Negress Hanged By a Mob In Louisiana

Title

Source Type

Newspaper

Publisher

The Courier-Journal

Publication Place

Louisville, Kentucky

Publication Date

07/27/1903

Transcript

Jennie Steer a negress accused of
poisoning Ussle Dolan a slxteen-year-old
white girl was hanged by a mob
near Shreveport La.

NEGRESS
Hanged By a Mob
Louisiana
In
HAD POISONED WHITE GIRL
DRAGGZ? FROM A HAY LOFT BY
HER PURSUERS
WAS STUBBORN TO THE USX
And Was Strung Up Without Making
Any Confession of Her Crime
ACCUSED OP i SECOND MURDER
Shreveport La July 21— News reach
ed Shreveport to-day that the negress
Jennie Steer who administered poison
In a glass of lemonade to Lizzie Dolan
the slxteen-year-old daughter of John
Dolan from the effects of which she
died was lynched by an infuriated mob
about Sundown last night The lynch
ing occurred on the Beard plantation
near the spot where the woman’s crime
was committed Jennie Steer was stub
born to the last denying her crime'
But the proof against her was direct
and conclusive and precluded the pos
sibility of her Innocence 1
It la claimed that the negress fled
from the Dolan household aa aoon as
h discovered 'that hey crime wee
known She wee pursued by a posse
who found her crouching In a hay loft
She refused to come out and had to be
dragged from the place
Asked why she bad poisoned Miss Do
lan the negress Indignantly denied the
commission of the crime She was
taken to the Dolan homestead and fully
Identified as the woman who had placed
the poison In the lemonade
Made Ho Confession
The nob then took her to a nearby
tree placed a rope around her neck
and again asked her to confess She
wa stubborn to the Mat however and
was strung up without making any
admissions While the body was dasi
gllnr In midair several -bullets were
fired Into It by the enraged dtlsens
The poisoning of Miss Dolan created
Intense excitement In the neighborhood
-if the crime The victim of poison was
a beautiful young girl who was not
kaownjfo have an enOmy In the world
She died In horrible agony a fa ut which
accentuated the rage of the mob The
funeral of Miss Dolan took place this
m-Vnlr g and It was attended by per
sons for'miles around
Suspected In Another Case
There is a growing suspicion that this
negresj was conn eat ed with the minder
of Mrs Frank Matthews whose hor
rible deuth startled the people -of tMe
section several months ego She woe a
negress hf forbidding aspect but a good
servant juid Mr Matthews kept her
against the protests of her son and
daughter
On (he morning of the murder she
was the first to notify the Inmates' of
the house of the commission of the
crime However suspicion waa not di
rected to her as It was believed at
the time that Mrs Matthews had been
assaulted and the crime wa placed at
the door of a men
Porter Matthews son of Mrs Mat
thews said to-day that subsequent de
velopments Inclined both his sister and
himself to the belief that his mother
waa murdered by a woman and that
robbery waa the motive for the crime
Thirty dollars Mrs Matthews had In
the house at the time was missing
after the murder and the condition of
Mrs Matthews’ body Indicated that
she had been struck by a woman as
the gashes were not deep' such ea a
man would have been able to make
Neither Mrs Matthews nor her daugh
ter were assaulted
The arrest of Jennie Steer for de
liberately poisoning a young girl In
clines the Matthews to the belief that
If she did not commit the Shreveport
crime she certainly knew something
about It It la a source of some regret
that the woman was not Interrogated
on this matter before her death The
chances are however she would have
refused to talk
Everything Quiet
Everything la quiet In the vicinity
of Bayon Lachutte to-day There Is
no apparent sympathy for the negroes
among the law-abiding blacks of that
section Aa far as Is known this was
the first negress ever lynched In this
part of the State

Sources for

Jennie Steer