Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1913-05-07
TWO KILLED by HUNTED BLACK.
Three Others Badly Wounded by Flu
gitive-Attempted Assault.

men are dead and four others seri-
ously wounded as the result of at
tempts to capture a negro, Richard
Austin, who is charged with having
attempted to criminally assault the
wife OF a prominent citizen Of the
Luray section Of this county, about
4 o'clock this afternoon.
The dead are J. Frank Bowers, a
prominent farmer of the Luray sec
ton, and Magistrate Edenneld, Of AL
Iendale, in Barnwell county. The
wounded are DR.. S. C. Moore, Me
Teer Bowers, George Hanna and an
other whose name could not be
learned.
DR.. Moore vas taken to a hospital
in Columbia, and it was learned to-
night that he had only a fighting
chancc for recovery.
Surrounded in Swamp.
The killings took place willie the
negro was surrounded in a bay, thick
with underground, from which he
fired at his pursuers. 1t is stated
that about twenty shots were ex-
changed.
About s o'clock tonight it was re.
ported that the fugitive had broken
through the line formed by the posse
and had escaped.
Governor Blcase was communicate
ed with about 10 O'Clock and it is I'M
derstood here that he promised 10
rush b~loodhounds to the scene by
special train.
The negro, apparently, had pre-
pared himself for the consequences
of his alleged act by arming himself
with a shotgun, with a sack Of buck
shot shells and a large calibre pistol.
Chased Through Two States.
Allendale, May LATTER outwit-
ting and Guiding bands of armed men
and b~loodhounds all day, firing on one
party which attempted to stop him in
a public road about Q o'clock this
morning, and escaping, being once
driven beyond the State border into
Georgia and later forced to cross
back into South Carolina, Richard
Henry Austin, the negro who killed
two men and wounded four in Hamp-
ton county last night, was pushed
packed by his pursuers into Coosaw-
hatchie Swamp, not a great distance
from Barton, late this afternoon, and
early tonight the dogs have taken
the trail and the negro Is believed to
have been located. 1t was the gene
raj opinion of the 200 odd men in
the party that he would be captured
before midnight.
Whenevr and however Austin is
taken, in the event he should be cap
tured, there Is no question now what
the disposition will be. Nothing
could prevent a lynching, and from
the temperament of the crowd, it Is
not to be unexpected that fire will
play it's part.
One small posse Of eight men trail
ed the negro toward the Savannah
'''>i III aDoul q ~ CloCh lHlS
afternoon, five miles from the Sa-
vannah river, they left their automo-
bile on account of a puncture and
were walking along the roadway,
when their attention was attracted by
some n running through the under
growth in the woods.
They stepped to one side Of the
road and as Austin came out ordered
him to stop. Instead, he paused but
a moment, opened fire on the posse
and turned back into the woods. The
fire was returned, and while blood on
the ground indicated that Austin had
been hit, he was not seriously
wounded.
Outcome Certain If Negro Caught.
Hampton, May 1.-The tragedies
of yesterday. resulting in the death
OF two OF the most prominent citi-
zens Of this section Of the State and
the infliction OF mortal wounds on
another and the wounding Of two
Others not so seriously, by the al
legged wOuld-bo rapist, Richard
Henry Austin, have shaken the sur
rounding territory as nothing has
done in years.
Fully one thousand men from
Barnwell and Hampton counties,
their faces showing the grim deter
mination to have vengeance, to-day
searched every nook and corner Of
the community in which the TRACE
dies occurred for the negro. The pa