The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1883-06-28
NECK AND NECK
Two More ElkmOnt Axe
Fiends Race UP
a Rope.
Kyle Walker and Harry Reed Come
Under the String in a
Dead Pull.
CONFESSED THE CRIME

Harry Reed and Kyle Walker
both negroes were lynched at Elk
mont last Thursday night for the
murder of young Trice 1t will bt
remembered that the axe which was
used in the murder was proven to
be the property of Harry Reed who
lived near by. He was arrested and
at once acknowledged the owner
ship, and his STRAIGHTFORWARD tale and
shrewdness threw the people off the
scent and resulted in his discharge
at the time that Wesley Warren
was found guilty and hanged. II
was known from the tracks that at
least four men were engaged in the
murder. On Thursday, all other
means failing to obtain a clue, a
party of men went to Wesley War
ren's house the one already hung)
and took his little boy out, aged
about fourteen. They told him
that they had no evidence against
him and didn't want ahy, but they
were going to exterminate the whole
family for the crime of the
father. The boy plead but his cap
tors assumed to be heartless and
needed not his protestations of limo
ceuce; and then he offered to tell all
he knew, but they told him they knew
enough and did not want to hear
more; and thus they convinced him
he was doomed and wrought him
up to the point where they knew he
would tell all he knew, and then
consented to,listen. He said he was
awakened by his father coming
in before day and after he had
gone to bed he heard him tell
his wife all the details of the muir
der. He and Kyle Walker and
Harry Reed agreed to murder j.
N. Neill for his money. They
were to go to the store, burst in the
door suddenly, rush in and muir
der the men before they were
aroused, get the money, rob
the store and leave. When they
got to the store they found the door
open and it frustrated their plan.
They did not know what was up
and they sent one man in barefoot
ed to survey the grounds. He re-
turned directly and told them there
was only one man and he was
asleep. They then entered, armed
with two axes, and stealthily
approaching the bed, one of them
dealt the unconscious boy a blow
behind the ear with the blunt part
of the axe that must have killed
him instantly, and as he writhed in
death agony the sharp edge of
axe was brought down by the stall
wart arm of a demon and went
though his face, crush
ing and cutting the bones almost
through the back ofhis head. They
then pillaged the store, carrying the
booty off and burying it, and each
to his home. The boy
odd where the goods were first Sc
creted, and then the murderers be-
coming alarmed, it was taken up
and thrown into the river He al
so told that the goods taken in a
previous robbery were under Harry
Reeds house.
The boy was retained and the
party then went and took his moth
er, treating her pretty much in the
same fashion until she told the
same tale. Then the two negroes,
Kyle Walker and Harry Reed, were
arrested, and confronted by the
new-found evidence and the dis
covery of the goods, they confessed
it all in detail, even telling how
and Reed quarreled over
who had the horrible honor of strik
ing the fatal blow.
Nothing remained to be done but
hang the inhumaD wretches, which
was quietly and we'll done at once
without further delay. Harry
Reed in his last moments gave the
name of another negro who was
present and he was arrested, but
there was no other evidence out
side of Reeds confession and the
citizens declined to demand his life
without further proof.
There has been no effort, as far
as we know, to ascertain who the
lynchers were. 1t is recognized ev-
cry where that these fiends deserved
NO mercy nor delay and that the
menance to order and law in that
community justified the terrible re-
buke that will surely deter others,
if such there be. All good citizens
deplore the necessity of such re-
sort, but there is not one to say
this was not a just vengeance
righteously taken. We have heard
of two or three negroes, claiming to
be detectives, who started to ferret
out the lynchers, but their friends
warned them of. Those people
are under the influence of terrible
indignation and they are as firm in
their conviction that they have
acted right as they are to follow up
this matter until all who participa-
ted or modest them in their ven
geance shall pay the penalty.