The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1899-03-24
RIOT AND
BLOODSHED.
Four Negro Prisoners
Killed in Georgia
MCBOF MASKED MURDERERS
They Were Under Guard and Awaiting
Trial on the Charge of Arson Five
Men Killed in Bloody shooting AtiraY
at Hot Springs,

PALMETTO, GA, March lG-'
Twenty men, armed and masked,
rode iuto. this little town at an early
hour this morning and put to death
four negroes, fatally wounded one,
shot another and broke the arm Of a
seventh man. These negroes were
under guard of three men, awaiting
the hour of o'clock to-day, when
they were to have had hearing be-
fore a Justice of the Peace on the
charge of arson.
The dead are: William Cotton,
Jr., Harrison Hudson, Ed Brown,
Harry Bingham. Fatally wounded:
John Bigby. Wounded, John Jane
son, George Tatum, arm broken.
Nelson Brow and Glenn Watts, the
other members of the gang, escaped
injury.
The negroes were confined in the
office of the Johnson warehouse, a
one-story stone building, just across
the track from the Atlanta and
West Point depot. They were
arrested yesterday and were tied to-
gether with ropes. About | O'Clock
and masked, rode up to the ware
house and dismounted. Without
waiting to announce themselves to
the guards within, they easily
forced the door of the warehouse,
and a second later stood in the office,
where the negroes were lying on the
floor around the fire. The guards
were covered by Winchester rifles,
and with hands up were marched to
one side of the little room and stood
against the wall.
Fright of the Negroes.
The negroes, who were frightened
into silence by the bursting of the
door, now realized their peril.
Shrek after shrek went up from the
victims as they saw the CLEAN of
firearms in the dim light from the
| fireplace. Their appeals for mercy
were unheaded. A short, heavy
set man, whose features were COM
pletely concealed by white hand
kerchief, acted as leader. He cursed
the blacks into silence for moment
and told his men to get ready.
After looking at each negro he COM
manded them to get up. The tremb-
ling, crying wretches, tugging at
their roUes in a vain effort to get
away, obeyed the words of the moo's
leader. A last appeal for mercy
went unheeded, and the word fire.
rang out in the little room. The
volley filled the room with fire and
smoke, and the negroes fell in a
heap on the floor. A second volley
sealed the doom of those who were
fortunate enough to escape the mur-
derous fire of the first charge.
AS the mob made ready to depart
three or four men with pistols sent
bullets into the PROSTATE forms on
the floor, and inside of ten minutes
after the masked men had entered
the warehouse they had completed
their work and were on their way to
safety on their horses.
Daylight in the warehouse re-
vealed a sickening sight. Blood
covered the floor and the walls were
indented with bullets from Winches'
ters and other arms. At moor
friends of the wounded removed
them to their homes. The dead
whose bodies were horribly mangled
remained where they were unit
shortly after noon when Coroner
jury was impaneled.
The Inoendiaries' Work.
The town has been visited by two
incendiary fires since February
and the citizens have been afraid t
rebuild owing to the oft-repeatec
threats of the negroes that they
would do the same thing again. The
county authorities have been very
active in their efforts to apprehenC
the incendiaries, and yesterday
arrested nine negroes. William
Cotton, Jr., had confessed to DR.. III
L. Johnson that he and eight com
/ panions had conspired to burn tn,
town and loot the stores. The burn
ing part of the programme was sue
cessfully carried out, but the fir,
spread so rapidly and the building,
went up in flames so fast that they
were unable to obtain anything fron
tho zfHraz