The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-30

the country for parts unknown, and was
not present at the trial Of Weldon Cor
don. Weldon was convicted on the testi-
mony of Meals wife.
LUCIEN MANUEL's CAREER.
Lucien Manuel one of the trio, who mur-
dered Alex Peterson, express agent and
merchant at Alley and highly respected
citizen of Montgomery county, was
twenty-three years Of age and descended
from a line of free issue Of mulattoes. He
was OF medium size and a bright mulatto
He was a native of Wayne county, North
Carolina and had pious and respectable
parents. He said he had never committed
a crime until he was induced by his COM
panion to rob Mr. Peterson.
Hyre Brewington, another one of the
! trio who murdered Alex Peterson, was Of
medium size and a bright mulatto He
was a native of Mt Olive, N. c. IL was
he who originated the plot to commit the
robbery, and induced the other two to
join him in his nefarious work He wrote
sketch of his life while he was in prison,
which was full of crime from beginning
TO end. In his biography, among other
things he states that he came TO Georgia
to escape the gallows in North Carolina.
lie was l9 years of age and had a
bloody record for one so young
THE OLDEST OF THE PARTY.
Hiram Jacobs was the Oldest of the
Peterson murderers, being "A
years of age. He was a br light mulatto
and above the medium in size He was
native of Sampson county, North Carolina
and lived wandering life since bis boy
hood. In biography which he wrote while
in prison he states that at the age of l3 he
attempted 10 shoot a man in his native
county but was prevented from doing so.
lie was the last Of the trio to agree to the
diabolical conspiracy to rob the express
Office and the first to tell it after the rob
berry had been attempted and the murder
perpetrated. His conscience pricked him
TO such an extent that he was compelled
speak Of it TO a friend at Lyons, which
furnished clew that resulted in the ar
rest of all three of the conspirators..
THE KILLING OF PETERSON.
1t was on Thursday night of July Goth,
that the quiet little village of Alley was
thrown into fever of excitement by the
rapid succession of six pistol shots ring
ing out. Il was o'clock and most of the
villagers had retired for the night. Only
one place of business remained open and
that was the express office and storehouse
Of Alex. Peterson. He was detained
waiting to meet the train AS he was
leaving the house the three cowardly as
sassins attacked him and demanded his
money; he refused and they shot him six
times as he was trying to escape and left
him lin p and helpless on the ground. His
cries for help and the pistol shots attrac-
ted a crowd and it was soon learned that
he was mortally wounded. The assassins
made their escape without obtaining the
money for which they had committed the
deed. Armed men secured the country
for two or three days without a clew in
search of the murderers. Finally it
1t was learned that Hiram
Jacobs had visited a barber shop
at Lyons and made some declaration
which created a suspicion that he knew
something of the murder He made his
escape into Bulloch county, but was ar
rested there and brought back to Alley,
where he confessed the crime and impii-
Gated Lucien Manuel and Hyre Brewing
ton. They were arrested and in turn
confessed. After all had confessed it was
with the greatest difficulty that lynch
ing was averted. BY strenuous effort
on the part of some of our best citizens
the crowd was induced to allow them
legal trial A special term of the court
was called for that purpose-they were
tried, convicted, and sentenced to be
hanged to-day.