The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1871-07-05
INDIANA KU-KLUX.
Attempt to Murder an Entire Family
House Fired WiM Petroleum and
ItDo Hen Shot aud q Woman Near
Ia Burned to Death

ItUo Men Shot and q Woman Near
y Burned to Death
The Louisville Commercial gives the
following account Of a Ku-Klux
outrage in Lawrence county, Indiana,
and with it a recital of similar crimes
that have recently taken place in the
Southern portion of that State:
In the county of Lawrence, two and
Il half miles north OF the little town OF
Orleans, Orange county, and near the
dividing line between the two coun-
ties, lived four brothers, all of them
single men, and well advanced in
years. " it'll them lived their widowed
sister, Mrs. Tolliver, and a farm hand
named Lee. Throughout the two
counties the family was well known as
one of Industrious farmers, the men
rather positive in their character and
probably a little bitter in their ami
mosities. They however livel in
peace with their Deighbors, and were
well respected. Some have thought
there existed in that neighborhood a
vendetti spirit, for there have been
hangings and much violence not many
miles away. But, however well or ill
founded this supposftioD may be, it is
certain that the Moody brothers had
enemies who had determined upon
their destruction at n fell swoop,
and in a name so barbarans and
so utterly cruel as to make the blood
run cold even in the recital. Z
Near, two o'clock on Sunday norm
ing the Moody residence was invaded
by everaldisguised 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 inflammable material, and
seven or eight torpedoes loaded with
lead, scrapsof old iron, nails and other
missils, were torcibly pitched. The
torpedoes exploded with a crash as
soon as they touched the floor. setting
the house on fire. The Moody broth
ers, their sister, and the hired man,
Lee, were awakened by the noise of
the exploding torpedoes and the smell
of fire, and in their bewilderment made
q rush for the doors The murderous
wretcbes who were thirsting for their
blood, had prepared themselves for
such an emergency, however, and as
the men struggled for the front doors
of the house the wretches commenced
a deliberate fire upon them from re-
volvers. Twenty or shots were
fred; but Thomas Moody, n OF the
brothers, and the hired man, Lee,
pressed resolutely toward the door
where the assassins were stationed,
while two other brothers rushed to
another door, to the rear of the house.
This thoroughly alarmed and discom-
fitted the Williams, and firing another
volley at the two approaching men,
they turned and fled at the top Of their
speed.
Their last volley wounded Thomas
Moody fatally, a ball striking him on
the upper part of the hip, passing into
and through the stomach, and out at
the lower part of the breast bone
At four o'clock he was reported dy-
ing. and had made his dying declara'
ton in relation to the attack upon his
home, aud of those he thought he re
cognized as his ASSISTANTS. Lee, the
hired man, received a ball in his thigh
causing 4 eve wound, and II in
his back, which it is believed will prove
fatal. Mrs. Tolliver, the sister, was
terribly burned by the FIRE in the house,
ignited by the bursting of the torpe-
does and the in1amable material
with which the floors and furniture
were saturated, and her injuries may
prove fatal. One of the brothers res
cued her, or she would have persisted
before the fire in the house was extin-
guished. Another brother escaped,
unobseryed, and fled from house to
house in the neighborhood, alarming
the people. -
The savage Williams who perpetrated
this diabolical crime succeeded in get
ting away before the arrival at the
scene of the tragedy of the excited
and thoroughly infatuated people -
The excitement among the citizens in
consequence of this terrible crime is
intense beyond description, and if the
assassins are arrested there is no doubt
that the State Of Indiana will have
another chapter of mob infamy added
to her criminal history. Ii is believed
the perpetrators of the crime will be
found and secured, as such revelations
have been made by the Moody broth
ers as leaves but little doubt as to their
identity. Parties r now securing
the country in search Of them, and we
will not be surprised if we are called
upon to morrow to record more hang
ing without law, and more of those
disgraceful and law-defying acts that
have of late years made several of the
counties of the Second Indiana district
famous for terrible tragedies.