Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-08-23
MOB BURNS NEGROES.
TWO BLACK MEN MEET SUM.
MARY VENGEANCE.
Are Put to Death Where They Had
Killed Whole Family and Then Fired
Home-Guard of soldiers Routed Be
cause Uuarmcd.

Dragged from the courthouse, after
determined mos had oyerpowered a
heavy military guard Paul Reed and
VIII Cato. negroes. two Of the prin-
cipals in the murder and burning of
Henry Hodges and wife and three
children. were taken to the home OF
their victims two miles from States
boro, Ga, and burned 10 stake about
> O'Clock Tuesday afternoon.
As the two men. their clothing sat
urated with kerosene, writhed and
twisted in their agony and screamed
to heaven for The mercy that the mob
would not show, the perpetrators
stood by and cheercd as the flames
slowly but surely licked out the lives
OF the murderers
The mob instead Of showing mercy
hurled burning emberS at the suffer
ing men every time one of them twist
ed in his efforts to get away from the
fiery tongues which leaped upon them
from every side.
Just before the torch was applied to
the brush pile which had been built
about the victims photographer was
called from ne crowd and as the fag-
OTIS We're ignited the camera snapped
a picture of the horrible scene.
Troops Have Unloaded Guns.
The mob's struggle to get the men
was desperate and persistent The
military guard was charged again and
again but the mob was bayoneted
back, many being hurt. 1t was Won
dered. at that the troops did not open
fire on the mob, and the reason was
not discovered until one Of the mob
grabbed a gun. broke it open and saw
that it was not loaded 1t was quick
.ly passed from lip to lip that the guns
.did not contain cartridges and then
,the mob, gathering itself together,
made final desperate charge on the
militia, overpowcred the troops, en-
tered the court house and pounced up
on the crouching forms of the terror
stricken negroes, dragging them out
into the streets, over rough roads to
their doom
The forenoon had passed qaietly,
the trial of Paul Reed, the ringleader
in the murder, being concluded and a
verdict of guilty rendered. Both he
and Vail Cato, found guilty the day
before, were sentenced to hang Sep
TENDER 0.
Family of Five Slain.
The murder OF the five members of
the Hodges family, for which Reed
and Cato were lynched, was an eX-
tremely brutal crime. Hodges was a
resident of Statesboro and had coun-
try home six miles from the town. On
the evening of the murder he drove
to the home of a neighbor to get one
of his children, a little girl, who had
been passing the day there. The last
friendly eyes was when he climbed
into his buggy with the little one ard
started home About midnight 1t was
discovered that the Hodges home was
on fire. The blaze had made such
Roadway that nothing could be done
to stop it and the house was burned to
the ground. AS none of the members
of the family was seen about the
place the neighbors supposed that
Hodges had taken his wife and chill
dren back to Statesboto.
Inspection of the ruins next morn
ing brought to light the bodies of the
five victims. The head of Mr. Hodges
was crushed in, as though he had been
struck with an ak, and the head and
body of Mrs. Hodges showed marks
of bruises. The little girl had been
horribly mutilated. The bodies of the
other two children showed no marks
of violence, their positions indicating
that they had been burned to death
while asleep.