NEGRO’S CRIME.

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 February 1926, Page 5

NEGRO’S CRIME.

ATTEMPT TO LYNCH.

TROOPS DEFEND COURTHOUSE.

(Rquter.j NEW YORK, January 31. . A telegram from Lexington, Kentucky, says that in order to prevent a possible attempt to lynch a negro, who has confessed to slayinga white .man and his two children, and to attacking his wile, the Governor of Kentucky has ordered one thousand cavalrymen, with gas bombs and automatic rifles, to guard the courthouse during the trial of the accused- Several square blocks in the vicinity of the Courthouse will be roped off, and only those connected with the trial will be admitted therein. All the business houses wil] be shut in this area, and the householders will be ordered to temporarily vacate their premises. A proclamation has been issued asking all Lexingtonians who can do so to leave the city for the day, and asking everyone to keep indoors for fear of stray bullets.

The most intense popular feeling has been aroused. The negro, when arrested. was saved from a mob by the sheriff’s ruse, and, when he was gaoled, the prisoners in the gaol nearly succeeded in lynching him, but they wer.e beaten off by the guards after a desperate battle. The troops have been ordered to shoot to kill on the slightest sign of a disturbance. It is believed that the trial will be extremely short, and, if found guilty, the negro will be ordered to be hanged.