The Washington bee. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1884-1922, 1894-09-15

Special to the BEE.
Shelby Co., Tenn.
Sept. 5, 1894.
Mr.. Editor:
This whole community
city, county and state, was thrown into
the saddest gloom OH Friday by the
enactment of one of the most bloody
and brutal seXtuple murders recorded
in the history of this state. Look upon
this spectacle: Six Afro-A merican cltl-
zens, resident cf the Kerrville Shelby
county, this state it appears were appre-
hended upon warrants, sworn out by
one Justice of the peace w. IL. Hughy,
and by one J. Ii. LaXton, merchant OF
Kerryille and the warrants were placed
in the hands of w L Richardson, a
local Vidocq, minus his reputation for
success.
The lynched parties were named War
ner Williams. John Hays, Graha m
White, Daniel Hawkins, Robert
Haynes and Edward Hall,
All of the above named were brutally
shot to death while manacled III wag-
on, driven by A. l.. Atkinson, white,
the aforesaid W. S. Ric hardson was
leading the van on foot. The details
of the affair mp to this juncture, are too
revolving and inhuman to narrate; the
published reports in our daily papers,
notably the ''Commercial-Appeal'
caused tears unbidden from my eyes
to well and drop. Saturday morning
our recently elected Democratic Crlml-
nal Court Judge, l.. Z. Cooper, having
learned of the action of the mob OF the
preceding night, sent for and question
ed closely the sleuth detective Richard
son as to what had tr3nSpired and not
being satisfied with his answers, is5u-
ed bench warrants for Richardson and
Atkinson, as accessories to the SeXtu-
pa. slaughter. j. w. Palmer, an attOr-
ney, had interested himself in behalf OF
the SIX barn-burnerS, and asked Rich
ardson to take his prisoners before a
magistrate at Kerrville or to carry
them 10y train to Memphis. Now here
wherein comes Richardson's capablllty
He refused the first and by his negll
gence let go by the train, when de-
mand from the same source that he re-
main over till morning or carry along
with him guard of citizens, was met
10y an absolute refusal from Richard
son. Among the shady things about
the affair which influenced the Judges
action were that Atkinson, the driver
of the wagon was known to be pros
porous working man should have vol
unteered to drive Richardson and his
prisoners to Memphis for the miserable
plttance the officer could have paid
him and the hitherto bad character OF
the officer who had been ''fred' from
the local police force, and his having
been accused and tried, but acquitted
Oh a charge of eXtortion.
Judge Cooper then quits the city, and
goes to Nashville to confer with Gov
ernor Iunney relative to offering $1,000
for the arrest and conviction Of the
gang Of hoodlerS who had made six |
widows and twenty-four fatherleSS /
children and placed the whole village
III terror. Six white men are in, Jail !
without bail to answer the charge of |
and the grand jury is still in
session investigating the lynchlng OF
the SIX Afro-AmericanS.
BE it said to the credit Of our Gov
ernOr, that he has positively declared
III his intentions to put stop at once
to the lynching of helpless criminals in !
the hands of the law and compel the /
observance of his declarations in re- /
5pect to the lynching of Door accused |
in future and he heartily ap- /
proves of The action of Judge Cooper |
in proceeding TO commit to Jail with !
out bail all the participants in this hor- !
rible and shocking affair. Now word |
th the editors of the local press, all |
democrats to the contrary. The Sci ]
nator ard Commercial-AppeaP', there |
are no two papers in this country that |
could do more to satisfy the feeling of |
fear and interest that pervades the ]
Afro American population than they !
have.
Our Governor, Judge, Sheriff and
papers are doing their utmost to APP
pease outraged justice. | say for the
numerous inhabitants of my race we'll
done gentlemen this is your duty, do it !
Respectfully, =.
L. Murrav Browne. /