The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1918-05-28
HOW WOUNDED WOMAN
ESCAPED HUMAN HYENAs
STORY OF MURDER OF HAMP
SMITH AND THE WOUNDING
OF HIS WIFE.
ONE CULPRIT CORROBORATES
STATEMENT OF THEIR VICTIM
Maltreated Woman, Shot Through
the Body, Bruised and Bleeding,
Dragged Herself Through Briars
and Barbed Wire to Give Alarm.

and Barbed Wire to Give Alarm.
Details of the tragedy as related
BY one of the six negroes who were
lvnched in Lowndes county for the
murder of Hamp Smith and the
shooting and maltreating of his wife,
as printed in the current issue of the
Vaidosta Times, shows a cold-blooded
murder on the part of the principals
to the tragedy. He told of the plot
which had been formed several days
before to commit the crime.
He said that his part in the crime
was to steal Mr.. Smiths rifle, and
that another employee on the place
called Shorty was also in it.
How Crime Was Perpetrated.
Will Heads story was to the effect
that he asked Mrs. Smith for an early
supper Thursday evening, as he
wanted to visit his girl" She told
him that he would have to take a
cold supper, which she gave him. He
was supposed to have left the place
at once. The other negroes, Sidney
Johnson and Shorty" ate later,
their supper being given to them so
that they could eat it while Mr.. and
Mrs. Smith were eating theirs.
While supper was on Will Head
crept into the house and stole the
rifle and carried it to the yard and
gave it to Sidney Johnson, SO he said.
Mr.. Smith missed it as soon as he
walked into his room from the din
ing room. He asked Mrs. Smith if
she had moved it and before she
could answer the shot came from the
window. She quickly realized what
had happened and rushed to the
porch on the north side of the house
"squalling," as the negro expressed
it, She was jerked from the porch
to the ground, where she was brutal
ly maltreated and left for dead, as
a shot was fired through her body.
1t entered her back and bored
through the flesh through the edge
of her lung and came out above her
breast, burying itself in the ground
where it was found fiattened like a
dum-dum bullet by searchers the
next morning.
Mrs. Smiths Escape.
Mrs. Smiths escape occurred while
the negroes, evidently four of them,
we're ransacking the house and irving
to find valuables. The bureau draw
ers over the dead body of Mr.. Smith
were tOpsy-turvy and their contents
scattered. Trunks were also opened
and ransacked. Mrs. Smith in the
meantime, bruised and bleeding,
dragged herself through the rear
premises, through the briars and
down deep gully to a branch,
where she hid behind log while the
bloodthirsty fends, like hungry n.y.
enas, were looking for her.
She later stanched the flow of
blood from her wound with her
apron and began a painful flight
across the field to the home of a ne
gro family on the Joyce place. She
climbed barbed-wire fences and her
tracks showed that in some places
she had to drag herself along on her
hands, completely exhausted.
The evidence of Will Head and the
tracks through the field showed that
the negro murderers followed her,
evidently carrying a lamp which was
found in the automobile which they
tried to crank-up and make a get
away, but failed. The tracks of the
negro pursuers followed hers, many
OF them being planted in hers. Her
small shoe made a deeper impression
IN the soft earth than the big fiat feet
OF the negroes, so her tracks could
De seen In many places under the
tracks of those who were trying to
catch her.
Reaching the home of the negro
family on the Joyce place, a negro
known as cold Mark" she told of
what had occurred. These negroes
gave her every possible assistance
%nd also soread the news of the muir
GIer and the murderous assault upon
ner. In an hour or two the country
was beng secured for the assailants.
Troops Ordered Out.
Following the lynching of five ne
EroeS for the crime Governor Dorsey
U3Hefed a reward of $500 each for
me ,fst five persons apprehended
ana delivered to the sheriff of Lown-
o 1 county, and by proclamation de-
'lared state ofRinsurrection existed