Negro Lynching.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 230, 3 October 1904, Page 4

Negro Lynching.

TERRIBLE AFFAIR IN GEORGIA.

A wholesale lynching of negroes I took place on Aug. 15 B t States-ooi-o, Georgia, where 15 negroes! were strung up f o r the alleged crime 1 of murder. i

A fortnight previously, Mr Charles Hodges, a well-to-do farmer, and his family of four were murdered by » band of negroes headed by two men I named Reod and Cato. Shortly after midnight on July 29 the house wasl discovered to be o n fire, and the 1 neighbours, hasting to assist in I quenching the flames were surprised to find the house untenanted. At daylight the bodies were found, Mr Hodge with his head crushed in, evidently from a blow with an axe .vruie Mrs Hodge's head bai teen beaten in with some blunt instrument. One little girl's body w a s also found mangled. The assassins were traced with the assistance of bloodhounds. Reed made a full confession implicating the others. His wife testified that Reed 0 n his return home, *membered that he had forgotten to kill a little girl. Ho went back, and notwithstanding the child's piteous appeals and her offer of five cents, all the money she had killed her with a blow from the axe. The bodies were found piled in a heap, which included the smaller children, who were found to be unhurt. After the arrest of the prisoners a mob, which far outnumbered the Militia, surrounded' and disarmed the soldiers who were guarding tho gaol and captured the negroes ns they were about to be taken t 0 the courts house for trial. The court had already been convened, and Judge Daly, who was to try the case, hearing the disturbance, came out on the courthouse steps, and, standing there pleaded for order, and begged the mob to let the law take its Course. The mob, however, infuriated at the sight of the negroes, paid no heed to the judge's pleadings, but, hurrying the negroes away, strung them up and riddled their bodies with bullets. After the outrage most of the participants returned quietly to their homes, though there was considerable excitement in the town all I day.