Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-07-07
KU.KLUX IN INDIANA.
Full Particulars of the Outrages i'm
Lawrence County.
From the Louisville Commercial.l

From the Louisville Commercially
In the county of Lawrence, two and a
half miles north of the little town of
Orleans, Orange county, and near the
dividing line between the two counties,
lived four brothers, all of them single
men, and well advanced in years. With
them lived their widowed sister, Mrs.
Toliver, and farmland named Lee.
Throughout the two counties the family
was well known &c sc 511o Of industrious
farmers-the men rather positive in
their character, and probably a little
bitter in their animosities. They, how
ever, lived in peace with their neighbors,
and were well respected. Some have
thought that there existed in that neigh
borhood vendetta spirit, for there have
been hangings and much violence not
many miles away. But however well or
ill-founded this supposition may be, it is
certain that the Moody brothers had
enemies who had determined upon their
destruction at one fell swoop, and in
manner so barbarous and utterly cruel
as to make the blood run cold even in
its recital.
Near two o'clock on Sunday morning
the Moody residence was invaded by
several disguised men, the doors and
windows being forced open, and into the
rooms of the house several earthen Jugs
filled with petroleum were thrown, while
several bottles of the same, or an
equally infammable material, and seven
or eight torpedoes loaded with lead,
scraps of old iron, nails and other mis-
sles, were also forcibly pitched The
torpedoes exploded with a crash as soon
as they touched the floor, setting the
house on fire. The Moody brothers,
their sister, and the hired man Lee,
were awakened by the noise of the ex-
ploding torpedoes and the smell of fire,
and in their bewilderment made rush
for the doors. The murderous wretches
who were thirsting for their blood had
themselves for such an emer-
gency, however, and as the men strug-
gled fog the front doors of the house,
the wretches commenced a deliberate |
fire upon them from revolvers. Twenty |
or more shots were fired; but Thos. |
Moody, one of the brothers, and the |
hired man Lee, pressed resolutely to-
ward the door where the assassins were
stationed, while the two other brothers
rushed to another door to the rear of the
house. This thoroughly alarmed and
1iscomfted the villains, and firing an
other volley at the two approaching
men they turned and fed at the top of
heir speed.
Their last volley wounded Thomas
Moody fatally, ball striking him on the
upper part of the hip, passing into and
through the stomach and out at the
over point of the breast bone. At 4
clock yesterday afternoon he was re-
ported dying, and had made his dying
declaration in relation to the attack
lpon his home, and those he thought he
recognized as his assailants. Lee, the
lired man, received a ball in his thigh,
ausing a severe wound, and one in his
'aek, which, it is believed, will prove fa- /
al. Mrs. Tolliver, the sister, was ter
IDLY burned by the fire in the house,
gnited by the bursting torpedoes and
he inhammable material with which
he floors and furniture were saturated, !
nd her injuries may prove fatal. One T
+ the brothers rescued her, or she would I
ave perished before the fire in the :
ouse was extinguished. Another
rother escaped unobserved, and fed a
,om house to house in the neighborhood
farming the people. +
The savage villains who perpetrated I
his crime succeeded in getting away !
efore the arrival at the scene of the in a
lriated people. The excitement among
le citizens in consequence OF this ter
BILE crime is intense beyond descrip-
on, and if the assassins are arrested
lere is no doubt that the State of In =
ANA will have another chapter of mob
fanny added to her criminal records.