The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-10
CONSTABLES
 PUT IN JAIL Charged With Murder in
 First Degree. HAD BELL IN CUSTODY
Negro Who Was Strung up
 and Riddled with Bullets.
Affdavits Made Against the Three White Men Fly Sberih Blackwell of Dallas County-Their Pre-
 liminary Today.

Selma, Aug 9.-(Special. )-Murder In the first degree Is charged against Special Constables. Ransom. D. O. Stanfil and B. r. Cherry, who alleged that the negro. Edmund Bell. was talk en from them and Iynched by mob Of negroes Saturday near Sardis.
 They are incarcerated in the county jail and will have a preliminary hear ing before Judge J. w. Mabry of the city court of Selma tomorrow.
 The affidavit against the special of- ficers was made tnis morning by Sher- if Frank M. Blackwell before Judge Mabry, to whom the warrants for the arrest of the men are returnable. Sheriff Blackwell and his chief deputy. J. J. Townsend, at cnce went to the Sardis neighborhood where Ransom. Stanfil and Cherry ave. and arrested them.
 Sheriff Blackwell and Deputy Town send reached the city with their pris- oners this afternoon and placed them in the county jail.
 Take Arrest CoolIy.
 Beyond their first explanation of Bells death. that he was lynched by a large mob of negroes against whom 1t was impossible Tor the three men to offer effective resistance, the pris- oners have made no statemnt. They LOOK InClT aTTeSI GULLY anu tQoukH their removal to custody created sur prise in Sardis the matter has so far been enacted in comparative quietude
 The Issuance of the warrants against Ransom Stanfil and Cherry is nota- ble instance in the history of the county. Previously mob violence has received little more than superficial investigation, perhaps necessarily, and because of the almost absolute iinpossi- bility of obtaining evidence. and the coroner's verdict that the deseased came to his death at the hands Df per- sons unknown" hfs been the closing of the incident.
 More Respect for Law.
 The arrest of officers out of whose keeping a prisoner goes to his death and the charge of murder in the first degree are indicative of a healthy growth of regard for the laws and their execution, and of a determination that for dereliction or for inability through lack of force, officers who release their prisoners into the haads of mob will he held to such strict responsibility and account that the explanation of 1ynching must come from the officers themselves and not from the coroner's jury.
 In the present case. the citizens of Dallas county are quito alive to the gravity of the matter The lyinching of the negro by negroes as reported by the constables is portentous of the most dangerous results to the entire com munity. and the suspicion entertained by some that the prisoner was mur- dered by white men. or by negroes. in cited by white men. is. If possible, worse
 The act of the sheriff and of other of- ficers is commanded by many citizens and is expected 10 bring about q more constant respect for the law. Bell Accused of Murder. The negro Bell was tried at Sardis Saturday before a Justice of the Peace for the murder of Houton Scruggs. another negro. Scruggs was fired upon from the darkness as be sat upon the steps of q neighbours porch. Buck shot were used. and the negro's death was instantaneous.
 The Justice adjudged Bell guilty of the crime, and his bond was fixed at $10.OOO This he could not give, and Ransom, Stanfil and Cherry were made special constables to convey Bell to the county jail in Selma
 There was .much excitement over the murder among -ne negroes. and the special constables reported that Bell was taken from them by mob Of blacks whose numbers were such mat effective resistance could not be offered. Later the body of the negro was found hanging to 6 tree and riddled with bull lets.
 Sheriff Blackwell was determined up- on arrest of the mob's members and swore in the Dallas Dragons as De- putty Sheriffs. With these he visited the scene of the lynching but no one of the guilty was apprehended