The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-08-12

VkE ylakeS u r8ItA21 SOu1CSStou -AItfE
Taking Poison-The object Of the As
fascination Onacer. Searching for
Miss Morris.
Little Rock, Ark, August 10.-Ffve
negroes are hanging from the limbs of
trees near the railroad track, and the
widow Of John T. Orr is dead in her
cell. This is the tragic denouement
Of the assassination OF John T. Orr, a
wealthy merchant at Clarendon a few
nights age. The wife died from a dose
Of poison self-administered, while
the negroes, her associates in crime,
were strung up by a mob of citizens.
The lynched are Manse Castle, Den
mis- Ricard, Rilla Weaver, Susie
Jacobs and Will Saunders.
At midnight a mob of 300 citizens
visited the Monroe county Jail at Clar-
endon, took therefrom the prisoners
charged with the murder Of Orr and
lynched them. The mob was a most
orderly one, not a word being unnec-
essarily spoken and not a shot being
fired.
They marched to the Jail n de-
manded the keys of Deputy Sheriff
Frank Milwee, who is in cvharge. He
at first refused their demands, but,
seeing their earnestness, turned over
to them the keys. A committee Of the
mob went inside the Jail and brought
out the prisoners and hanged them to
the tramway of the Halpern saw
mill, which stands about 100 yards in
the rear of the Jail.
Will Sanders was the one who fired
the shot hat killed Mr.. Orr, Rilla
Weaver, was the mother Of Sanders,
and cook in the Orr household; Den
mis- Ricard was the "hoodoo doctor
| and conjurer' who tried to poison Orr
with boiled snake heads, and Manse
Castle volunteered to do the job and
| transferred it to Sanders. Miss Rach-
ael Morris, accused of being an acces-
sorry before the fact, has disappeared
and her whereabouts are unknown to
the officers.
A placard bearing these words was
attached to the bodies-"This is the
penalty for murder and rape"
The negroes remained where they
were hung until 9 o'clock a. NJ, today.
Great crowds viewed the sight. The
negroes seem to endorse the lynching
and many of them are open in their
expression of satisfaction over the
death of Dennis Ricard, whose arts
of hoodOO and c~onjuring made him
a n nhioat 0f dr0ad RI than
While the five bodies swung in the
early morning breeze, the body of the
widow of the murdered man lies dead
in her cell in the county Jail, with only
the soft sweet voice of her 3-year old
child to break the midnight silence Of
the gloomy cell, as the innocent little
tot vainly cried for mamma.
A LADY FUGITIVE FROM JUSTICE
Somewhere a young woman, once
prominent in Clarendon society, is
fugitive from justice, hunted by the
officers of the law, charged with muir
der. Her name is Miss Rachael Nor.
ris and she is the only s~nrvivOrsOf the
coterie of seven named in the coro-
nor's verdict as being responsible fol
the tragic death of John T. Orr.
MIS-. VII uIcu Uy q OWh hd1u
after completely breaking down and
making a partial confession. In some
way she obtained a quantity OF poison
and took the dose about 2 o'clock Mon.
day afternoon. She never regained
consciousness.
Last Saturday night John T. Orr
was assassinated while making
glass of lemonade. He had just re
turned from choir practice where his
wife was organist. The crime was
shrouded in mystery until Miss Nor
ris told somebody that she knew who
fired the shot.
After a coronor's inquest extending
over two days, a verdict was rendered
charging Mrs. Orr. the murdered
mans wife, with being the instigator
Of the crime. Miss Rachael, Manse
Castle. Will Sanders, Dennis Ricard
, Rilla Weaver and Susie Jacobs, the
five last named negroes, were charged
with completely in the crime.
MRS. ORR'S CONFESSION.
After the arrest of Mrs. Orr and the
FIVE negroes, Mrs. Orr made a COMES
sion. She admitted hat she had
said to her cook that she wished her
husband dead and that b would be
willing to give $500 to anybody to kill
him: but she said this was uttered
while in a fit Of anger, and that she
was innocent of any criminal in
tention. Her husband abused her
she said. and once struck her and she
being Of high temper herself, some.
times said things in anger that shs
did not NEAR
Mrs. Orr, seeing that she would
meet death at the hands Of the law
preferred another route and conse
quently pol poison. She died lat
yesterday afternoon in the Jail. Jus
before she lapsed into unconsciousnes
she willed all OF her property to he
4-year-old daughter, Neva and places
it in trust with the Clarendon Lodg
Knights of Pythias, Of which her dea,
husband was a prominent member.