The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-10
THE MEMPHIS LYNCHING.
Three Negroes Frightful1y Torn BY
Bullets-Friends Bent on Revenge.

MEMPHIS, Tenn, March 9.-The morn
ing light disclosed the dead bodies of three
negroes riddled with bullets and par
tally covered with brush, lying
in an open lot about q mile
and half from the heart
of the city. The negroes had been taken
from the Jail by seventy-five masked men
this morning and shot TO death. The
names of the men are Calvin Mcdowell,
William Stewart and Theodore Moss.
The crime for which this sum-
mary vengeance was wreaked upon them
was the ambushing and shooting down on
Saturday night last of four deputy sheriffs
in the locality of the territory known as
THE Curve" while the officers were look
ing for negro for whose arrest they
had warrant. About O'Clock
this morning seventy-five men. all wearing
masks, appeared suddenly on Front street.
near the jail. By ruse three men
obtained entrance to the Jail yard and
overpowered the Waterman. whom
they bound and gagged. The others
were then admitted and the search for
the negroes began, guard in the mean
time having been put over the Waterman.
There were twenty-seven negroes there,
day nights affair." and it was not an easy
task to distinguish the three negroes
wanted. They went from cell to cell and
thoroughly aroused the inmates, who,
coming to the cell doors, unwittingly
aided them in the search.
Alice Mitchell heard the noise, and from
her cell on the upper tier peered down on
the strange and silent crowd. Moss. the
IL, I
taken from his cell and bound. and soon
after Mcdowell and Stuart were found and
taken care of in the same way.
The captives being ready, they dragged,
pushed and hurried them out of the Jail.
In few minutes the suburbs of the city
were reached, and in an open field
near Wolf river the negroes met their
doom. A shot from revolver crashed
through the cheek of Moss. This was the
signal for the work. A terrible volley was
poured in upon the shivering negroes,
who instantly fell dead. The bodies
presented a horrible sight Mellow
ellis jaw was entirely shot away and
back OF his right ear was hole large
enough to admit a mans fist. His right
hand, too, was half blown off. Stuart
was shot in the mouth and twice in the
back of the head and his body was
riddled with buckshot. Moss had
an ear shot off and several bullet
holes in his forehead. The mob turned
about after it had completed its terrible
work, and, coming toward town, scattered
and disappeared. The bodies of the dead
negroes were brought to Washes
undertaking establishment this morn
ing. In less than fifteen minutes the
place was surrounded by about twenty
negroes, all afraid to talk. howe, er, on ac-
count of the proximity of the whites. An
inquest was held at 10 o'clock, and the
bodies were then sent to their homes at
1.-THE Curve" At 1915 word reached the
city that negroes were assembling in large
numbers at 1.-The Curve" Judge Dubose
Immediately equipped $50 men with Win
chesters and they have left the city for
that locality.
Fearing further depredations by the
mob tonight among the negroes confined
in the Jail, the sheriff placed heavily
armed guard around the institution.