Los Angeles herald., 1906-10-03
DEFENDING JAIL
TWO MEN SHOT
MOBILE MOB STORMS LOOKUP
TO GET NEGROES
Officer and Alderman Wounded in Fu-
sillade When Deputy Sheriffs
Resent Attack of Determined
Hundreds
Rv Associated Press.

MOBILE, Ala, Oct. 2.-Roy Hoyle, a
special officer of the Mobile & Ohio
railroad, was fatally shot, and Alder
man Sidney Lyons, chairman of the city
council of Mobile, was slightly wounded
tonight during fight at the county
Jail between deputy sheriffs and crowd
of men determined to capture Dick
Robinson young negro.
The mob is still hunting the negro
and threatens to lynch him if captured.
The negro, who is only II years old,
today assaulted Ruth, the 12-year-old
daughter of Blount Sossaman, who lives
about three miles from here.
Sheriff Fatch, knowing that the life
of the negro would be taken by a mob
If he brought him into this city, caused
him to be conveyed to a station several
miles up the Mobile & Ohio railroad.
He was not taken to the jail at all, and
was at least eight miles from the city
when the mob, determined to have him,
approached the building.
There have ! on several assaults upon
white women within the last lew weeks,
and the news of this latest outrage
Crowds Gather
AS early at o'clock in the evening
crowds of men commenced to gather III
the downtown streets, and by $3.50 500
men had formed at the intersection of
Royal and Dat. hin streets.
The crowd was harangued by several
speakers, who urged them to take the
life of the negro If he could be found,
and in a short time the entire crowd
was on the march for the Jail.
The sheriff met the leaders of the mob
and informed them that the man they
were seeking was not in the jail and
had never been brought there. He Of
fered to let anybody whom he person
ally knew pass through the jail to
satisfy the crowd of the truth of his
statement.
About fortv men walked through the
corridors, some of them returning and
assuring. the members of the mob that
the man was not there.
While several men, including Hoyle
and Lyons. were still IN the jail por-
ton of the crowd, led by a tall, raw
boned man whose name is not known,
seized a telephone pole which had
blown down in the recent storm and
dashed 1t against the closed part of a
double door, one-half of which was
open.
Fires on Mob
The door fell with crash and almost
instantly a shot came from a revolver
in the hands of man standing in the
gate.
At once the members Of the mob COM
menced a fusillade OF revolver shots,
and then came several shots from a
rifle held in the hands of a man who
leveled IT above his head and worked 1t
vigorously while holding 1t in that posi-
tion.
Not more than dozen men took part
In the firing, and as the shots rang out
there was a stampede Of the crowd for
shelter.
The mob was r'idely scattered, and in
few seconds Alderman Lyons, who
HI been on the inside of the jail, came
out holding up his hands, from which
blood was stl oaming announced that
he had been shot and that Roy Hoyle
had received bullet through the left
lung.
The fact that Hoyle had been shot
while looking through the Jail in order
to ascertain IL the negro was there
took all the fight out of the mob, and
for the most part II dispersed quietly.
The big man who led the gang with
the telephone pole. however. was anx-
ious for further vengeance on the
negroes and passionately urged the