AMERICAN MOB LAW.

Waikato Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 3501, 1 December 1894, Page 11

AMERICAN MOB LAW.

A revolting case of mob law, evidently tho result of a carefully.plinner! plot,-is reported from Shelby County, Tennessee. An officer in the district arrested six negroes, who had been eaughf setting fire to a number of barns and dwelling, houses. After the prisoners had been handcuffed and chained together they were placed in a waggon, which started [or the gaol at Millington, accompanied by the officer and one driver, By nightjail it had reached a creek two miles from Millington, and- the officer was about to lead the horse across the bridge when a voice rang out from the wood by the roadside, "Don't try to cross there, I.he bridge is down. Come this way." The officer unsuspectingly turned the horse's head in the direction from which the \ oice came. Hardly had he done so when two guus were presented point blank at him, and a voice exclaimed, "throw up your hands." The officer had no choice but to obey, and a watch was placed over him. A large crowd of armed men then marched from the woods and rapidly approached the waggon. Their angry threats soon reached the ears of the wretched negroes, and the latter, divining their purpose, attempted to leap from the cart and make their escape under cover of night. A volley from 40 to 50 guus was poured into thousand they all fell back into the waggon, wounded or dying. A dozen men then climbed on to the wheels and shafts and threw' the negroes out upon the ground. Volley after volley was aimed at them, and the mob did not cease firing even when all the six had been killed. The head of one of the negroes was almost shot from his body, and some of the others were terribly mangled, The mob afterwards rode away, They were all unmasked, but none of them were known to the officer by sight, The authorities have organised an active search for, the lynchers,