Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1900-03-30
HORRIBLE MURDERS.
A Mother and Five Children Bru-
tally Murdered in North Carolina
Two Men Shet In Emporia, Va.


Two Men Shet In Emporia, Va
RALEIGH, N. c., March 22.-Th,
most horrible crime IN the history o.
North Carolina was perpetrated earll
this morning at Garners, five miles
east of this city, when negro, Ton
Jones, commonly known in the coun
ty as "Preacher" Jones, murdered
Ella Jones, and her oldest daughter
Ida Jones, and then set fire to the
beds in which lay the bodies of the
murdered victims and four others
all children, ranging in years from q
baby one month old to the largest
boy, who was not more than five
years of age.
The work was done with an axe,
The murderer, according to the story
OF little seven-year-old Laura Jones,
who escaped with her Youngest sister.
The negro deliberately struck the
mother four times and then made
two heavy strokes into the body of
the eldest child.
The house was completely destroy
ed by fire, and the bones of the four
youngest children were so frail that
they are now distributed among the
ashes.
TWO OFFICERS KILLED.
EMPoRIA, Va, March 22.-The
robbery of Tuesday night at the res
idence of Mrs. E. A. PEBBLES, in EN-
poria, resulted in an awful tragedy
tins morning. Two men, one white
the other colored, had for few days
taken shelter in deserted cabin
near Skippert. AS the whole COM
munity was alive to find, if possible,
the bold robbers who were commit
ting the outrages of the past month,
Justice and Constable went to
see who were the inmates of the cab
in.
AS the officers got to the door the
men in the cabin at once fred on
them, and they returned the fire.
Both officers were killed instantly,
and the two men in the cabin were
both wounded.
The white man was captured and
has been lodged in the Jail here, but up
to this writing an armed force are
still in pursuit of the negro, who is
thought to be the desperado, Cotton,
who lately escaped from the Jail in
Portsmouth under sentence of death.
COTTON CAPTURED.
Walter Cotton was arrested about
o'clock Friday morning near Stony
Greek and brought to Emporia.
The arrest was made by Mr.. w. H.
Moore and colored man. They
met some train hands, who told
them that they had seen Cotton a
short way down the track, sitting by
a fire. Mr.. Moore and the negro
hadn't gone far before they met
Cotton, who spoke, saying, "Good
morning, gentlemen" Mr.. Moore
Immediately leveled his gun upon
him, telling him to throw up his
hands. He made 10 resistance, and
Mr.. Moore soon had him secured and
disarmed him. He had three pistols
on his person: also two watches,
identified as the property of Mr..
Grizzard, and the store keys of Geo.
w. Black, who was killed some
weeks ago.
Soon it became noised about that
q body of five hundred men would
take him out of Jail tonight and
lynch him. Judge Goodwin became
uneasy and began to ply Governor
Tyler with kilograms, and the Gov
ernor, sent Company B of the Rich
mond Light Infantry Blues to EN-
poria to guard the Jail. The mill
tary reached Emporia about o'clock
and remained on duty until late at
night Then it was thought all
danger was past, so they were with
drawn and special guard of twenty
five sworn in to do duty about the
prison throughout the night.
BOTH MEN LyNCHED.
The citizens of the county, becom-
ing incensed at the presence of the
military, compelled Judge Goodwin
to have them recalled. On Satur-
day the company returned to Rich
mond.
AS soon as they had disappeared a
tremendous mob of both whites and
blacks made for the Jail. In the
cell Cotton and O'GradY sat, chained
| to the floor. Neither raised their
eyes as the doors were opened, SEEM
ing to realize that the end was near
and dreading to look into the faces
of their executioners.
The crowd made rush for Cot
ton, and with oaths he was told that
his end was at hand. He was asked
how ne felt. His voice quivered as
he replied that he felt very badly.
care you prepared to die?" was then
asked.
"No, sir; / ain't," came the answer,
1 A Al ,