Guilt and Cleared One Companion. Burning at Stakes Thwarted by Approach of the Militia. Riddled the Bodies with Bullets-Second Murder and Lynching of Negroes in the Tragic History of the Craden Family of Alabama. Special Dispatch to the Globe Democrat. MONTGOMERY, ALA., June 17.-The mob which took the five negroes from the Wetumpka jail last night hanged four of them this morning. They decided the fifth negro was innocent, and released him. Both the jail storming and lynching was done in broad daylight, and thousands of persons witnessed one or the other. Gov. Johnston has hurried a state solicitor to Wetumpka, who will swear out warrants against each of the several hundred lynchers, and they will be vigorously prosecuted by the state for murder. After the jail storming last night the mob hurried with the prisoners in the direction of the place where the crime was commit- ted, eight miles from Wetumpka. Half an hour afterward the troops from Montgomery arrived, and, after an hour's deliberation and delay, set out in pursuit of the mob. Anticipating their coming, the vigilantes placed the prisoners in charge of a substantial guard, and this guard, and the twelve men who had been detailed by the lynchers to sit as a jury on the guilt or innocence of the negroes, were sent off into the woods. About half of the mob then branched off from the other half, and subsequently join- ed the guard in charge of the prisoners while the military continued in pursuit. of the other half, finally overtaking them about daylight, only to find that their chase had been fruitless. The section of the lynching party in charge of the prisoners spent the night in examining and interrogating the miserable colored men and considering the facts in the case. The examination was conducted in a systematic manner, with an apparent regard for fairness. Finally, about breakfast time, one of the negroes, Louis Spier, broke down and con- fessed all. He said that four of the prisoners had entered the dwelling during Tues- day night; that he had brained old Mr. Craden at the time Ham Thompson was crushing Mrs. Craden's skull, and while Sol Jackson was cutting old Mr. Craden's throat. Reese Thompson had watched at the door. and had subsequently secured $1200, and helped to fire the house. Spier exonerated the fifth negro. The other negroes corroborated the story, and told where the stolen money was hid. Most of it has been recovered to-day. The programme was to chain the negroes to trees and burn them if they were found guilty, but fear of the approach of the military caused a change in the arrangement, and they were hanged to two large trees about 9 o'clock this morning. The lynchers fired several hundred bullets into the bodies as they swung. Half an hour later the military found them swinging in the air, but no lynchers were near. It is a curious coincidence that Craden's aged father and mother were murdered in their home on June 15, 1883, not many miles from the place where he and his wife were murdered last Tuesday, and that on this date fifteen years ago their negro murderer was hanged by an angry mob of friends of the Cradens. A large number of those who helped to avenge the father's murder participated to- day in the lynching of the murderers of the son. The military returned to the state capital this afternoon. Their fruitless chase of the mob was owing to the fact that the latter were all well mounted, and no means of conveyance were at hand to immediately take the soldiers after them.
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