Accumulation of Crimes in Oconee County, Georgia Results in a Carnival of Death.
Following is an account of the carousal from the 30 June 1905 Athens Weekly Banner (Georgia):
Aycock and Seven Negroes Meet Death
Furious Mob Swept Down on Watkinsville Yesterday Morning at Two O'Clock, Cleared Jail of All Except One Negro, and Shot Prisoners to Death. Aycock Protested His Innocence to the Last. Mob Came Quietly, Overpowered Jailor and Town Marshal and Wreaked Its Awful Vengeance.
Yesterday morning at two o'clock the most horrible lynching in the history of Georgia took place at Watkinsville, Oconee county.
Seven negroes and one white man were taken from the jail and tied by their necks to fence posts near the jail and their bodies riddled with shot.
One negro who was taken out was shot several times and left for dead by the mob, but he will recover.
Only one more inmate of the jail was left and he would have been taken out also if the mob had known he was there.
The people of Watkinsville stand in dumb horror at the atrocity of the mob's action and on all sides the severest expressions of condemnation are heard, especially regarding three of the negroes who were charged with offenses less than the capital crime.
Not a man in the mob was recognized as they all wore masks and it is believed very firmly that all were from other counties.
So quietly was the whole affair carried out that very few of the people of Watkinsville knew anything about it until it was all over, and the few that did know about it were powerless to prevent it...
What Caused the Lynching.
The immediate cause of the lynching was undoubtedly the attempt by Sandy Price, colored, to assault Mrs. Weldon Dooley Tuesday afternoon at her home in the suburbs of Watkinsville. There was some little doubt as to the negroe's [sic] intentions, but many believed that when he went into the home of Mrs. Dooley he was bent on that kind of mischief.
He was shot at by several of the crowd that captured him, but was not hit. He was then brought to jail and lodged in safe keeping.
Then the trouble began to brew. The people of other counties evidently took the matter up, for yesterday afternoon Mr. A. N. Bostwick, of Morgan county, rode fourteen miles to give notice of the danger of a lynching occurring.
...So many rumors of this kind had come to Watkinsville that little attention was paid to what Mr. Bostwick had to say about it. This time the rumor was true and the mob came.
Rode Silently Into Town.
It was past one o'clock when the mob rode into Watkinsville. The number in the mob is variously estimated by those who saw them, but conservative estimate would place the crowd at one hundred. They come presumably from all directions in buggies and on horseback.
The first knowledge anyone had of their presence was when they went to the house of Marshal L. H. Aiken, of Watkinsville, and asked him to come to the door. He came, and as he stuck his head out of the door they grabbed him by the neck. He is a small man and could not resist them.
They demanded of him the key to the jail, and he refused to give it up. They then covered him with pistols and forced him to dress and got to the jail with them...
They passed right on down to the jail with steady tread, but no word being spoken...
The Entry at the Jail.
The mob took every necessary precaution to make the plans successful...
When the jail door was reached the leaders of the mob pressed their pistols to the head of Marshal Aiken and demanded that he open the door. This the marshal did with trembling hand and sinking heart for he well knew what it meant.
Inside the jail the mob was met by Jailer Crow. Up went his hands when he was ordered to deliver the keys to the cells. There was nothing else for Crow to do, but give up the keys or die. He chose to give up the keys...
Minor Criminals Included.
The desperate intent of the mob became apparent. They had come for the purpose of clearing out the whole jail, regardless of what the crimes were that were charged up against the inmates. Every man in the jail was taken out with the exception of Ed Thrasher, a negro charged with the offense of gambling. The fact that he was on the misdemeanor side of the jail was all that saved him, for the mob evidently did not know that he was there.
Down the lane to the spot where the old jail stood the nine negroes were hurried. It was a sight long to be remembered by those who saw it...Only two flickering lights were in the hands of the crowd, and the night was very dark. These lights made the scene all the more gruesome and awful.
Ropes were around the necks of the doomed prisoners and when the place of execution was reached they were tied to fence posts in three lots.
Lewis Robinson was one of the self-confessed murderers of Mr. and Mrs. Holbrook.
To the next post were tied Rich Robinson one of the murderers of the Holbrooks couple, Sandy Price, the negro accused of the attempted assault upon Mrs. Dooley, and Eugene Yerby, a negro who was accused of burglarizing the house of Mr. Marshall and taking therefrom a gun.
To the third post were tied Lon J. Aycock, the white man charged with having plotted the murder of the Holbrooks couple, Claud Elder, the first negro who confessed to the Holbrook killing, Joe Patterson, a negro charged with having pointed a pistol at Mr. Albert Ward one day when the citizens committee was busy hunting evidence to convict the Holbrook murderers, and Ben Harris, a negro charged with shooting two negroes near Bishop.
