Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1905-07-05
WHOLESALE LYNcH,NG IN GEORGIA.
Eight Men Taken from 0conee (Ga.) County
Jail and Shot to Death by Mob.

death by a mob of masked white
men within two hundred yards of
the center of the town.
Nine men were carried to the
scene of the lynching, but one mrac.
ulously escaped death by falling to
the ground when the volley was
fred and feigning that he had been
killed.
The names of the prisoners who
were killed are: Lewis Robertson,
Rich Robinson, Sandy Price, Claude
Elder, Bob Harris, Jim Yearly, all
negroes, and Lon Aycock, white.
Joe Patterson, negro, feigned death
and the mob left him, thinking he,
too, had been riddled with bullets.
Four of the prisoners were
charged with being implicated in
the murder of Holbrook and his
wife and one was held for an at
tempted criminal assault. The
others were in Jail on minor misde-
meanor charges.
The mob formed quietly just after
midnight this morning and marched
in order to the Jail, where the keys
were demanded of the jailer. The
demand was made at the point of
drawn rifles and pistols, and the
jailer quickly realized that resistance
was out of the question.
With the keys in it's possession,
the mob opened all the cells, ordered
the trembling inmates out and then
lined the men up in single file, tying
them securely with ropes.
The prisoners, nine in number,
were marched to corner lot, within
two hundred yards of the Jail and in
the very heart of the town, where
they we're bound to fence with
their hands tied behind them.
The work had been 80 quietly
done that the sleeping residents of
the town had not been aroused.
At command given by the leader
the mob stepped back few PAGES,
took deliberate aim and then fired
volley from rifles, shotguns and pis-
tolls into the trembling line of pris-
oners. Every man in front of the
mob fell at the first volley.
Believing it's work had been made
complete, the mob quickly dispersed.
An examination made by the
jailer, who had been forced by the
mob to accompany it to the scene of
execution, showed that eight of the
men had been riddled by the bullets,
but Joe Patterson was found to have
been only slightly injured.
Patterson escaped death as by
miracle, for the fence post to which
he had been bound was torn into
fragments by the bullets. He pos
sessed the presence of mind to fall
with his ill-fated companions and
remain silent and motionleas upon
the ground, which had been dyed
red in the blood of the dying men.
The rattle of the volley thoroughly
aroused theRsleeping town. Scores
of citizens sprang from their beds in
alarm, not knowing what had hap
pened. Many thought an explosion
had shaken the town; others heard
the shouts and groans of the pris-
oners and imagined the town had
been attacked by negroes.
The widest excitement prevailed
everywhere and half clad men and
women hurriedly left their homes to
investigate. Their eyes fell upon
gruesome spectacle. Eight men,
seven colored and one white, were
lying upon their faces, their bodies
ragged with bullet wounds and
blood and brains scattered in all
directions.
The mob was nowhere in evidence
within moment or two after the
execution. The strength of tie mob
has been variously estimated. The
jailcr declares that there were many
armed men, all wearing masks, who
appeared suddenly at the Jail door.