The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1908-10-07

haven, and Policeman Blue, of
Brookhayen, the Clarion-Ledger is
perfectly willing to give them the
credit for the capture and to debit
them with his escape. Clarion
Ledger, Oct. Z.
+ The jackson News had the fol-
lowing trite remarks anent the
murder of Postofice Inspector
Fitzgerald and the Maxwell woman
in Jackson, and the subsequent es-
cape of the slayer Of the woman:
CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE.
The carnival of crime that has
prevailed in jackson and vicinity
during the past week has been bad
enough, God knows, but it has
been no worse than the criminal
negligence of the constituted au-
thorities.
Non-enforcement of the law is
the most prolific source of mob
violence, and non-enforcement in
this community has reached a
point where almost anything is
likely to happen unless the author
tiles are given stern awakening,
and made to realize that they are
grossly neglecting the duties they
Iwere sworn to perform.
Getting right down to the sub
Iject matter, and handling it with
out gloves, the Daily News intends
to make some specific charges, and
we challenge contradiction in any
instance hereinafter cited.
The failure of the authorities at
Clinton to arrest Will Sorsby, the
assassin Of Postoffice Inspector
Charles Fitzgerald, was a piece of
official cowardice, and ought to re-
suit in the removal of the town
marshal and all others in authority
at that place.
For more than an hour after
committing his brutal and unpro-
voked crime, Sorsby walked the
streets of Clinton without molesta-
tion. Scores of citizens saw him,
the town authorities saw him, and
yet they were afraid, actually
afraid, to place him under arrest,
because they knew he had a gun in
his pocket
Austin Ferguson, pseudo bad
man, slaughtered poor, unfortun-
ate woman of the underworld at
an early hour Saturday morning an
made his escape. He was appre-
hended at Brookhaven several hours
later and turned over to two Off
GERS who were charged with the
duty Of delivering him to the Jack
son authorities. Instead of hay-
ing thier prisoner handcuffed, and
maintaining proper surveillance,
they allowed him the liberty of the
train, and when a stop was made
at Crystal Springs, this red-handed
murderer calmly walked out of the
coach and disappeared, leaving his
simple-minded guards behind.
Negligence of this character, re-
gardless of how you view it, is in.
excusable. The Daily News knows
nothing of the previous records of
these two officers, and cares less,
but it can be asserted without hesi-
tation that they are either fit SUBJ
jects for home for the feeble
minded or they deliberately con-
nived at Ferguson's escape.
Two cold-blooded murders and
two attempts at murder form the
unenviable record of Kinds county
for the past two weeks and forces
the conclusion that what our coun-
ty needs above all things else. is
a first-class neck breaking Our
lawless citizenry needs to be taught
that murder means death at the
lend Of a rope, and it this carnival
of crime continues, and authorities
who are sworn to enforce the law
continue in their failure to do 50,
the outraged populace will be fore
ed to take the execution Of the law
into their own hands, and deal out
swift justice to offenders.