The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-05-26
Negro Who Slew Escort and
Then Assaulted Girl Is Sought.
Negro Suspects Are Held in the
Waco, Texas, Jail Today.
he BOARDED A FREIGHT THEN
Daughter of Prominent Family
Had Been Nearly Killed.
Negro Had Snapped Trigger
Three Times, Failed, and Fled.

Waco. May 26.-A negro believed TO
have murdered Harrell Bolton and as
saulted Mrs. Maggie Hays last night
was captured about 5 miles south
east of Waco about noon by Constable
Leslie Stegal and is in jail.
A large crowd is gathered about the
jail. The gold tooth and the shoe
tracks correspond with the description
given The negro's name is Sank
johnson.
Waco, May 26.-Officers in the man
hunt east of Waco at noon had taken
three negroes into custody and are
holding them for possible Identified
ton as the men who killed HarreH
Bolton and assaulted Miss Margaret
Hayes, his companion, last night The
negroes will probably be spirited away
to safety from possible violence until
Miss Hayes can see them, officers said.
Hillsboro. Tex. May 26.-Posses
numbering approximately 500 men
ca rly today were searching the couu-
try between Waco and Hillsboro for a
negro who last night shot and killed
Margaret Hayes. who was driving
with Bolton in an automobile on the
CorsicanH road four miles north of
Waco.
Two Suspects Held.
Two negro suspects are held in the
Waco jail, while officers here are
working on two or three leads" they
announced.
The negro, according to Miss
Hayes's story, stopped Bottoms car 81
a lonely spot about last night and
shot Bolton.
He then dragged the girl into the
woods, where he assaulted and held
her prisoner for three hours. He then
dragged the girl to the tracks of the
Dallas-Waco. branch of the Missouri
& xrrha he
tried to shoot her, according to the
girls story. He snapped the trigger
of his gun three times, the cartridges
failing to explode.
Boarded Freight.
The negro then threw her into a
bound north, she said. Officers
stopped and searched the train here
early today but failed to find the man.
They had report negro was seen
to leave the freight at Abbott, ten
miles south of Hillsboro.
Bolton and the young woman are
members % prominent Waco families.
The girl said she could identify her
assailant, describing him as tall and
yellow, said he had a prominent gold
tooth. One Of the men in the Waco
Jail is said to have a gold tooth but
the description otherwise is incom-
plete.
Three boys found the young woman
wandering on a country road near the
scene of the crime shortly after mid
night
They carried her in an automobile
to her Waco home and reported the
affair to officers.
Officers about 9 o'clock were re-
ported on a hot trail near the scene
of the crime. They found the tracks
of the negro leading from Bottoms
automobile standing in the road wav
to the point where Miss Hayes was
assaulted, and thence to the railroad
tracks.
The man wore a large shoe with a
rubber heel which imprinted the name
of the manufacturer at almost every
step.
The negro apparently left the
freight train about mile from where
he boarded it and headed east thru
a field Tracks picked up at this
point were the same as those found
starting al the automobile.