Alabama Desperadoes.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

Alabama Desperadoes.

JUDGE LYNCH HOLDS SWAY

Three of tho notorious Bob Sims gang of outlaws who for some timo past had infested Choitaw County, Alabama, were taken from tho sheriff's posse, whilo under arresb, and summarily hanged by tho people on December 26th. Sims taught what he called a religion, tho essence of which was that the devil was in possession of bhe instruments of Government, and, therefore, to defy law was proper and commendable. Illicit distilling was among these defiances. When the officers went in search of the still, they were guided by a young man named John McMillan. In revenge, the Sims gang surrounded McMillan's house one night, set it on fire, and shot the inmates, five in number, as they tried to escape the flumes. This last horror aroused the people, and when tho sheriff, by bhe aid of a largo party, managed to arrest the desperadoes, the law was saved any further trouble with them in the manner stated.

Two more of the party—John, brother of Bob, and Wosely, a nephew of Bob—wore caught by tho lynchers and hanged on the 27th ; and the avengers were in hob pursuit'of a negro who was with tho gang on the night of the McMillan massacre. The lynchers burned all tho housos' and killed every living thing on Bob Sims' place. The family escaped to a neighbour's and say they a*e going to leave the country. A crowd fully 500 strong are beating the country for Noil Sims, another outlaw, who, it is said v -bas about forty adherents, and proposes bo burn bhe village of Woruack Hill. The four daughters and wife of Bob Sims are under guard,* and very defiant, and bhere are loud threats of treating them in the same way bhe male victims have been served. This Bob Sims seems to have been the incarnation of cruelty. Ab bhe McMillan massacre, an eye-witness, who was himself wounded, says: "Bob shot all the children, and when ho levelled his pistol ab bhe thirteen-year-old daughter of McMillan, who had a three-year-old sistor in her arms, she cried, "Mr Sims, doa'b shoob me." He'replied, "D n you, pray—" and shob her dead. She fell, still holding the little child. The infant's left leg was shattered from the knee to tho ankle." When the little boy ran oub, Bob killed him, and tossed the body back into the burning building, where it was found next morning, disfigured beyond recognition.

News came labo on bhe nighb of January 6th from Womock Hill to Mobile, Ala., bhab while Neil Sims (Bob's brother), with two other men and Laura and Beatrice Sims (Bob's daughters), were on the way from bhe Hill (bho 3cene of the recent outrages) bo Leah, Mississippi, tho rendezvous of "the rest of tho Sims gang, they wore met by a posse searching for Neil, who is wanted for murder. He resisted tho posse, but was overpowered, hanged, and afterwards riddled with bullets. The rest of the party tried to interfere in Neil's behalf, and were strung up on an oak tree, the women include:!. Greab excitement prevailed.