Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1893 — MOB LAW IN ALABAMA. [ARTICLE]

MOB LAW IN ALABAMA.

The Peaceable Citizens of tlie’Sunny South Go On the War Path. Clarke, Choctaw, Wilcox and Marengo counties th ATabama, have tof years suF’ sered from the depredations and outlawry of a gang of ruffians known as the Meachamites. The trouble began over a saloon opened in defiance of the local prohibition laws of that section, and operated by night only, masked men guarding the place and dealing with customers. Gradually the infractions of Jaw wereextended to horse-stealing and counterfeiting, and the gang grew in' nutAbers until It is supposed to number about fifty men. Their headquarters were Meachambeat, six miles from Coffeeville. Barn burnings and outrages of various kinds were constantly taking place, and several persons have been killed by the outlaws without provocation and in cold blood. The last outbreak of the Meachamites wa« at Thomasville, when they threatened to destroy the town. Following this a meeting of citizens was held and an organized force was mustered with the determinanation to suppress the gang. Friday night, the posse captured Tooch Bedsoe, a Meachamite, who confessed to the killing as various parties. Bedsoe was then riddled with bullets by the posse organized by the citizens. At a subsequent encounter two more of the gang were killed, and the hunt for the desperadoes is continuing In tbe swamps and forests of the country. 'The citizens are determined to kill them all before the chase Is stopped.