Mexico weekly ledger., 1899-07-27
|SAV EMBREELYNCHED
DR.. ]. I. HAWKES., OF THIS CITY,
was AN EYEWITNESS TO
THE TRAGIC AFFAIR.
DOCTOR TELLS how IT WAS DONE
The First Idea Was to Burn the
Negro, But the Little GIRLS Father
Would Not Hear to This
Barbarity-Mob waaa an
Orderly One.

6AA onAAby AoD 90 al
Orderly One.
DR.. ]. B. Hawkins, Of this city, was
an eyewitness TO the hanging Of the
negro, Frank Embree, who commit
ted an assault upon the 14-year-old
daughter Of Wood Dougherty just one
month and three days before the
lynching of the culprit last Saturday
morning.
Dr.. Hawkins in company with two
or three others on Saturday morning
about Q O'Clock were on their way to
Fayette, where Judge Hockaday's
court vas in session, and where they
had learned the trial Of the negro was
set for that day.
Or. Hawkins tells the LEDGER the
following particulars regarding the
hanging Of the negro:
"When six or seven miles on the
road toward Fayette we met several
parties who turned on the Burton
road and we asked them what was up.
They said Deputy Sheriff VIM and
assistants In charge of the prisoner
had been met by the mob five or six
miles north of Fayette on their way
from Armstrong and had been re-
lieved of their prisoner and the mob
had him over the way a mile or so,
pointing up the Burton road. We
were then a short distance from Wood
Dougherty's and about one mile
southeast of where the little girl had
been assaulted.
"Without asking any further ques-
tions, we readily understood what vas
meant, as the very air was full Of
ominous suggestions. We turned ri
course In the direction everybody
seemed to be hurrying and had not
gone far when we met two terribly
f~rightended Individually, hats in hand,
who gave us q wide berth as they
passed and suggested to us In q mild
undertone that we had better hurry
up, as the captors had the negro just
over there docking back over their
shoulders) and were whipping him.
Gas your scribe was doing the driv-
ing, we pushed q little on the lines
and hurried forward with all possible
speed for something like q half mile.
AS we reached the hilltop just south Of
the ravine where the crime was done
someone in front exclaimed, 'Yonder
they are.' Some 200 yards in front,
on the north side OF the ravine and
east OF the burton road, in an open
space on Dick Patterson's farm, we
saw q great OF human beings.
The party wa grouped In circles-the
inner circle being mostly on foot and
the outer n comprised & solid pha-
lanx of horsemen-while In q wagon
within the double circle we could see
the prisoner, who had been denuded
and literally fiayed alive with buggy
whips and tugs until he had confessed
the heinous crime OF which he had
been accused.
''It was reported that 1t was the first
intention OF the lynching party to
burn the rapist; but q more humane
feeling prevailed. A detachment
went in quest Of q suitable site for the
execution and selected q little Span
ish oak tree in a hollow about $50
yards southeast OF the scene of the
assault and east OF the Burton road.
A young fellow climbed the tree
designated and chose q limb and sat
upon Il while the leader said to the
crowd that II all would be quiet the
prisoner, IL he so desired, would be
allowed TO speak or pray. Silence
prevailed while the poor bleeding
and shackled wretch, In 9 kind Of
sing-song monotone and almost unin-
telligible jargon, tried to confess, In q
general way, his sins. After some
four or Eve minutes had been thus
consumed, some fellow, whose voice
betrayed the fact that he was not ac-
customed to the business, cried out,
tAmenl' The leader seemed to be a
sober, thoughtful man and rebuked in
the main all show of levity during the
proceedings.
"After the prayer, the culprit was
lifted upon . horse brought forward
for the purpose, the man In the tree
adjusted the rope by giving 1t several
turns around the limb on which he
had been sitting and the horse was
led from under the poor wretch, who
was swung into eternity ct $40 o'clock.
In Just thirteen minutes he was pulse
less at the wrist and q slight move
ment of the lower limbs and g shrug
Of the shoulders were the only move
ments after the drop.
"The ever-present picture man,
with his kodak, was on hand TO take
the last shot.
"while hanging, the lower part Of
the body vas covered with q horse
blanket.
1.-THE leader requested that the body
should not be further mutiIated and
that no firearms be discharged; and,
after thanking all for their assistance
In the performance of the saddest and
most painful, and yet, as he consid-
cred 1t, an imperative duty, In the
protection OF our homes and children
The asked that The party dispense
quietly and leave the body to be dis
posed of by the proper authorities.
HBefore leaving the place we visited
the spot, on the west Of the Burton
road, where the hendish brute met
and dragged the helpless, innocent
little girl from her horse; then over
the low fence and up the branch some
forty or fifty yards, where Q corn
Held and hillside sheltered him from
view OF tho road Notwithstanding
more than q month has elapsed and
heavy rains have washed the ground,
you a e plainly signs of tins strog-
Qle-vhare the little, helpless inno-
cent was brutality overpowered, her
cries for help stifed and she was LEFT
in an unconscious and outraged con-
dltion-while the heartless brute
-.tsaunkad To make his escape.