The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1926-11-20
s. G. GOVERNOR HAS SIX NEW
AFFIDAvITS INDEMNIFY
ING MOB
preston News Service)

w. Rogers, investigating the death and
IIynching Of the Lowmans 1T has been
revealed that Governor Mcleod has
six new affidavits involving the mem
bers Of the mob. 1t is reported that
the governor has intimated that he has
no doubt that there is a real basis OF
truth in what the affidavits say.
The afidavits are said to have been
made by four Negroes and two white
persons who were in the Aiken jail the
night the three Lowmans were taken
out and shot to death. In addition to
the affidavits made by Mrs. Lucy
Mooney and Charles E. Lee, who were
in the jail that night, the new atlantis
include: Hayward Marshall and d. A.
Morley, whites; ]. Cliff Robinson,
Waltep Jennings, Joseph Rouse and
Charles Chamberlain.
It is said that Nollie Robinson, high
sheriff at Aiken, has made three trips
to Columbia to see the Governor. 1t
is said that Governor Mcleod has or
dered a photographer to go to Aiken
and make photographs Of the interior
Of the Aiken Jail. He feels that there
are numDer of features of the stories
Of both Robinson and his jailer, Tay-
lor, which have not been satisfactorily
explained.
Both these men testified at the coro-
ner's inquest that they were overpower-
cred by the mob, none of whose men,
bers they recognize, which came from
inside the jailer's residence, "like
flock Of blackbirds." Robinson said
he fired two shots at them but missed
and was downed by three or four men.
The jailer related that the mob took his
gun and keys from him.
According to lawyers of Aiken
whenever they visited the Jail to see
prisoners the jailer took the keys from
huge safe implanted in the wall
which he had to open with key he
wore on his person. The jailer told the
coroner that the keys were on his
dresser in his bedroom when the mob
awakened him and he put them on his
belt before going down to face the
mob.
Why he did not put the keys in the
safe and throw away the safe key when
he saw the mob has not been explained
The sheriff appears unable to explain
satisfactorily a number of incidents
after he arrived at the jail in response
to the jailer's telephone call for help.
He says he found the mob outside be-
tween the courthouse and the main
door of the Jail He says he argued
with them to disperse and they turned
and walked away.
The sheriff says he addressed the
mob as he stood directly beside the
stairs leading to the main floor of the
Jail. No explanation has been made
why when he turned and walked away
toward the courthouse, he felt it neces-
sary for him to enter the jail, which
was safe against intrusion except by
arti6ce. Nor has he related why upon
deciding to enter the jail he left the
stairs leading directly to the main en-
trance and walked fifty feet around the
corner of the jail to the jailer's door.
This maneuver forced him to turn his
back to the mob.
He says he found the door to the
jailer's residence open, formed no sus-
picion that mob members might be in
side the house, and tells of arriving at
the steel door leading from the resi-
dence of the jailer to the jail and call
ing the jailer away from the main Jail
door to admit him. 1t was then, he
says, the mob swarmed over him from
behind him, darkened when the cleo
trio light wires was cut earlier in the
night eight miles from town.
The final and perhaps the most ex-
traordinary part Of both these stories
by the sheriff, which remains unex-
planned, is how the mob got into the
Jail without injury. Robinson says he
was seized from behind just as the jail
er opened the large steel door to admit
him. How the mob swarmed past him
in an instant and seized the jailer, who
was inside the jail, before the sheriff
got a chance even to FIRE his pistol or
shut the door remains an unsolved
mystery.
Through the relentless efforts of the
staff correspondent Of the New York
World and the accompanying efforts of
the investigators Of the N. A. A.
c. p. as well as the work Of the state
detective fear is being spread through