Mexico weekly ledger., 1919-11-20
NEGRO IS LYNCHED
IN MOBERLY SUNDAY
One of -Four Who Robbed Edward
Thompson, Farmer, Thursday
Night is Shot by Mob

MOBERLY, Mo-, November ia
negro, said to be one of four who on
Thursday night held up and robbed Ed
ward Thompson, farmer, on the out
skirts of Moberly, was lynched in For
est Park here early Sunday morning.
The negro's three companions, who had
been taken with him from the Macon
Jail and spirited to Moberly by the
mob, escaped from the lynchers. Two
of them later were captured by the
Randolph County officers and are now
in Jail at point unknown. One negro
still is at large, but posses are securing
the country for him and his capture is
momentarily expected.
The four negroes were arrested
Thursday night by Moberly police af-
ter Thompson had reported that while
on his way home he had been held up
and beaten into insensibility by four
blacks. He gave the police descrip-
tion of his assailants and short time
later Harry Classy, a Moberly negro
proprietor of rooming house, told the
police four men answering the des-
cription given by Thompson were at
his home. When arrested all of the
negroes wer armed. They gave their
names as HALEY Richardson, 1S years
old, 101 West Thirty-frst street, Chi
cago; Sanford Taylor, 20, 113 Bakes
street, East st. Louis; George Adams,
IS, 293S Federal street, Chicago;
James Anderson, 1922 Federal street,
Chicago,
NeighbOrs Bent on Lynching.
Rumors that Thompson's neighbors
were bent in lynching the negroes
reached the Moberly officers Friday
morning, and following their prelim-
mary hearing, when they were bound
over to the next term Of the Circuit
Court, the prisoners were taken to the
Randolph County Jail at Huntsville.
:. Friday night, it is said, a mob went
to Huntsville, but was outwitted by
Sheriff Henry Owens, who had taken
the negroes to the Macon County jail.
Last night an unusually large num-
Der of farmers were noticed on the
streets here, but as the negroes were
not in the city mob violence was little
feared. That night, however, about
twenty automobiles sped to Macon, the
Jail was stormed and the four prisoners
were taken from the Macon County
Sheriff clad only in their night clothes
, and brought to Moberly.
Mob Waiting at Park.
, The mob hurried the negroes to For
, est Park, in the west part of the city.
Here a crowd, said to number 100
men. was waiting. A large fire had
been built, it is said, but it is uncertain
) whether the intention was to burn the
negroes or merely to keep the MOB
r members warm. One of the negroes
had his arms pinioned behind him. A
l rope was placed about his neck and
5 brown over an outhanging limb. The
. mob pulled and the limb broke. The
? negro started running as he fell. -Four
guns flashed and he was killed in
stantly.
At the shots the other three negroes
ran. Efforts to catch them failed un-
/ less, as the officers suspect, one Of
them was thrown into Forest Park
Lake and drowned. Searching parties
: have been dragging the lake all day
!. but the body has not been recovered
d and it is believed the negro made his
/, scape This theory is given credence
n by the fact that an unclad negro was
t said to have been seen in the vicinity
y f Clifton Hill this afternoon and a
: posse now is there looking for him.