Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1895-10-24
A Negro Villains Awful Fate.

Jefferson Ellis, a negro VINO had COM
mitted fendish assault upon Miss
Bette Prater, was tortured and hanged
at Clifton Summit. Tennessee, last
week, by mob of $50 persons, with
in two hundred yards of the scene of
his crime. Before hanging the negro
the mob cut off both his ears and all
of his fingers and mutilated him in a
horrible manner. The mob, with their
prisoner, reached the home of his VIC
tim, Miss Prater, soon after midnight.
The young woman identified him as
her assailant. AS soon as this was
done an armed squad of men took Ell
lis from Constable Farrow and started
with him for the pike.
A big fire had been built at the place
and around it the mob gathered in a
circle. The handcuffed negro was made
to kneel before the fire. The leaders
Of the mob told Ellis to pray, but he
only looked at them in stupid man.
ner. Being told that he was about to
die, he raised his voice in a negro hymn.
By the time he finished, the fercer ell
ement were in complete control of the
mob. Cries of Burn him y were
heard on all sides. Even this fearful
fate would probably have been mercy
TO the negro as subsequent events
proved. Amid the shouts of the mob
a man jumped to the negros side with
a drawn knife in his hand.
"Cut off his ears ?" they cried,
"Give me a finger p shouted one
man.
81 want a thumb" cried another.
The better element in the crowd
drew off 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 fercest in the crowd, the man with
the knife cut off the negro's right ear
and held up the bleeding trophy in full
view of the crowd. -
The negro screamed, but his other
ear was cut off few moments later.
The mob became madden at the sight
of this work, and those who were mu-
tilating the negro found ample encour-
agement. They next cut off all his
fingers and mutilated him in horrible
manner. 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 seventy-hvs
feet away. The rope was very long
one. The end was taken by 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 head
less body was again swung up.
A placard was put on the negro 8
body bearing these words:
death to the man who cuts him
down before $50 this evening
Jeff Ellis, on the afternoon of Octo-
Der 5, criminally assaulted Miss Bette
Prater in the presence Of the latter
two little sisters. He escaped from a
mob which had gathered to lynch him
that night, but he was pursued unre-
mittingly until he was captured near
Mount Pleasant, Miss. He confessed
to the assault upon Miss Prater, to the
outrage and murder of Mrs. Wilcox,
of the same neighborhood, two years
ago, and to an attempted assault upon
little girl in Mississippi while he was
trying to escape from the mob.