Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-08-29
ANOTHER NEGRO BURNED
Tennessee Mob Inficts Summary
Punishment On Negro Ravisher.
NET HIS FATE LAUGHINGLY

Bald He Killed Mrs. Williams Because
He Had Nothing Else To Do-state
Officials Pleaded With the Mob. But
II Was In Vain
Chattanooga, Tenn, Aug. 26.-Henry
Moles, a negro. was yesterday burned
by a mob 5000 citizens for erin
inally assaulting and shooting to death
Mrs. Charles Williams, wife of prom
inent farmer near Winchester. Tenn,
last Friday. Admitting his crime and
asking his friends to meet him in
glory. he met his fate without even
groan.
He was seaptured early yesterday
morning at Water Tank. near Cowan,
Tenn, and was taken to Winchester
by his captors and placed in the county
jail Sheriff Stewart made haste to
barricade the Jail and protect the
prisoner. Soon an angry mob of sew
eral hundred men gathered, but AS.
sistant Attorney General Matt. N.
Whitaker appeared and made a
speech to the crowd, urging them to
assist him in allaying excitement and
upholding the majesty of the law, he
promised to reconvene the grand jury
today to indict the negro promptly and
have him speedily tried at the present
term of court. assuring the crowd that
his conviction and legal execution
we're foregone conclusion. This ap
peal was supplemented by Judge j.
J. Lynch. Captain W. P. Tolley and
others. No sooner had their appeals
been made than several hundred citi-
zens from the neighborhood where
the crime was committed came up and
augmented the crowd to thousands.
They swept forward upon the jail
overpowered the sheriff and his depu-
ties, took the prisoner and started at
1915 a. m. for the scene of the crime,
Il miles distant.
The mob was determined, and it
seemed that almost the entire popula-
ton for miles around had turned out
to see the fate of the wretch. The
procession followed the mob to the
Williams home. Arriving at a point
in sight of the scene of the crime, the
negro was placed upon a stump and
given a chance to make statement.
He mounted the stump stolidly and
laughed as he began his statement. He
said:
Tell all my sisters and brothers to
meet me in glory. | am going to make
that my home. Tell my mother to
meet me where parting will be no
more"
why did you kill Mrs. Williams ?"
was asked.
81 just done that because had moth
ing else to do"
He was taken from the stump. bound
to g tree by chains and his body sat
urated with oil. At lao p. m. match
ing body was enveloped in flames.
Fence rails were piled about the burn
ing body, and soon life was extinct.
History Of the Crime.
Lying on the floor of the family
room, her face splashed with clotted
blood, Charles Williams found his
wife on Friday afternoon when he re
turned to his home. A bullet had
gone through her head life was ex-
rinct and her two baby children were
crying in grief and fear. The oldest
boy, aged 5 years, told what had oc-
Cured. The young mother had been
shot and killed by Henry Noles,
negro hand upon the Williams place.
AS the mortally wounded woman sank
to the floor. Noles shot at the boy,
the bullet grazing the child's head.
Then he fled to the woods
1t is reported that the motive was
robbery, and that 500 was obtained
by the murderer. Mr.. Williams is
farmer, well-to-do and one of the most
prominent residents of his section of
Franklin county. The dead woman
was a member of one of the oldest and
most respected families in the county.
The two children the oldest Just 5
years of age, were the only witnesses
of the tragedy.