The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1891-09-08
AN AW'SCAREER.
THE TERROR OF FLORIDA KILLED
AFTER COMMITTING MANY
OUTRAGES.
GREAT REJOICING THROUGH THE
sTATE.--THE STORES CLOSED
AND BARBEcUEs AND
com PIzENp FREE
10 ALL.

tcEttlNt W Ah " VALb.f
JACKSONVILLE, FLA, September 8.
The shooting of '.the worst man in
Florida continues TO be the cause Of
general rejoicing throughout the state.
Harmon Murray, the desperate who
was killed, has long been the terror Of
the great interior says special cor
respondent
"It is, indeed, good news to hear
that the man has been shot. You will
appreciate the Importance Of i when
| tell you that for months lie has ter
rorized both the people and the officials
to such an extent that it seriously I'M
terfered with the crops. In some
places tile farmers would not work III
the field without putting some one on
guard. His depredations had become
so serious that only last week a special
meeting Of the County Commissioners
was held, and $1,000 was added to the
reward already offered BY the Mayor
Of Gainesville
MI. Twoncy said that until 4 few
years ago Murray was an ordinary
.smulatto negro, a big, strapping farm
hand, who seemed inoffensive enough
until he fell in with 4 gang Of black
roughs headed BY white man, an
Englishman, known as James Kelly.
Murray soon developed intoa first-class
bandit He was worse than any Of
the gang. They ravaged the country
around Gainesville, and as many Of
the rich farms are more or less soclud-
ed among the swamps Of the interior,
the gang, who Travelled from point To
point by night, had things all their
own way for time.
But bad luck came last spring, when
| Murray killed Merchant Mcpherson,
who owned store and ran q farm.
Murray had attempted to rob his store
last year, for which be was imprisoned
after narrowly escaping McPherson's
bullets. He got out. and in revenge
the gang tried to rob the same store.
This was in March Failing to break
the door, they fred the barn. This
brought Mcpherson flying from the
store, where he was sleeping, and
Murray shot him dead.
The county was wild with excite-
ment. A posse wis raised, and on the
following night Kelly and one Of his
negro followers were captured in
a swamp, the other in railroad depot
near Gainesville. They were lynched
before the moon went down. Murray
again escaped, and was more diaboli-
cal than ever. He called rich farmers
out of bed at midnight, fastened them
Ito trees with log chains. and shot at
them until they revealed whore their
money was hidden.
| Notwithstanding half the people in
the country armed themselves and
went searching for the desperate. He
hid in the swamps by day and kept
fright ON with his atrocities by night.
His favorite plan waste force innocent
young negroes to go with him in add
vance and do the shootings leaving
him to plumber and torture.
Within few weeks after the lynch
ling of his assistant cutthroat, Kelly,
Murray went on a tour and killed a
deputy sheriff at Fernandina, and
few days later killed two men at
Starke, Fla. Then he returned and
settled down to cold business in the
swamps of Alachua county, Of which
Gainesville is the county seat. SO
frequent were the outrages Of the
gang, and so dangerous was it for
men to work out of doors any distance
from their homes, that fields were
neglected and crops left without culti-
walton.
| Murray had great success in terrify-
ing the negroes Of the section to such
an extent that he forced them to feed
him and his gang aud assist in mis-
leading the officers ON their trail
Last week another exciting episode
occurred down there. Andy Ford,
Murray's principal confederate 10 vii
lany, wascaught and speedily lynched,