Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 1892 — SHOT THEM LIKE DOGS. [ARTICLE]

SHOT THEM LIKE DOGS.

THREE MEMPHIS NEGROES RIDDLED WITH BULLETS. Seventy-five Masked Men Overpowdered the Jailer—The Victims Were Charged with Having Ambushed and Shot Down Four Deputy Sheriffs Last Saturday. It’s a Race War. Memphis, Tenn., was in the control of a mob AVednesday morning. Three of the negro rioters arrested for shooting the Deputy Sheriffs have been lynched, two others are missing, and are supposed to have been made way with by the riotors, and a crowd of five thousand excited negroes surrounds the place where the bodies of the dead negroes lie, loudly crying for vengeance on their slayers, says a dispatch. At 3 o'clock in the morning a mob of about seventy-five armed citizens surrounded the County Jail and compelled Jailer O’Donnell to give up the keys to the cells where the negro rioters were confined. After securing the keys, the mob made a rush for the cells, and placing ropes around the necks of Tom Moss, AVill Stuart, and Cal McDowell, they hurried them to the Chesapeake & Ohio yards. The negroes were then placed together and in less than three seconds over twenty-five rifle shots rang out and the negroes fell, dying almost instantly. The mob then quickly dispersed and it was not until daylight that the extent of the lynching was realized. Early risers were horrified to find the bodies of the three negroes lying on the ground riddled with bullets. Two other negro riotors are missing and the belief is that their bodies will be found later.

The bodies were taken to the office of Jack AValsh, and a crowd of negroes began to gather. It rapidly increased, and now 5,000 people surround the place where the dead bodies are. Further trouble is feared. The negroes are reported to be arming at “The Curve, ’’ and a telephone message has just been sent in that they have killed two white men. The riot and collision between blacks and whites, which has now ended in a general lynching bee, occurred Saturday night last in the suburbs of Memphis at a place known as "The Curve:” This is a locality notorious for its toughness. It is a resort for roustabouts and thieves, and the authorities have always experienced great difficulty in maintaining law and order there. The neighborhood is thickly populated by negroes, who had committed several assaults of an aggravated nature upon white citizens. Calvin McDowell, a negro who keeps a grocery and barroom at the corner of Mississippi and Walker avenues, was up on Saturday before Judge Dußose on a charge of assault and battery. Having been released on bail, he returned to his place of business, and gathering his friends, told them that the whites were getting ready to mob them. When MoDowell was before him, Judge DuBose said ho intended to purify the district in which McDowell and his supporters flourished, and this is supposed to have given McDowell the idea that an organized assault was to be mado upon the negroes. Later in the day a warrant was issued for Tom Steward, one of McDowell’s gang, who was charged with assaulting a white man. As a determined resistance was anticipitated, nine deputy sheriffs wero sent to make the arrest. These deputies were Perkins, Cole, Barnard, Richardson, Harold, Webber, Moore, Yerger, and App, and they arrived at—Jthe McDowell place about 11 o’clock Saturday night. Upon entering and inquiring for Steward they were told by the proprietor that ho was in tho back room. Upon entering this room, which was dark, they were met by the flash of a number of revolvers, shotguns and rifles. Deputy Sheriff Cole received a charge of shot in the face and breast, completely tearing out his left eye. a bullet which struck him in the shoulder passed completely through hi 3 body. Officer Yerger was struck by the port! n of a charge in the head, but while some of the shot lodged in his scalp most of them missed him. Deputy Harold was shot in the neck and throat and left side of the face, and is in a dangerous condition. The officers, who stood’close together, made an excellent target for their assailants, while they themselves were at a great disadvaniage, as they were unable to locate the negroes except by the flashing of their weapons. The officers returned the fire as rapidly as possible, however, and then charged in a body. The negroes rushed pell-mell through the back door, many of them abandtSiing their weapons in -their flight. White people attracted by the firing flocked to the scene, and with their assistance thirteen of the negroes were taken from various hiding places. The excitement was intense, butthe prisoners were kept under guard and, for the time being, safely transferred to the jail. On Sunday fourteen more negroes were captured and locked up. In the room in which the tragedy occurred were found six' shotguns, a Winchester rifle and a large quantity of ammunition. This discovery, to which was added the report that the men who did the shooting belonged to a secret organization among the negroes formed for the purpose of making war on the whites, roused popular excitement to a white heat and, notwithstanding the presence in the city of military organizations numbering 1,100 men, tho determination to deal with the negroes in a summary manner was too strong to be checked and the lynching followed.