Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1885 — TERRIBLE RETRIBUTION. [ARTICLE]

TERRIBLE RETRIBUTION.

Five Negroes, One of Them a Woman, Hanged by a Texas Mob. Randolph Hazell, living on the outskirts of Elkhart, Texas, attended a village dance, says a dispatch fiom that place. His wife, only twenty-three years old, had intended accompanying him, but at the last moment changed her mind and retired with her two children, telling her husband to go to the dance and have a good time. When Hazell returned about midnight he entered his wife’s chamber, intending to wake her and gossip about the dauce. Ho found the two little children sleeping, but the mother whs gone. Striking a light, tho husb ind soon discovered that his wife’s clothing was all there, and, finding the front door unlocked, he at once surmised the truth. He ran to town, gathered half a dozen of his friends, and began a search. Near the doorwny of his residence, in the soft mud, were visible the tracks of two men with large, broad feet Between these tracks was the delicate imprint of a woman's foot. When the poor husband saw this he fell on his knees and asked God to kill him. He knew what the tracks meant. Dogs were quickly given the soent, and at 2 o’clock in the morning, through the aid of the animals, the body of Mrs. Hazell was found about a mile from the house, and only twenty-five yards from the main road. She was nude, and lying upon her face. The jugular vein had been severed with a common knife. Along her cheeks were visible great gashes made with a dull knife, and around her neck was a dark, black circle, as though she had been banged. Near the body was found a pair of men’s drawers, and 300 yards away was found a man’s undershirt. As soon as the Sheriff arrived from Palestine, some twelve miles distant, a rigid examination was commenced. Over twenty negroes were immediately arrested and examined. The body of the dead woman revealed the fact that she had been repeatedly outraged. The theory of the officers was that after outraging the woman the fiends, fearing they had been recognised, determined to kill her. After murdering her they attached a rope around her neck and dragged the corpse about oneeighth of a mile. All this took place within a few yards of a public road about 11 o’clock at night Over a hundred persons traveled the road that same night. In the house of Andy Jackson, a negro near by, was found a rope clotted with blood and hair, and also a white sheet with a woman’s footprint upon it. Andy Jackson, Fraik Hayes, Sam Collins, George Henry, William Rogers, and many other negroes were arrested. The following day the Coroner began an investigation, which was in progress until midnight. The prisoners were in a large vacant store-room, which was heavily guarded by twenty Deputy Sheriffs. During the progress of the inquest at one place in the village another examination, looking to identification of the guilty parties, was going on before Justice Parke. In the Coroner’s court twelve suspected negroes wore examined separately. Investigation developed the fact that the negro Andy Jackson, near whose house the nude body of Mrs. Hazell was found, hid been refused water out of the Hazell well. It seems that Andy Jackson’s wife had been in the habit of going to the well early drawing water. Fearing prolonged drought recently, Mrs. Hazell objected to Jackson’s using so much water. This cost the poor woman her life. In her examination before Justice Parke, Mrs. Jackson partially admitted that she had threatened to kill Mrs. Hazell, but stubbornly refused to divulge all she knew. Her young daughter, Lizzie Jackson, was finally sworn,and after a little coaxing and threatening she confessed what she knew about the crime. It was almost midnight when she told the awful story. She said her mother, whose name was also Lizzie, and her father, Andy Jackson, hatched the plot to murder Mrs. Hazell. Learning that Hazell would attend a dance, her father went out, and returned with three colored men, named Frank Hayes, Joe Norman, and William Rogers. These men and her father, Lizzie said, committed the crime. At this point Lizzie’s mother was brought in and confronted with her daughter’s confession. The mother broke down and supplemented the confession with sickening details. She said she accompanied the men to Mrs. Hazell’s house, and showed them where her bed stood. After they had carried their victim some distance from the house they threw her on the ground, and while Andy Jackson held a pistol at her head each of the other three brutes outraged the poor victim. Mrs. Jackson confessed that she stood by and saw the outrages perpetrated. “After this,” said the black woman, “we killed her and dragged her body to the place where it was found.” As soon as the Coroner's jury learned of the confessions they immediately returned a verdict in accordance with the same. At 1 o’clock next morning the verdict was generally known on the streets, and squads of waiting white men began to form into companies. All day and night teams from the country had been arriving, bringing men with long guns. At 2 o’clock fully 500 were in line. Not a single negro was to be seen anywhere. The mob marched to the storeroom where the prisoners were confined. At first the Deputy Sheriffs were inclined to show fight, when the leader notified them that it was useless. “We will kill every one of you, if it is necessary, in order to hang those brutes,” said the leader. That settled it. The mob came in and picked out the negroes above named, including Andy Jackson and his wife Lizzie. With their five victims the mob marched about a mile, until near the very spot where the murder and outrage were committed. There, near a negro church, on the limbs of a big tree the five brutes were strung up. They were asked no questions, and given no time to pray. It seemed as though the mob could not get them hanged quick enough.