San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-06-07
JUDGE LYNCH
DEALS OUT SWIFT VENGEANCE TO
RAPE FIENDS.
Their Carcasses Riddled With Bullets
and Then Hung For 0utraging a
Respectable White Lady.
B, Special Wire to the SUNDAY LIGHT.

By Special Wire to the SUNDAY LIGHT.
COLUMBUS, Ca, June 6.-Two
negroes were hung to a tree in the
middle Of Broad street, the main
business thoroughfare o. this city,
and riddled with bullets by an in
furiated mob at l o'clock Wednes.
day morning.
They were Jesse Slaton and Will
Miles. Last Thursday Slaton out
ragged Mrs. Howard Bryan, a re-
spectacle white lady Of this Mus
cogee) county. He was captured
that day by officers in the city and
placed in jail before the crowd
looking for him found him. In the
morning he was, taken to the
Superior court room for trial. He
had been indicted and jury was
being impanelled when q mob
rushed up the steps into the court
room yelling and brandishing rifles
and pistols. seized the terrified
man, threw a rope around his
neck and dragged him a hundred
yards down Broad street, Kidding
his body with bullets at every step.
The body was then swung up TO a
tree and left dangling there.
The crowd then went to the jail
after Will Miles, another negro,
who, in the night time about two
years ago, attempted an outrage
upon Mrs. Albright, a lady of that
city. The jailer pleaded with the
mob but to no avail, and was COM
PEELED to surrender Miles to save
his life and the jail from destruc-
ton. He surrendered the keys and
the doomed man was led to where
the body of Slston dangled. He
was quickly swung up and his body
riddled with a hundred bullets.
Miles had been tried and convicted
twice and his case had been twice
sent back by the Supreme court on
technicalities for new trial. His
last trial resulted in a mistrial and
he was in jail awaiting his fourth
trial. The laws delays in this in
stance had much to do with caus-
ing yesterdays mad mob to over
ride the law and the court itself.
Columbus was never in such a
state of excitement as she was yes
terday. With bated breath the
populace watched the develop
ments. The Slaton negro
was conveyed unmolested from
the jail to the courthouse, q dis
lance Of six squares. From early
in the morning the town began to
I'LL up with people from the sur
rounding country. The fact that
the prisoner was permitted to be
taken into court gave rise to the
belief that the result o. the trial
would be awaited. When, how
ever, the fiend's victim, who is in a
critical condition,w was notified that
she would have to 60 into court, a
leader Of the mob said that che
should not be subjected to such
modification which was the signal
for the rush to the courtroom.
The lynching of Slaton and
Miles were the first occurrences OF
the kind ever witnessed In this
city, and the second In the history
of the county. A negro was
lynched Just beyond the city linn
its in 1852 for the offense Of rape,
the scene of the crime being In the
neighborhood of that Of Slaton.
Until late In the afternoon the
forms Of the two negroes, each q
mutilated mass Of humanity, were
left swinging to the tree upon
which they met the Inevitable fate
of the defiler of the hearthstone.
The spectacle was indeed a grue-
some one, and many thousand peo-
pie gazed unon it with horror. The
following placards were pinned to
their persons:
On Stations: "All cases OF this
kind shall be treated likewise"
And this on Miles: "Both
cousins. This one convicted
twice-mistrial once. Father hung
for same offence"
The lynchers were not residents
of Columbus, all Of them being
stran gers. Many of the mob are
said to have come from as far as
fifty miles away,a number OF them
from Alabama. The lynching is
not upheld by the people Of this
community and while there is no
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