TERRIBLE REVENGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 46, 23 February 1929, Page 3

TERRIBLE REVENGE.

NEGRO SET ON FIRE. BURNED BEFORE 2000 PERSONS. One of the most brutal Ivnchings ever carried out took place in Missouri, U.S.A., where a negro was burned alive at a stake, dying in agony in the presence of a crowd of more than 2000 persons. This abominable deed occurred on the outskirts of a small town known as Parchman. Charley . Shepherd, a 41-year-old negro, had confessed to the murder of Mr. J. D. Duvall, manager of the State Prison farm, and the abduction of his 18-year-old daughter. Shepherd, it is stated, attacked Mr. Duvall with a hammer, because Duvall had beaten him. Duvall fell unconscious and the negro stabbed him to death with an ice-pick. Next he seized the girl, compelled her to walk with him four miles, through heavy swamps, although she was barefooted and clad only in her night clothing. He then attacked" her and left her.

Mrs. Duvall gave the alarm and 1000 armed men took up the pursuit, aided by bloodhounds and aeroplanes, but Shepherd eluded them and reached the cabin of his brother Tom on a plantation owned by Miss Laura Keeler.

Through other negroes she heard that the fugitive was hiding there. She entered the cabin unarmed, and forced Shepherd to surrender Mr. Duvall's rifle and revolver, with which he had armed himself.

With three male companions she ittempted to take Shepherd back to the prison in her motor car, but the news that

the fugitive was on the road spread rapidly, and nearly 200 other cars joined in the chase.

Miss Keeler drove at a speed of nearly 100 miles trying to shake off the pursuers, but she was finally overtaken and gave up the prisoner after a fruitless plea to let the law take its course.

When the crowd had soaked his clothes ■with petrol and bound him to the logs on the pyre, they invited Mrs. Duvall to start the execution. Whether she complied is not known, but a moment later the crowd roared madly as a torch was applied to the prisoner's clothing. His prayers for mercy and agonised screams evoked only jeers and gibes from the blood-maddened mob, and he died after writhing in agony for nearly half an hour.