Then came the actual lynching. The mob lined up with their weapons in their hands, There were pistols, shotguns and rifles in use. At a command a sheet of fire leaped from the muzzles of the guns and all was over with the nine men except Joe Patterson. Then another volley came and still another...The work being over the mob leaped into their buggies and made off through the darkness...
The mob left as quietly as they came and left no trace of identity behind them.
Aycock Protested His Innocence.
Lon J. Aycock, the white man charged with the Holbrook murder, protested his innocence to the last...He told the mob that when they killed him they would kill an innocent man, and yesterday at the jail several citizens of Watkinsville expressed the belief that he was innocent. With that simple statement he went to his death without flinching.
Rich Robinson, one of the negro murderers [implicated others in the crime: Jim Taylor, Sidney Norris, and Wiley Durham]. That was all that Rich had to say.
From the lips of the other negroes not a word escaped. They seemed to be perfectly stunned by their approaching doom...They went to their death without a protest.
Joe Patterson Rescued.
After the mob had gone the citizens of Watkinsville, who were up and around the place went down to the scene of the lynching. Dr. Hodge noticed that one of the men was still breathing. He had managed to loosen the cord from around his neck, and was lying at full length on the ground. He was removed to the jail, where it was found that he had been shot in the head and twice in the body, but that neither wound was necessarily fatal.
Presently he came around and could talk. He corroborated all that has been said above, and also stated that the men were marked an[d] that he could not recognize a man in the crowd.
When daylight came to crowds began to gather and many people were soon on their way to Watkinsville from this city. It was an awful sight that met the gaze of the people who went to the scene of the lynching. The upturned faces of the men had a look of terror upon them. All were shot through the body several times except Lewis Robinson, who was shot in the mouth. The mob took special spite out on Aycock, the white man, and by the way they shot his body to pieces it was apparent that the members of the mob believed him to be the guiltiest of the lot. Through his heart was a hole as big as a man's fist and on the other side of his body there was another hole about the same size in which the shell of the cartridge still remained. The rest of his body was fairly riddled.
The Coroner's Inquest.
Coroner J. H. Pass held an inquest over the remains of the eight dead men yesterday morning. The evidence was all taken; there was nothing to throw light on the identity of the men who were in the mob...
Sheriff Overby Talks.
Sheriff B. E. Overby first received news of the lynching this morning about daybreak...He had no idea that such a thing was in contemplation and in fact regarded that everything was in safe condition, awaiting the court which was to try the case next month...
Jailer Crow Gives Version.
Jailer Crow made a statement for the press in regard to the lynching...He did beg for the life of Aycock and for the three negroes who were not charged with capital crimes, but the mob told him to shut his mouth, that they knew their business and wanted no advice from him...
The Feeling in Oconee.
The people of Oconee county are horrified at the enormity of this lynching. The best element of the people in that county has been at work steadily for months in the effort to bring these men to trial in the courts. They realized that the name of the county was in the balance and that they must prevent a lynching. They proceeded calmly and effectively to get up the evidence in the case against the three negroes and Aycock. The negroes confessed but Aycock denied the charge. Aside from the statements of the three negroes about Aycock there was little corroborative evidence that came to light.
Now the people feel that a great outrage has been perpetrated upon the people of the county by this mob. Everything was so quiet and the trials were almost at hand, and the people had begun to congratulate themselves upon the outcome.
Then came the action of the negro Sandy Price at the residence of Mrs. Dooley last Tuesday. That was the straw that evidently broke the camel's back, [a]nd yet the people of Oconee county seemed to wish that crime also be punished by law. They had the negro in the hands of more than fifty white men, and yet he was not lynched. They actually carried him to jail and awaited his trial.
An Uneasy Feeling.
For several days, however, there has been a slight undercurrent of uneasiness in Oconee. No special fear was entertained of lynching, but the opinion gained ground that the negroes were becoming more insolent, especially since the negro Price was not handled roughly by the people.
In all probability not this side of the judgment bar of God wil[l] it be disclosed what was the real motive of the mob, but the general belief is that a band of men determined that for the protection of their homes this thing must be done, and having determined that, they went mad and took in all the inmates of the jail regardless of the crimes charged against them.
Feeling Has Been Intense.
There is no denying the fact that ever since the killing of the Holbrooks couple in so brutal a manner the people of Oconee county and that entire section of the state have been under an intense strain.
...When the Holbrook murder occurred and the confessions of the three negroes were made it was believed that perhaps others were in the plot and that there might be a repetition of the crime in other localities...
That there have been mutterings among the negroes there can be no doubt and today the groups of darkies on the streets of Watkinsville are noticeable for the sullen and embittered looks upon their faces.
Federal Warrants Used.
To add to the feeling in the county a few days since a white man in that county whipped his negro cook because she was insolent to his wife. Her husband came to Athens and swore out a warrant against him. A number of people resented the interference of the Federal courts in this matter and that caused a feeling that boded no good.
Then came the action of Sandy Price who broke into the home of Mrs. Dooley and with that came the final explosion.
