The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-15
THE REPORT FIVE BLACKS
 ON TAXATION ARE HANGED Submitted by MT. Browne Legal Execution at Sy-
 Of Committee. vania, Ga. Yesterday REDUCTION OF THE LIMIT NECKS OF FOUR BROKEN Outline of Amendments to the Fifth Died of Str lat0n in
 Present Article. Five Mi 2 & Convention Refuses Increase the Tragedy the Governor Despite Members eaSs of Murder
 of
 Jones n. Aroh.rw
TON OF THE LIMIT NEcKS OF FOUR BROKE FEN
Fifth Died of Str: 5 llation in
 Five Mi 2 $.
Victims of the Ls g Tragedy were Members of eaSSs of Murder CTS Known as "Knights
 of the Archer"

| Sylvaria, Ga, June 14.-Five bodies dangling upon the same gallows, five | souls launched into eternity at the same moment, marked the triumph of the majesty of the law and the end of what Is believed to have been an or ganized gang of murderers here today. The victims of the legal tragedy were | Arnold Augustus Andrew Davis. Rich ard Sanders. William Hudson and Sam Baldwin, all negroes. The victims of there crime were Constable Mears and Fillmore Harrington. whom they ann pushed and shot to death, and Captain Wade. whom they seriously wounded | On at least two occasions efforts were made to lynch the murderers. but by the prompt action of the officers of the law they were frustrated. On one of these occasions the Governor found 1t necessary to order out three com panies of the State militia.
 l The execution today was strongly | guarded by the local military because of 8 rumor that an effort would be | made by negroes to effect the rescue Of the condemned. But there was no dis | turbance nor the suggestion of any. The hanging was in private, the stock ade being surrounded by a strong cor don of troops. Five thousand persons gathered in the village, but only about forty we've admittedAp the enclosure. | The condemned men maintained | stoical reserve refusing to confess or to talk about the Crime. They were attended by ministers of their own race. who besought them to ease their consciences by making acknowledg- ments of their sins. They refused to | talk The five. shackled in chains' were marched upon the gallows togeth- CT. When the trap fell, the neckS or -four were snapped like reeds. The fifth tstruggled for five minutes and died Of strangulation.> The five bodies were cut down in a drizzie of rain. 1 These five negroes were convteted ot a murder committed under an alleged criminal conspiracy by an organized band of blacks known as Knights Of the Archer" The motto of the organi- zation, it is said. was Death to the | Whites"
 The gang under the leadership of a negro desperado known as Andrew Mc- Kinney, tcrrorized for long time the !aw-abiding negroes of Screven Coun- ty, from whom. it is said. they exacted l constant tribute and protection. 1 The murder for which the men died was but the continuation of a long se- ries of crimes and misdemeanors of varying degrees. It is common report | that the charter of this oath-eound oE- ganization was sigped in blood. and the leader, Mckinney, assembled his band only at plight, when he swore them, with awesome rites. to secrecy i and to deeds of death.
 They p.eyed on the barns and farm | houses on both the Georgia and South | Carolina hanks of the Savannah River. terrorized the peaceful and well dis rosed members of their own race. and conducted a campaign of robbery and murder.
 On a night in October. 1899. Milton Mears. a Constable of Screven County. started out from .Slyvania to serve a warrant for the arrest of Joe Saunders, a young negro, who was wanted Tor some trivial offerse against the law. While the existence and objects of the Knights of the Archer were not at that time definitely known. they were suspected, and e mmon report assigned young Sanders and his father, Jesse | Sanders, to membership in the organi- zation.
 Mears was accompanied by Fillmore Herrington and Capt. Jesse Wade. The men were apprehensive of no trouble. They went up on to the veranda of | the Sanders House, which was situ- ated on the outskirts of the Savannah | River, the swamp at this place Delns about a mile wide.
 If was about g o'clock at night. Cap tain Wade called to the elder Sanders, who came to the door. He stated to l Sanders that they had come to arrest his boy and that he could go along to the magistrates home, where bond could be arranged and the boy fiber ater Sanders replied that they could not get the boy and went back into the house closing the door behind him.
 kkar oVVHn from a U1 the wailing note of the mocking bird, clear and distinct. It was followed by one other of similar character, and the men started. chilled to the bone.
 A second later a fusilade began. From the cracks between the logs of the cabin and from a thicket of dwarf trees close by, came the flash of rifles and shotguns, and the three men, all desperately wounded. fell to the ground. Captain Wade, despite many wounds. managed to crawl to his bug gy, and make his way to Sylvania, where he told of the shooting.
 Herington and Mears were found | near the Sanders cabin, literally shot to pieces, but the few hours that had been lost between the commission of the homicide and the arrival of the | posse at the scene of the crime, had sufticed for the escape of the murder CTS. For days and weeks the search for them continued and one after an- other five were arrested and placed in fail here. These were the men who met death today.
 The others. including Mckinney and the real leaders of the Knights of the Archer" successfully effected their es- cape and have never been captured. Through woods and swamps that abound in SIreven County, across the | river in South Carolina, and in every lumber and turpentine camp in four States and in the slums of every South
 ern city, they have been sought for.
 but never captured.
 The attorneys for the five negroes exhausted every effort in their behalf.
 Every possible appeal was made for executive clemency. but Governor Can dler and the Pardon Board steadfastly Adeclined to interfere.