Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-10-16
Awful Treatment Of a Negro by a
Mob.
EARS AND FINGERS Cut OFF
He Was Otherwise Badly Mu-
tiIated.
HAD CONFESSED HIS CRIME

MEMPHIS, Tenn, October 16.-Jeffer-
son Ellis was hanged to a telegraph
pole at lao this morning by $50 men,
within two hundred yards of the scene Of
his crime. Before hanging the negro the
mob cut on both his ears and all of his
fingers and mutilated him in a horrible
manner.
The mob. with their prisoner cached
the home of his victim, Miss Prater soon
after midnight. The young woman iden-
tilted him as her assailant AS soon as
this was done, armed squad Of men
took Ellis from Constable Farrow and
started with him for the pike, where the
public road crosses the Louisville and
Nashville. A big fire had been built at the
place, and around it the mob gathered in
a circle.
The leaders of the mob told Ellis to
pray, but he only looked at them in a stu
pid manner. Being told that he was about
to die. he raised his voice in negro hymn.
By the time he finished the fiercer element
were in complete control of the mob. Cries
of Burn him. We're heard on all sides.
Even this fearful fate would probably
have been mercy to the negro, as subse-
Quent events proved.
The Torture.
Amid the shouts of the mob, a man
jumped to the negro's side with a drawn
Knife in his hand.
"Cut of his ears they cried.
Give me a finger shouted one man.
Il want a thumb" cried another.
The better element in the crowd drew on
at this time, and said they were not in
favor of doing anything but hanging the
negro. Their protests were not noticed.
Being urged on by the fiercest in the
crowd, the man with the knife cut off the
negro's right ear, and held up the bleed
ing trophy in full view Of the crowd.
The negro screamed but his other ear
was cut of g few moments later. The mob
became madder at the sight of this work,
and those who were mutflatfng the negro
found ample announcement: They next
cut off all his fingers, and, tearing away
part of his clothing, they mutilatcd him
in horrible manenr.
The negro was covered with blood and his
head looked as if it had been scalped. The
mob was not even then willing to end the
negro's agony. They made him stand up
SO all the crowd could see him. Finally,
fully thirty-fve minutes after the torture OF
the negro began. the rope was put around
his neck the telegraph pole was % feet
away The rope was very long one. The
free er.d was taken by a man, who quickly
climbed the telegraph pole and threw it
over the cross arm. The crowd jerked the
negro to the foot of the pole, and while the
mob shouted the bleeding and mutilated
form Of the negro was swung to the cross
arm.
The negro was lowered to the ground
and his head was cut from his body with
pocket knives. The moose was then put
over the feet and the headless body was
again swung up. 1t is intended to send the
head to the family Of the little girl the
negro attempted to assault last Saturday
in Mississippi.
A placard was put on the negro's body.
bearing these words:
Death to the man who cuts him down
before $50 this evening""
A Horrible Sight.
No doubt the injunction of the mob will
be obeyed to the letter, and the passengers
on the Louisville and Nashville trains to-
day may see the horrible sight. The point
where the lynching occurred is a crossroad
called Clifton Summit. The mob dispersed
after doing it's work.
Jefferson Ellis on the afternoon of Oc-
tober criminally assaulted Miss Bette
Prater in the presence of the latter's two
little sisters. He escaped from a mob
which had gathered 10 lynch him that
night but he was pursued unremittingly
until he was captured Monday near Noun
tain Pleasant, Miss. He confessed to the
assault upon Miss Prater to the outrage
and murder of Mrs. Wilcox of the same
tempted assault upon little girl in Missis-
sippi while he was trying to escape from
the mob.
Another LynchfnK.
Special Dispatch to The Evening Star.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn, October 16-Eu-
gene Vannoy, colored. was taken from his
cabin at Manchester last night by 100 white
men and lynched. He was charged with
keeping Daisy Copeland, a fourteen-year-
old white girl of weak mind, a prisoner for
three days and assaulting her. He was
made to confess the deed and his body was
riddled with bullets, A report has just
reached the city to the effect that the re-
mains were chopped to pieces this morning
and burned on pile of cross ties. This is
for a similar crime in two weeks The girl
is in precarious condition. and great ex-~