Press enter after choosing selection

String Up To A Tree

String Up To A Tree image
Parent Issue
Day
4
Month
December
Year
1903
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Mob in Louisiana Town Lynch Three Negroes. / Confessed Shooting a Prominent Citizen. / Other Blacks Aided in Hunt and Lynching.

Shreveport, La., Dec. 1. -- In the presence of a crowd of about 1,200 persons, composed of whites and negroes, Phil Davis, Walter Carter and Clint Thomas, all negroes, were lynched Monday afternoon about 1 o'clock within a short distance of Belcher, which is twenty miles from Shreveport. The men were executed for participating in the fatal shooting of Robert Adger, one of the most popular business men in north, Louisiana.

The negroes confessed their crime. They stated that they were trying new guns and when Adger appeared on the street thought it quite natural to turn the guns on him.

No shots were fired at the lynching, the negroes all being hanged to a single limb of a tree. Two of the negroes under arrest, Sam Lee and Peter Thomas, were released. Lee proved that he had attempted to prevent the negroes from shooting Adger, and Thomas established the fact that he was too frightened to shoot.

Phil Davis and Walter Carter were captured Sunday afternoon several miles from the scene of their crime. Clint Thomas was caught later about a mile and a half from Belcher.

The negroes were taken before Adger and confessed their crime. They were held in concealment until shortly before 1 o'clock yesterday, when they were taken out and hanged. Davis is said to be an ex-convict and Walter Carter was forced to flee from Mansfield, La., about a your ago for insulting a white woman.

The negroes of Belcher joined in the search for the men and were apparently as eager to have them lynched as the whites. One negro was presented by the whites with a purse for $100 for the part he took in the pursuit.