Four of Them Were Lynched

Title

Source Type

Newspapers

Publisher

Daily Picayune

Publication Place

New Orleans, LA

Publication Date

06/18/1898

Transcript

FOUR OF THEM WERE LYNCHED The Wetumpka Murderers Were Given a Trial by the Mob. All Confessed to Their Diabolical Crime and Were Promptly Executed by a Mob of Several Hundred. The Governor Will Try to Punish the Lynchers The Carden Family Had Suffered Before. (Special: to the Picayune.) 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 the lynching was done in broad daylight and thousands of persons witnessed one or the other. Governor Johnston has hurried a state solicitor to Wetumpka, who will away 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 their victims in the direction of the place where the crime was committed, eight miles from Wetumpka. Half an hour afterwards the troops from Montgomery arrived and after an hour's deliberation and delay set out coming, pursuit prisoners in of the mob. Anticipating their coming, the mobbers 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 joined the guard in charge of the prison while the military continued in pursuit of the other half, finally overtaking them about daylight, only to find their chase had been fruitless. That section of the lynching party in charge of the prisoners spent the night in examining and interrogating the miserable wretches and considering the facts in the case. The examination was conducted in systematic manner and with apparent regard for fairness. Finally about breakfast time one of the negroes, Louis Spier, broke down and confessed it all. He said that four of the prisoners had entered the dwelling during Tuesday night: that he had brained old Mr. Carden, while Ham Thompson was crushing Mrs. Carden's skull and while Sol Jackson was cutting old Mr. Carden'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 hidden. Most of it has been recovered to-day. The programme was to chain the negroes to a tree and burn them if they were found to be 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 firing 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 about. It is a curious coincidence that Carden'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 five years ago their negro murderer was hanged by an angry mob of their friends. 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 this afternoon.

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