Four Hanged By Angry Mob

Title

Source Type

Newspapers

Publisher

Concord Times

Publication Place

Concord, NC

Publication Date

06/23/1898

Transcript

Four Hanged by Angry Mob. MONTGOMERY, June 17.—On Tuesday night last Mr. Carden and his wife and old man Carlee, a relative of Mr. Carden, were murdered in their house near Wetumpka, in Elmore county, for money the old couple were supposed to have about the house. On Wednesday five negroes were arrested, Sol Jackson and four others, on suspicion of having committed the crime. Last night about dark Governor Johnston received a message from the sheriff that a mob was assembling and he feared that his prisoners would be taken from him, and asked for troops. The governor soon got together what was left of the local military companies and at 8 o'clock started a special train with about ninety uniformed and armed men to the scene. Before they reached the jail the mob had battered down the inner doors with tools secured from a blacksmith shop near by and taken the prisoners out, carrying them at once to the scene of the murder. Four of the negroes confessed having participated in the crime and one of them told where he had hidden the money. He was made to find the money and there in sight of the horrible deed they had committed they were all five swung up and their bodies riddled with bullets. The military were unable to follow the mob last night as they were well mounted and no means of conveyance were at hand to take the troops after them. This morning efforts were made to find the negroes, and about 11 o'clock news came over the telephone from Wetumpka that they had been found swinging from a limb near where the crime was committed. It develops that the original programme of the lynchers was to chain the prisoners to trees and burn them to death, but fear of the approach of the military caused the plans to be changed and the old reliable method of hanging was adopted. Not having prepared for this emergency, however, the lynchers had only sufficient rope to hang two of the prisoners. Necessity proved the mother of invention, however. A farmer agreed to lend a plow line on condition that it be not cut. To accomplish this, one end of the line was tied around one victim's neck and the other end thrown over the limb and he was swung into the air, while the other end was tied about the neck of the fourth prisoner. In this way the four were hanged at the same. time to the same tree, and the farmer's plow lines were not injured.

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