Norfolk day book. [volume] (Norfolk and Portsmouth Va.) 1868-1880, 1869-08-25
TIL Outr age at Front Royal
Virginia. M grH

| virginia. .l'i.
Particulars of the Horrible Crime-Th,
Perpetrators Taken from Jail ane
| Lynched Horrible Outrage
Reported in Georgia-Ly nch Law il
q Kentucky. .. ID,
Information through the Alexandra
and Lynchburg (Va.l papers, states thai
the negroes who committed the outrage
On Miss Alice Thompson, at From
Royal, Va, on Monday last, were OIL
Thursday night taken from the Jail by
a crowd and hanged. The following is
a correct statement of the whole affair
On Monday last two colored men
calling themselves respectively Charles
Brown and Jacob Bergman, under ar
rest by and in charge Of William Scrog-
| gin, deputy sheriff Of Warren county, j.
T.. Jarman, and other citizens, were
brought into Front Royal accused of an
outrage upon tie person Of Miss
Thompson, daughter of Thomas j.
Thompson, living near Happy Creek
Station, on the Orange, Alexandria and
Manassas railroad, and such was the in
dignation of the crowd in attendance
upon court, upon learning that they
were charged with so heinous an ofense,
that it required the utmost exertions Of
the conservators of the peace and others
to prevent summary, justice being in
flicted upon them. ,l47rg5 Y A4a 5tf
On the succeeding day, Tuesday,
17thSiast.,) the prisoners were brought
before Justices Dent, Houser and Pain
ter, and had their preliminary exami-
nation, the Comm being repre-
scented by J. r, jackson and J. Y.
Menefee, and the prisoners by R. IL.
Turner and Moses Walton, when the
following facts were elected s@""
On Monday, the 18th inst, Miss
Alice Thompson, aged about fifteen
years, had been sent by her parents to
Front Royal to purchase coal oil, and
upon her leaving there for home, shortly
after getting beyond the limits Of that
town, she was espied by Brown and
Bergman, and pursued for more than a
mile to pointowhere she left the track
of the Orange, Alexandria and Manassas
railroad, and took path leading
through thick woods, when she was
caught from behind by Brown. who
choked and attempted to throw her on
the ground. Upon being warned that
there was assistance near he dessted
from bis purpose, but threatened to
shoot her if she did not 60 in the direc-
ton through the woods that he pointed
out, which she did; and had not gone
more than fifty or one hundred yards
when Bergman stepped from behind a
tree and endeavored to catch her, but
she ran for her life, and fortunately got
into the open field before the villains
could lay hands upon her. heh {ff
During the examination Miss Thopp-
son failed to identify Bergman as one
OF the party making the assault upon
her, yet the evidence of Jacob Kuser,
Chas. B. Rust, Prisley Marshall. JOHN
| r. Dove and others established beyond
| doubt that he was the companion of
Brown in this outrage upon Miss
Thompson, who, during this protracted
| examination, gained the confidence and
admiration of all who heard her testi-
mony by her frankness, modesty, and
lady-like bearing.
| The justices unanimously sent the
prisoners on for indictment and trial by
the Circuit Court of the county on the
| 25th instant. b,r 5sl-.. ,s0 esf s
The Warren (va.) Sentinel says: a'4
After the examination before the
magistrates was concluded, the young
lady confessed to her friends that the
crowd present had so confused and en-
barrassed her tina. she hardly knew what
Ishe had said, and that she had been
ashamed to tell fully what, had happen
led to her. To her intimate friends
however, she said that the arrested meI
were those who had attacked her; thai
she had first noticed them standing BY
the fence on the side of the road, about
half mile from Front Royal, and paio
no attention tothem, but that after pro
ceeding some distance further on sh'
3obssrved that they were coming behinC
her, and feeling little uneasy she has
tened her steps, but found t. her grea
alarm that they were gaining upon her
When she looked around again she OBJ
served that only one was in sight. Tn
other had circled around in the wood
and came out again in front Of her jus
as she approached deep cut in the rail
road, and Selling her by the hand drag
lged her into the woods, pointing a pisto
at her head and threatening her witt
instant death if she offered any resiS
lance. When in the woods be caugb
her by the throat and threw her to to-
ground. After that she recollects moth
ing, except that upon rising from TIL
ground and tottering towards the road
the same one who had thrown her dowI
again took hold finer and pushed he
toward the other, who was standing
near by, and though doing as he directet
her. she had strength enough to shriel
before he reached her, and that thai
shrek attracted the attention of mai
swho was at work in q field near by, a
1 whose approach her assailants fed. 10