The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1881-07-21
An Awful Vengeance.

-1fLFVCI. fIf DH't : LiHA IL ~
Heard county, near AiUaula. occurred
one Of the most horrible Instances OF
popular Indignation. Jesse aldrop
was burned To ashes.
Three mouths ago. IN Randolph coun-
A.laba IA, Dr.. John Mitchell, a pro- nj
neut Young physician. married Jdrrle
Knight. famed FIR her beauty an az
compllshments. GA the 29,h u June.
in the Joy Of their honeymoon. Dr.
Mitchell was walking up the roai uear
his home when he beheld what almost
paralyzed him with horror. His lovely
wife Law before him "a CHASTITY corpse.
Her throat was cut trrm ear 10 eif, anu
her body was torn with the fearful
clutches OF her murderer 1t wa> dis
covereiithatishe had beef violated and
murdered. The neighborhood was At
once afame with excitement. and search
for the guilty wretch was begun. Jesse
Waldrop had not long been IN the u
". but theIe had followed him rumors
OF his bao character. He was seen on
the road near where the corpse was
found on the day of the murder, In
the death struggle the murderer had
bitten his victim severely on the cheek
and left signs that one of hi, front
teeth was out. Waldrop had this pc
culiarity. With these evidences ,earch
for him was begun at once, and II was
found that he had fed. Trained blood
hounds were obtained, and from the
scene of the murder they tracked INN
several miles into Georgia. Here the
pursuing party heard that Waldrop had
passed. Gradually tracing him, they
arrived at Newman, thirty miles irOm
Atlanta, where a terryman described a
man who had crossed the night before,
and the pursners knew that Wa!drop
could rot be far away. At midnight Oh
the Sd the party reached a house where
they learned a man calling himself Ow-
en- had stopped. They demanded to be
shown to his room, and, rapping on It,
Waldrop came out. He was seized, and
after a desperate resistance bound He
denied all knowledge of the crime, and
was taken to jail, though the fury OF
of the crowd demanded his instant
death
Next day circumstances were collect
ed SO strongly and presented to him
that, trembling with fear. he confessed
all, and, after detailing his damning
story, told of a life Of crime which few
police annal, can equal. He confessed
to having five living wives. When he
confessed, passion rose so high that he
was about to be swung, when some one
suggested that he ought to die on the
scene of his crime, and that hanging
was too good for him. Accordingly he
was left in Jail until night before last,
when fifty men, armed but not dis
guised, went there and demanded him.
The jailer gave him up, and the pro.
c~ession started. All along the route
people came out to look at the prisoner
and demand that he should die. Sew
eral times the excitement grew S great
that il seemed it would wreak ven
geance on the wretch at once, but riding
by his side were relatives OF the muir
dered Woman. who guarded him and
declared they had reserved him for a
fate.
Late yesterday afternoon the scene of
the murder was reached. Nothing was
done rashly; preparations for the exc
cution were made with CHASTITY coolness.
Waldrop was firmly tied and bound with
wire to IA stake driven on the spot
where his victim was found, when for
the first time his logged courage failed
He pleaded %piteously, not for life, but
to be allowed to die by the gailows
or bullet: but he cried to men Of stone,
and a. midnight one of the relatives of
unfortunate applied the
torch to the pine which. saturated with
oil, had been piled around him. His
screams IA out on the quiet country
Iii, and the flames lit up the scene with
.urid glare. The death struggles were
horld, but not a man stirred Stand
.ug in a circle around the human sacr.-
ice, they looked with stoiid indifft renee
At the horrid expiation of his crime.
From first to last the officers made no
effort to save the prisoner for a legal
loom. If they had it would have been
futile, for popular passion was frenzied.
Waldrop was % years old, and a man Of
aGlrasr - It, rf E'