Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1902-01-03
TOUGHS
TAKE TRAIN
j. M. Rhea, a Passenger, Shot
to Death.
FLED ON ENGIl Ne
Murderers Compelled Engi neer
Delaney to UncoupIe an( 1 Car.
ny Them to Shelby.

Greenville, Miss. -Four white men
killed ]. M Rhea, an In offensive pas-
senger on train No. 6 Of the Yazoo
and Mississippi Val icy branch Of the
Illinois Central railroad, at an early
hour Monday mbrning near Leland,
Miss, cut the locomotive from the
train and fc roed the engineer to run
Co Clevelar ID. All four men were ar.
rested, onA being in Jail at Leland
and thr' % are looked up at Shelby.
The -four men are: Ashley Cox,
pror Ainent business man of Cleve-
lie ,dd; A. M. Phipps, postmaster ut
Shelby Thomas Lauderdale, said to
be relative Of Phipps, and q man
named Blsokman, residence unknown.
The men went from Shelby to Le-
land early Sunday night. At Leland
1t is said they spent several hours In
drinking and carousing.
At a. m. the men boarded the
north bound train to return to Shell
by. j. M. Rhea, an engineer, was
on his way to Tutwiler under orders
to take out locomotive there. He
! was sleeping on a seat in the smoker
when the passenger train pulled out
from Leland. At that point, COX and
his friends boarded the car. Cox had
revolver and Lauderdale and Black
man had Winchester rifles. Phipps
was not armed.
Walking up the isle Plipps was in
advance of the party, when he came
In contact with Rhea's legs, which
were extended out into the aisle as
he slept. Rhea was awakened and
inquired what was the matter. The
members of the party stood there and
discussed the situation angrily for a
while and then the quartette went to
ihe end of the Car and out on the
platform. Very soon they returned.
and going up to Rhea told him that
they could not all stay in the same
car, that he would have to get out Of
the car. Rhea remarked that In or
der to prevent trouble he would have
to do as they told him. Thereupon
he started out Of the car. He had
Just reached the door when, 1t Is
claimed, the men opened fire upon
him. He fell where he stood.
Conductor George Mclaughlin or
dered the train back to Leland, there
to leave the corpse. As soon as Lee
land was reached the conductor went
In search of the sheriff and peace off,
GERS. In the meantime the quartette
had not been idle. They had driven
everybody out of the smoker and the
adjacent car during the run back to
Leland. and when they arrived at
that place they went to the engine,
aboard Of which was Engineer De-
laney. They covered him with guns
and told him II he did not obey their
commands they would kill him He
was compelled to uncouple his en-
CINE, and when the men mounted into
the cab he was ordered to open the
throttle and send the engine down
the track toward Shelby. In the ex-
oitement Of the moment Phipps be-
came separated from his companions
and did not get away from Leland.
When the sheriff arrived at the rail
road he arrested Phipps. The others
were carried on to Shelby. Arriving
there they made no effort to conceal
themselves, but still carrying their
weapons they waited for the next
train, on which they travelled to Cleve-
land, where they were arrested with
out trouble. They were taken to
Shelby and placed in Jail.
Cox, the man who seemed to be the
leader of the quartette, has it is said,
killed q number Of men. He is
charged with the killing Of a negro
last Friday night at Shelby. There
is much excitement and indignation
among the people of Leland and Shell
by neighborhoods over the tragedy,