The Work of The Curious.
Until the coroner's jury was empanelled the bodies of the dead men were left as they lay when the last volley was fired into their bodies...
As the crowd multiplied the curious insisted on taking cartridge shells and other things as mementoes of the horrible affair, but this was soon stopped by the officers.
Story of Holbrook Killing.
A few weeks since the county of Oconee was thrown into a fever of excitement one morning upon the announcement that during the night Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Holbrook, a peaceable old couple, had been foully murdered at their home near Watkinsville. They kept a little store, the building being joined to their home.
Early that morning a negro man went down to the store to get some articles wanted by his employer and to his horror found the dead bodies of the old man and his wife lying in their blood on the back porch. He gave the alarm and soon hundreds of men were on the scene.
The old man had been called into his store by murderers and had been assaulted there. He had evidently struggled, as the trail of blood ran through the store into his bed room. Here he was finally clubbed to death, no less than eight horrible wounds [b]eing inflicted on his head.
Then it was that Mrs. Holbrook came to the assistance of her husband. She received nine wounds on the head with the same instrument and also a pistol wound through the brain.
Then the murderers determined that they were not certain the two old people were dead. They dragged their bodies to the back porch and again rained blow after blow upon their heads.
The motive for the crime was robbery and it is believed the murderers got away with fully three or four hundred dollars. Old man Holbrook had that much money at home, having secured it from a land settlement in Banks county a few weeks prior to that time. This money was carried by Mrs. Holbrook in a cloth sack which she kept next to her breast. The murderers had torn almost every rag of clothing from her body in the effort to find the money and finally succeeded in getting it.
Capture of Negroes.
Immediately the entire county of Oconee became detectives. The crowd made vigorous search for the assassins. They held up every suspicious character in the county. It got so that a negro would drop his hoe and run whenever he saw a white man approaching.
The very first pass they made secured Claud Elder, a young negro, and the next day they got Rich and Lewis Robinson. It required good work to get the facts but slowly they came out.
Citizens' Committee Organized.
It was seen that no progress could be made in a general investigation open to the public. Then it was that Hon. James D. Price suggested the organization of a citizens' committee to probe the matter to the bottom. More than four hundred of the people of the county assented to this and elected a committee of eighteen to take the investigation in hand...
The committee met regularly day in and day out for more than two weeks and probed the case to the bottom. The first ray of light came through the confession of Claud Elder, who stated that the two Robinsons and the white man, Lon J. Aycock, were also in the crime. He put the actual crime on Aycock and Lewis Robinson and exculpated himself to the extent that he said he was not in the house at the time of the killing.
Further search found the cloth sack in which the money was kept by the old lady before her death...
Killed Them for Five Dollars.
The Robinsons said that Aycock planned the whole killing. They said he promised them five dol[l]ars each for their work. Lewis Robinson gave up five silver dollars he said Aycock had paid him for the crime...Claud Elder said Aycock had paid him only one dollar and had promised to pay the balance in a few days.
They said that Aycock marched them away from the scene of the crime and that when near a creek he displayed a roll of bills as large as a man's thigh...
Aycock steadily denied the charges from the beginning...
The strongest circumstantial evidence connecting Aycock with the crime was the fact that he had drawn an order on a man in Athens for twelve dollars a few days before the crime and when he was called on to pay it didn't have the money. On the day after the killing he had the money and offered to take up the order.
Aycock did not bear the best reputation in the world and that made very strongly against him. He had been in trouble before in the courts and was regarded as a dangerous man. Nevertheless the evidence had not been secured to fully corroborate the testimony of the negroes. Still it was the general belief that he was guilty...
Committee's Finding.
After full deliberation the committee reported to the people that the evidence in its opinion was sufficient to hold for trial the four men. Judge Johnson made a speech to the crowd urging them to uphold the hands of the committee, and the crowd promised to refrain from violence...
As it was the tragedy came with the rush of an avalanche and without the slightest warning save that given by Mr. Bostwick, and that even was not taken seriously.
The scene at the place where the bodies lay after the lynching was one long to be remembered with horror by anyone who saw it. Never in the history of the state had such a crime been committed against the law. Men have been lynched, but one, two or three the usual number.
But here was eight dead bodies tied to fence posts, with gaping wounds upon their bodies and the death stare in their eyes. No discrimination on account of color or crime marked the mad work of the mob..."
I'll be back tomorrow with a post of more information about some of the lives extinguished, resulting from this "carnival of death." [Go now.]
Disclaimer
For all of the information that newspaper accounts provide, their serious limitations also must be recognized. Because the majority of extant newspapers from the period are white newspapers, they reflect the harsh racial attitudes of the day, and their accounts of lynchings, the alleged crimes that prompted lynchings, and the portrayals of mob victims must be treated with great caution…[W]hite descriptions of both the alleged offenses and the character of lynching victims cannot be accepted without question.
Comments
Post a Comment