Judge Lynch Takes Five

Title

Source Type

Newspapers

Publisher

St. Louis Globe-Democrat

Publication Place

St. Louis, MO

Publication Date

06/17/1898

Transcript

JUDGE LYNCH TAKES FIVE. Vigilantes Seize Negroes for Murder of I Three Aged Whites. Wetumpka (Ala.) Jail Door Battered Down by a Determined Mob. Militia Reached the City After Friends of the Murdered Family Had Made Away with the Prisoners—Murderers Had Secured $3000. Special Dispatch to the Globe-Democrat. MONTGOMERY, ALA., June 16.-The doors of the county jail at Wetumpka were broken in to-night and a mob of 500 angry farmers seized Louis Speer, Jeff Thompson, Sol, Will and Reese Jackson, five negroes, and started with them for a point seven miles down the country. It was one of the most determined mobs known in this state for years. The National Guard companies from this city are in the federal camp in Mobile. Had they been here the mob would likely have been thwarted. William Carden was a prosperous and popular white farmer living seven miles from Wetumpka. His household consisted of his wife and her brother. They were all old people. Tuesday night these three were murdered by having their brains knocked out with an ax. About $3000 in money was secured by the robbers, and the house was burned to the ground. The five negroes lived in the neighborhood, and their actions since the murder have attracted suspicion. To-day they were arrested and carried to the jail at Wetumpka. Carden's neighbors and farmer friends soon banded and marched on Wetumpka. At 6 o'clock to-night the riot alarm was rung in Montgomery. Those of the National Guard who still remained here hurried to the armory, equipped with all manner of guns and sidearms. It was an hour and a half before the 103 citizen soldiers left on a special, however, and, before the train was well out of the depot, the news came by telephone from Wetumpka that the mob had succeeded in battering down the jail door, and had started with the five prisoners for the scene of the crime. From a telephone conversation with Wetumpka it was developed that, seeing they were overpowered, the jail guards made a sort of compromise with the mob, and delivered the prisoners, on condition that, before any harm was done them, a committee of ten of the vigilantes should investigate the matter of the men's guilt, and, in case the evidence was not absolute proof, should return them to the jail. The military reached Wetumpka about 9:30, but the mob had made away with the prisoners long before that hour. Jackson and Speier confessed and told where they buried $1200 of the money.

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