The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-11
THREE CHILDREN DEAD;
 TWO OTHERS WILL DIE
His Wife and Her Father May
 Die.
linn Kennedy Committed Terrible Crime on watts Street Last Night--ais Negro Neighbors Made Effort to Lynch Him
 But the Police Safely
 Arrested Him.

Separated from his wife and deter mined that she should not retain pos session of his five children. knowing too that the mother of the children was i'll in her house and had put the children to bed, Jim Kennedy. a ne- gro. last night about 9 o'clock delib- erately fastened the windows of the little house at Watts street and all of the doors from the outside and built a fire on the back porch next the door burned three of his children to death. and so badly injured the other two that they will die.
 He chose a time when all of the negro neigborhood had gone to church and no one could interfere with the fire until his diabolical design had been accomplished. Not only that. but it is said, that he stood near the fire heaping on wood and flaming the small flame into a roaring blaze
 It was not until his mother-in-law in returning from church discovered the fire that he left the back of the house.
 He succeeded in his fendish pur- pose. Three of his children the eld- est not more than twelve years ole. and the youngest not quite year old, were burned to a crisp, their charred bodies being almost unidentifable, while the remaining two are so badly burned that it was declared about impossible for them to recover.
 His mother-in-law in trying 10 res- cue her grandchildren was padly burn ed and the grandfather. an old grey headed man, is in dying condition from inhaltng smoke and flames. The -n- -nm M Ta Aa 1aaMaV Nx rNa1 scarcely able to cry out in her pain as the fire slowly burned her bed, Is in St. Margafet's hospital and is not expected to live.
 1t was not until the blaze was seen three blocks away that an alarm was sent to Fire Headquarters. An im- mediate response was made but on account of the long run from the Mad ison Headquarters to the edge of Highland Park, the flames had al- most reduced the house to ashes be- fore a stream of water was played It was with the greatest difficulty that the fremen succeeded in getting the sick mother out of the burning room together with the two children, sleep ing by her bedside.
 The alarm brought the whole neigh borhood to the scene of the fire, and the piercing shrieks of the old grand parents mingled with near relatives urged the hremen and spectators to heroic endeavors. The flames had, however become beyond control and 1t was impossible to enter the house.
 The grandmother, between her shrieks told the crowd closest about the burning house that she had seen her sop-in-law as he left the back of the house, In disjointed sentences she shrieked out the trouble which had been brewing ever since there had been a quarrel. She. told of the anger of her son-in-law, Jim, when he found out that he could not get possession of any of his children and of his vow of vengeance.
 The grandfather, Horace Campbell, endeavored to enter the house to save his daughter and his grandchildren only to come out with blood dripping from his mouth and nose from swal- lowed flame. He was taken to a near by house until he could be removed to St. Margarets Hospital.
 The angry crowd about the burning cottage was not of the morbidly cu- rious. It was an enraged crowd, and 1t Is probable that if Jim Kennedy had been caught he would have been lynch ed on the spot by his own race. Ne groes stood about the house weeping and moaning.
 After the blazing house had been ex- tinguished and the firemen entered to recover the charred bodies, the ngroes
 
 spread a sheet in the back of the house and tenderly bore the charred bodies out of the ruins. There under the pro- tection of the firemen they remained until ambulances could be summoned to take them away.
 Captain Miles Smith, with several po- licemen. rode hastily to the scene and the coroner was summoned. Captain smith after an investigation and re- ceIying positive information, left with Special officers Graham and Smith and Mounted Oficers Curtis and Searcy in an easterly direction on the Red Bridge Road. They rode rapidly, and tbe few negroes who started to follow were soon left in the rear.
 Coroner Tice held an inquest at the scene and after hearing many wit nesses gave as his verdict that the house had been set afire and the chill dren had been burned by one Jim Ken nedv. whose whereabouts were un- known.
 A Catholic priest. Father McNamara. rvas m inc scene and ordered that all of the charred bodies with the injured be taken at once to St. Margaret Hos pitai. declaring that he would be. re- sponsible for their keep This was done.
 ot the fire was still angry, and open threats of a lynching was soon float ing about This soon became more than a threat. A party of four heav- iiv armed, receiving the same infor- nation as had Capt. Miles smith went to inc Red Bridge and hired wagon for tbe night. They determined to go omt into the country on the Ledyard place and take justice in their own
 Captain smith and his officers had been too swift. however for they had already caught their man about hVe niace Suspecting that mob violence would be offered to his party returning to the city. ofhcers Searcy and Curtis were ordered to continue down the