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Title
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FROM A TREE BY THE ROADSIDE Were Hanged Mollie Smith and Mandy Franks by an Un-known Mob. Were Confessed Poisoners
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Source Type
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Newspapers
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Publisher
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The Tennessean
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Publication Place
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Nashville, Tennessee
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Publication Date
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5/13/1897
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Transcript
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FROM A TREE BY THE ROADSIDE Were Hanged Mollie Smith and Mandy Franks by an Un-known Mob. Were Confessed Poisoners Told How They Had Poisoned the Kelly Family Three Times, Giving All the Details Others Believed to Be Implicated. HUNTSVILLE, Ala., May 12. (Special.). -$i)e mystery of the Kelly poisoning that has bothered the people of Jeff. Ala..?' a LiffiTall town near here, for the past two months, has been solved and two of ihe rgilflty. parties have been lynched. Their Uodies werefovin'di-swinging to a 'tree on Iffy roadside,;' "frs '"morning. They were Sromen, Mqllie'Bnrith and Mandy Pranks; ,'h'ptW servants inthe Kelly household. jTne lynching was done by a mob of about ytjrfpnty mefl.efl3Ei this morning, and so Quietly was the work accomplished that the resmeott.'-otJ the neighborhood ltnew 'lathing of the affair until daylight. The.flratpdisoni'rig ofthe Kelly family rftjtfurred tvp months ago, and . at "first was thought' to 'have been accidental. "Joshua 0.;K-elly -died in intense agony, and a.,j)arty of neighbors sitting up with his fjrnains on the following nlfeht were taken .violently 111. The poisoning was then 'tftken to be the,work of conspirators, and in-a iulet-vray tpe young men of the house Set ''about to Srilve- tho mviifprlntio ' ni-lmo 1ih Friday moving another wholesale) poisoning occurred and since then a lynch-iog: bee has been confidently expected. .."'From the( nrBt suspicion has been, attached to tro negro women, who acted as hfiUBe' servants. These women were placed ..ujfeiof a close watch. Last night Mollie Smith was captured making her way to Tennessee. She wore a pair of men's boots "aftd" was taking herself from the neigh-, borhood for good and all. The men who captured her took her to the home of her paijner. in crime, Mandy Pranks. Together, the two women were taken a short distance' "down.- :iHe road to a stretch-of woods and informed that if they had any thing to say thoy, had. better say it. Mandy i-'ranKs made a run confession of the crime and paid that. she had been persuaded to .lo:-ifc' She- said that Mollie White had Tiofsoned the fainflv for tho first twn timR .but tfi&t she (the confessorV committed tho deed-i-last-week-by placing rat poison in tn'e flour from which biscuits for breakfast had been made. She did it at the direction of Mollie White, who had been removed from tho kitchen on account of the suspicion attached to Her. Every detail of tho crime was explained. Mandy said that the poisoning last week had been carefully .planped. She Syas employed in' the house- "hold-as kitchen inaid. She threw the poison in .the flour while carrying it from . the,; lock-room, to the kitchen. Mollie Smith refused to talk; A large: rail was placed between two .trees;,' ropes fastened to" the uecks of the women and they were quickly drawn up. ;Their bodies hung for several hours In Hue 'rain ad' wlhoVand were discovered" thfs mofhfng by a colored mail rider. The mem- -bers of the mob which did the work are unknown. The story of the scenes at the hangthg are public property. . Sheriff Fulghani' and a number of deputies' have repaired to the scene to make investigation. Further lynchings may follow, as it is, understood that tho two women were hot alone in their guilt. The real instigator of the crime is thought to be a man. If his Identity Is ascertained he also will be lynched.
