New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-07-11
MURDER AT PASS CHRISTIAN.
A Delegate to the Convention As.assinated,
The Murderer not Arrested.
CAPTAIN b. II. ORR THE VICTIM.

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the name of Benjamin H. Orr, OF Harrison
county, Mississippi, a prominent Repub.
hcan, and a member of the late Constitu-
tional Convention in that State. He has
been an object of the especial hate of the
rebelDemocratic Conservative politicians of
that section, and their threats eliminated
Thursday in bloody tragedy.
P. X. Mayors, a conscript officer in the
Confederate service, who has won the repu.
taton of being one of the vilest of the vile
editors of the rebel press, publishes the
Handsboro Democrat in Harrison county,
and has been constant and unremitting in
his abuse of Mr.. Orr and other Republicans.
His paper of the fourth instant contained
articles of the usual abusive character,
from which we make these extracts:
The scalawags have received severe
blow at this election. With all their fraud
and corruption we have beat them by a
handsome majority; but scalawag Orr says
he intends to contest the election, on the
ground that freedmen were inundated by
the Democrats, and kept from voting at
HandsborO. Now, he knows that he LIES
when he assert that. No one was threaten
ed or prevented from voting the ticket of
IL
scoundrel came down to Handsboro on the
day of election for the purpose of carrying
the election of his ticket by force; but when
he arrived he found the Handsboro boys
would not yield an inch, so he sneaked Off
and now reports that the election, which
was conducted by Messrs. Lopez, Childs
and Phillips, was not managed honestly and
fairly.
This is from another article
Mr.. Elias Lopez, one eff the Board of
Registrars for this county, called OF US
Thursday evening last and informed US that,
had il not been for his disapprobation of the
plan of procedure, the votes for the entire
county would have been counted out secret
ly. No one but scalawag Orr and one other
person would have been admitted in the
room while the counting was going on. This
was a bold scheme to swindle, suggested by
Orr and agreed to by DR.. Caleb Lindsay and
W. S. Weeks. The plan was a grand affair,
and was to have been carried out on Wed.
nesday; but Mr.. Lopez protested against so
fragrant violation of orders, and stated to
them that if they did pursue the course as
indicated he would expose the whole
scheme at military headquarters. The
threat broke up the conspiracy.
Our county was watched closely but
there were some uspicious.looking flag
tickets, stuck together, in. the Pass Chris
tian box. We will not say they were stuffed
in after the polls were closed, but 1t might
have been done.
On Thursday, Mayors was at Pass Chris
tian, and Mr.. Orr was standing or leaning
against the fence in front of his own house
when Mayors came along. Captain Orr
quietly asked him why he denounced him
ia his paper as liar, a scoundrel, and
thief
To this Mayors made no reply, but with a
double-barreled shotgun, which he carried
at the time, deliberately shot him through
the heart. Mr.. Orr almost Immediately fell
dead. The aim was cool, calm, deliberate,
and the assassin murdered his victim while
standing within ten feet of him.
A son of Mr.. Orr, Henry Orr, about TWEEN
ty.three years old, was standing near his
father when he was shot by Mayors, and the
latter, after he had killed the father, pointed
the shotgun at the son, and pulled the trig-
ger with the intention of killing him also,
but the gun snapped, and fortunately the
life of the son was spared.
Henry Orr Immediately drew his revolver
and discharged il at Mayors, wounding him
slightly in the arm. Mayors then started
on a run, and Henry Orr pursued him
about fifty yards, when Mayors got re
velver from Thomas Bond, with which he
endeavored to shoot young Orr. The two
parties exchanged several shots, but none of
them took effect.
Mayors was at length taken to the resi-
dence of a surgeon, who extracted the ball
from his arm. The Justice of the Peace
John Brill, instead of taking any measures
for the arrest of the murderer, went to the
wharf on the arrival of the steamer Laura
and asked the captain to wait there until
Mayors could be put on board to go to Mis-
sissippi City on his way to Handsboro. The
steamer was detained ten or fifteen minutes,
when Mayors was escorted on board and
went on his way-an unmolested, unre-
strained, and UNPUBLISHED murderer.
An inquest was ordered by Justice Brill,
who examined a few witnesses, but |
refused to hear the testimony of others. |
No result was reached by him, and nothing |
done 10 fix the crime of murder upon
Mayors.
We are informed by young Mr.. Orr that |
several citizens were standing by at the |
time his father questioned Mayors, whose
will corroborate the statements
made as to the origin of this terrible |
tragedy. Mr.. Orr had on his person a small |
revolver or pocket pistol which he had |
carried several weeks to defend himself |
from the Ku.Klux, who had threatened him. |
After hewss shot By Mayors he put his hand
INTO his pocket to try to draw the revolver,
but his life terminated too soon to allow
him to use it. Dds rs
Mr.. Orr was formerly resident of New
Orleans, was a member of the Louisiana
Convention of 1864, and was Deputy |
Street Commissioner during a portion of |
he military administration of General
Banks. He removed to Mississippi in 1865,
and was United States Commissioner in
Harrison county.
Captain Orr was in the hall of Represent
atives at Mechanics Institute on the memo.
rable thirtieth of July, 1866, when scores
Of Union men were slaughtered by the
rebels of this city, bnt escaped the fury of
the assassins on that occasion.
Captain Orr was formerly steamboat |
CAPTAIN, and the last boat he run on was
the P. F. Kimball, in the New Orleans and |
Bayou Sara trade. He was much esteemed !
as a good and intelligent citizen; quiet, IN
and unobtrusiye in his manners.
He leaves a wife, one son, and four
daughters to lament his sudden and untime-
y death at the hands of an assassin who is |
permitted by q mockery of justice and law |