The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-13
MYSTERIOUS MOB ATA JAIL.
SyIVania Uncertain Whether it Was
Bent on LynChilg or Rescue.

Tom Hendricks, the Notorious Negro
Desperate, the Man the Mob was
After-several Shots Fired Into His
Cell and His Hand Pierced by One
of the Bullets-The Chain Around
His Ankle Broken-The Cause of the
Mob's Retreat Unknown.
Sylvania, Ga, Oct 12.-An attempt
was made last night to murder or liberate
Tom Hendricks, a negro desperate who
is in jail at Sylvania.
About midnight a mob of men broke
into the Jail and after this a number Of
shots are said to have been fired with
Winchester rifles and pistols. The noise
was heard by a gentleman living near by
who went to his door and saw several
squads of the mob about the Jail.
Nothing further was revealed until this
morning at daylight, when the jailer was
notified and proceeded at once to make an
investigation Hendricks was found in
his cell still alive, but shot through the
hand and with his ankle badly hurt. This
is what Hendricks tells of the affair
About eight men opened the front door of
the Jail and came down the aisle to his cell
He was chained by the leg to one of the bars
of the door, and catching the chain in
their hands, the mob attempted to pull
him to them, but he resisted with all his
strength, and the chain was sprung and
came loose from his ankle. He then
crouched into a corner of the cell, and
after Intellectual attempts to break down
the door, they began firing through the
bars
THE WALLS R1DDLED WITH BULLETS.
The walls are riddled with Winchester
bullets, but Hendricks escaped with only
a wound in the hand. 1t was not possible
TO hit the negro through the bars of the
door while he was in the corner After
they had been there about fifteen minutes
the mob became alarmed and left, think
ing. probably, that he was dead. A hang
mans rope was found in the Jail, which
Hendricks neckiwas no doubt intended to
grace. That is one view of the affair. On
the other hand there are those who think
the mob consisted of a crowd of Ken
bricks friends, who went there for the
purpose of liberating him and were fOiled,
the shot being fired merely as a bluff and
that Hendricks was shot in the hand &C
cidentlly.
There are four other negroes in the Jail
in another cell, but as yet they are not
very communicative about the mob.
An attempt was made to open the door
to the corridor of the cells, but it failed.
If this had been successful, and the mob's
intent was murder they could easily have
killed him firm the opposite door
of the cell, but failing in this they had to
shoot through the bars of the two doors
about four feet apart and could not so
easily strike him. If il was mob of de-
termined white men they must either
have thought he was killed or else they
became ALARMED at something and left
before they had accomplished their pur-
pose.
If it was a crowd of negroes to liberate
him, they went at it in a bungling way,
and failed from lack of sense.
HENDRICKS CAREER.
Hendricks career is familiar to all in
this section of country. How he shot the
marshal of Millen, his escape from the
Jail at this place, his daring sally from
the burning house in Emanuel county,
where he was surrounded by a
posse, at which time he
shot one of his besiegers and again got
away and then his capture sevel al weeks
ago in Waynesboro, where he was hit in
the head with coupling pin, have al
ready been told. He is powerful negro
physically, and very shrewd. His
name in the counties around here
represents all that is desperate and dar-
ing, and the governor has just paid a re-
ward for his recent capture.
The true intent of the mob that visited
him last night will, no doubt, come out
sooner or later.