The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-02
TWO LYNCHED AT COLUMBUS.
THE SIOB DOES ITS WORK AT 10
O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING.

The Mob Dashes Into the Court
Room in the sInyton Case while
a Jury l. Being ImpaneIed and
Drngs Him TO Ills Death-The JaII
stormed Next and win Miles Also
Hanged and shot.
Columbus. Ca. June 1.-Two negroes
were hung to a tree in the middle Of
Broad street the main business thor
oughfare of this city and rlddled
with bullets by an infurated mob, at 10
o'clock this morning They were Jesse
Slayton and Win Miles.
Last Thursday Slayton outraged Mrs.
Howard Bryan. a respectable white lady
Of this Cluscogee) county. He was cap
tured that day by officers in the city and
placed in Jail before the crowd looking
for him found him.
This morning he was carried to the SUI
perIor court room for trial. Tie had been
indicted. and a jury was being impanelled
when a mob rushed up the steps into the
court room. yelling and brandishing RI
fles and pistols. seized the terrified man,
threw a rope around his neck and dragged
him a hundred yards down Broad street.
riddllng his body with bullets at every
step. The body was then swung up to
tree ana ieft dangling there.
The crowd then went to the fail after
win Miles. another negro, who, in the
night time about two years ago, attempt
ed an outrage upon Mrs. Albright. a lady
Of this city, The jaslor pleaded with the
mob, but to no, avail, and was compelled
to surrender Miles 10 save hts life and
the jail from destruction. He surrendered
the keys, and the doomed man was led
70 where the body OF Slayton daugled.
Miles was quickly swung up. and his
body rsddied with a hundred bullets.
Miles had been tried and convicted
twice. and his case had been twice sent
back by the supreme court on teehnieali-
ties for a new trial His last trial re-
suited IN new trial and he was in jail
awaiting his fourth tral. The laws delay
I'm this instance had much to do with
causing the mad mob 10 override the law
and court Itself this morning.
Columbus was never in Such q state or
excitement as she has been to-day. With
bated breath the popuiaee watched the
developments.
The Slayton negro was conveyed un-
molested from the jail to the court house,
a distance of six squares. From early IN
the morning the town began to fiji up with
people from the surrounding country. The
fact that the prisoner was permitted to
be taken into 0ourt gave rise 70 the belief
that the result Of the trial would be
awaited.
When, however, the fiends victim, who
is In a critical condition, was notified that
she would have TO go into court, a leader
of the mob said that she should not be
subjected to such modification, which
was the signal for the rush for the court
room.
The lynehings of slayton 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 limits in
1852 for the offense of rape, the scene
of the crime being In the same neighbor-
hood as that of Slaytons.
Until late In the afternoon the forms
of the two negroes, each a mutlated
mass of humanity, were left swinging to
the tree upon which they met the inevit-
able fate of the detiler of the hearthstoue.
The spectacle was, indeed, a gruesome
one, and many thousand people gazed
upon 1t with horror. The following pla-
ards we're pinned to their persons:
On Slaytons: "All cases of this kind
shah be treated likewise" and this on
Miles: Both cousins. This one convicted
twice; mistrial once. Father hung for
same offense.
The lynchers were not residents Of Co
lumbus, all of them being strangers.
Many of the mob are said to have come
from as far as fifty miles away, a num-
Der of them from Alabama.
The lynehing is not upheld by the peo-
pie of this community, and while there Is
no sympathy for the class of criminals
to which the victims belonged, the affair
is greatly regretted by the citizens Of Co
lumbus.