The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-07-23

was looking up, the mob left.
On cross examination, Mr.. Stor
: said he didn't recognise any of tn
mob, that they were all masked.
Policeman Dan Henderson was mex
sworn. He said: / had been to NEE
the train and had come down to tn
Mansion House I'm the bus. j starte
house and met Sheriff Gilreath. III
told me mob was going TO the jai
and for me to go there with him. w
went, sometimes running and some
times walking fast. When we got t
Heldman's old stable, we saw tn
crowd. The sheriff said, "They ar
: there" The mob told us to halt, bu
i. we kept on and they toidus again I.
halt. They said they would shoot hel
out OF us IL we went further. l heart
the guns cock. We stood there abou
two minutes, when l heard one of tn,
mob say, Everything's easy. Goo
damn him, we've got him." The
crowd then marched oil across Broad
street from the Jail.
On cross examination: They KEEP
saying halt. Sheriff Gilreath said
Pm going down there" said
"Hold on. There's no sense in that.
He advanced a couple of steps. | TOLD
him to stop or they would shoot him
He said, They won't shoot me-"
said. "They don't know you in the
dark" BY this time the mob had
gotten nearly across Broad street
The sheriff and ] went to the jail and
met Story at the gate. He told lie
They had the prisoner before they
halted us. There was no one on
Broad street except the mob, Sheriff
Gilreath and myself. Before we got
to the jail, the sheriff said, They
have never gotten a prisoner from me
and hope we can save him." / didn't
recognize any one. We were abou
forty yards from the mob. IT was
about fifteen minutes of three. There
were at least ono hundred men on
Broad street, all armed. l believe
they would have shot ls il we had
gone on. They cooked their guns right
guns. They talked like they were
talking through masks. don't know
whether they were disguised
Policeman o. S. Gunnells was sworn
and said: Between two and three
o'clock Monday morning, | was ON
Finlay's corner with Officer McCarrell.
We saw a largo body of men going
down Brown street. | told McCarreli
to wake up the chief. | ran to the
sheritf's house for him. I woke him
up and told him q mob was going to-
wards the Jail. | then ran back to-
wards the chiefs. 1 waited for him,
but he didn't come, and | went down
Main street as fast rs could. / heard
the mob turning up Court street. |
advanced on them pretty fast. l got
within thirty i've yards OF them. Some
one in the crowd said, "Turn to the
right" They told me to halt and
faced towards me with guns In position
to shoot. The outer line presented on
me and paused as If marking time,
while the rest passed through in rear
of the Greenville News office Then
the line fell in behind the mob. came
back to Main street and met Sheriff
Gilreath and Officer Henderson. 1
didn't see any more Of the mob.
Sheriff Gilreath was sworn and said:
About half past two o'clock, ! was
awakened by Sergeant Gunnells. He
told me u mob was going towards the
jail. | told him TO go to the jail and
tell the jailor to hold till gov there.
dressed and started for the Jail as
soon rs possible. 1 met Officer Hen
derson and told him about it and asked
him to go with me. We goG to Held
mans old store and founl that the
mob had possession Of the jail. About
twenty-five or thirty guns were point
ed at us and we were ordered to halt
kept on but was stopped by Hender-
son. My purl ose was to get between
the mob and the jail, and with Story
and Henderson keep the mob off If
to walked over me to get to the prison
er. While 1 was parleying with Hen.
derson heard some say, "We've got
him." The crowd then moved off.
DR.. w. e. Wright was sworn, and
testified as follows: l examined the
dead body OF Ira johnson, assisted by
Doctors Pack and GOodlett. We found
a inch rope around his neck, and
that he was shot from the ankles to
the top of his head. The shot ranged
in size from bird shot to pistol shots of
38 calibre. All the shot seemed to
enter from the back. Fifteen or
twenty shots that seemed to be 32s or
38s went in the back, through the
Four or five went through the surface
of the skin. Any of these would have
caused death. His neck was not
broken. judge that there were
about five hundred shots in his body,
including the bird shot. His hands
were tied behind his back with q
homemade handkerchief.
DR.. Wright was the last witness. and
after his testimony the jury retired
and in few minutes returned with
this verdict: "We, the jury, find
that Ira johnson came to his death by
the use of q rope around his neck aud
gun and pistol shots fired from the
hands of unknown parties"
There were three negroes on tho
jury and one OF them asked good
many questions Of the witnesses
The body of the dead man was hor-
ribly mutilated, being literally per-
| forated with bullet holes Many of
| the trees around the scene of the
lynching where hit by the bullets, and
the tree to which johnson was tied
was Scared from the ground to q
height of seven feet. Many people
visited the spot during the day and
hence no signs of the lynchers could
be found.
About the first man to get to the
body was colored boy who works for
s. M. Snider. The body was tied to
the tree and 1t seems that no attempt
at hanging was made, but that the
negro was ut once shot to death. Mr.
Suider says he was awaken by the
shots about ten minutes after four
He thought 1t was probably figh,
between blockaders and constables and
he didn't get up. He hoard then
coming back, and got up and went II
tho tuinPnw He aaw aauaral vahicloe