69 Fifth Avenue,
New York City,
October 28, 1926.

Hon. Thomas G. McLeod,
State Capitol,
Columbia, S. C.

My dear Gov. McLeod;

I have just left Aiken which I visited along with other cities in South Carolina as a representative of The New York World. My purpose in going there was to cover the recent lynching at Aiken of Clarence, Demon and Bertha Lowman. May I preface what I shall say to you with certain data?

I have seen a letter which you wrote to one of the prominent white citizens of South Carolina who wrote you urging that you do all in your power to apprehend and punish the lynchers and in your reply you said, "I will do everything in my power to get at the truth in this matter and to fix the guilt upon the proper parties."

I have before me copy of The Columbia State of October 9th in which you are quoted as saying, "Investigation will be made to the fullest extent, but the difficulties are apparent. Denunciation will accomplish nothing. Only thoughtful consideration with due regard to the horrible effects of that lynching will prevent a recurrence of this kind of tragedy." I further notice a copy of the State of October 21st telling of the report to Judge Marvin M. Mann of the Aiken County Grand Jury investigating the lynching in which regret is expressed on its inability to secure sufficient evidence against any person or persons on which to bring indictments.

May I at this point state to you that Col. Claude E. Sawyer of Aiken who is practicing law in the state of South Carolina and who has practiced for more than forty two years in the state, who was a member of the Staff of Gov. Wade Hampton, was formerly Solicitor at Aiken and who is one of the most distinguished attorneys and citizens of South Carolina, asked me to say to you that you have been entirely misled regarding the situation at Aiken through the confidence you have placed in Sheriff Nollie Robinson. The reason for his statement will be apparent later.

During the time I was in the state of South Carolina my contacts with and sources of information were some of the most responsible citizens of the state. Some of them were former members and officers of the Ku Klux Klan. All of them are men whose work I have every reason to believe is entirely reliable and there is documentary evidence to back up the statements which I shall make to you. I am placing this information before you in this fashion so that you and the state of South Carolina may have the opportunity of apprehending those responsible for the cold-blooded, carefully planned and premeditated murder of the three Lowmans. I am now enroute for New York and I shall place all of this material in the hands of my paper upon arrival there. This will allow some forty-eight hours for action before any of the material I have gathered will be published.

Hon. T. J. McLeod, 2

Here are the facts which I have secured. The lynching was
very carefully planned in advance. When Judge Janham delivered his
decision for a directed verdict in the case of Demon Lowman at five o'
clock on the afternoon of October 7th, plans were immediately made for
the lynching that night. I am reliably informed that the representatives
of the Ku Klux Klans met in the office of John Edwin Stansfield, an
Attorney of Aiken, who was appointed by the Court to defend Bertha Lowman
in the first trial. Mr. Stansfield was, as you know, elected democratic
candidate for the state legislature at the election of August 31, 1926;
that of the seven candidates, three of whom were to be chosen, Mr.
Stansfield received about one thousand more votes than his nearest com-
ppetitor. During the same afternoon there was considerable discussion of
the performance of a criminal operation on L. G. Southard of Spartan-
burg and the tarring and feathering of N. J. Frederick, a col red Attor-
ney of Columbia. These two men, as you know, defended the Lowmans at
the second trial. This latter step, however, was for some reason abandon-
ed.

I am further reliably informed that early in the morning of
October 8th around three o'clock, Sheriff Nollie Robinson, Deputy Sheriff
R. L. McElheny, Deputy Sheriff A. D. Sheppard and Traffic Officer John B.
Salley of Aiken went to Bertha Lowman's cell, Sheriff Robinson unlocking
the door. Bertha Lowman asked them, "What do you want now?" They told
her to put on her clothes as she was wanted downstairs. When she was re-
luctant to leave her cell, suspecting something amiss, I am informed that
she was dragged from her cell by Robinson and Salley. She was taken down
stairs and with Clarence and Demon Lowman delivered to the mob. Two shots
were fired after the mob had gotten possession of the prisoners, so I am
informed, and not as Sheriff Robinson claims, when he was resisting en-
trance of the mob into the jail.

May I at this point call attention in corroboration of these
facts that the jail at Aiken is only four years old and well constructed.
It shows little if any signs of the struggle which Robinson claims he
made in trying to defend the prisoners. Besides the barrier two outer
doors of steel, the keys to the cells are kept in a steel vault some
twenty-four inches square and the door to this vault is some two inches
thick and is of steel also. This vault, I am informed, shows no signs
whatever of the use of dynamite or nitroglycerine on it and can not be
opened in any other way except through connivance. May I also call your
attention to the Columbia Record of October 10th which describes the
jail's condition after the lynching.

I also want to mention at this point that plans had been made
to remove the prisoners hastily from Aiken to Columbia should they be con-
victed. But when Demon Lowman was freed of a murder charge, a circum-
stance certain to inflame lynchers if there was fear of a lynching follow-
ing a conviction, they were placed in the jail and only one man put there
to guard them. This action, I feel safe in asserting, is concrete evi-
dence of extreme carelessness if not of nonfeasance on the part of Sheriff
Robinsons and his Deputies.

To return to the lynching. I am informed that the following per-
sons were members of the mob which actually did the killing. I am giving
you their names, occupations and addresses in full so there can be no dif-
ficulty in locating them.

Gary Seigler, Bonded Constable for A. B. Raborn, Magistrate
at Aiken, whose office is in the Courthouse.