Mob Invades Mobile Jail and Shoots Officer

• Cornelius Robinson and William Thompson

SPECIAL OFFICER HOTLE AND AS ALDERMAN WERE SHOT DURING ATTACK ON JAIL. . ‘ ; M9bile, Oct. 3-Roy Hoyle, a special officer, of the . Mobile and Ohio rail, j j .ui,r road, and one of the most widely known and best liked ‘ men in this. vicinity was fatally shot and Alderman r.hairmnn nt the ritv Sidney Lyons Chairman of the city council of Mobile was slightly injur- ed in the. hand tonight during a fight at the county jail and a crowd of men determined to capture Dick Robinson a negro. The mob is still hunting the young negro and will lynch him if . possible. , , The negro who is only 17 years of ‘ -age, and was said to be wearing his first pair of long trousers, today at- tacksd Ruth, the 12 year old daughter of Blount Sossaman, who lives about three miles from here. The girl was passing a secluded spot not far from her home when attacked. Later she was fou’nd lvine unconscious bv the roadside and was taken to her home, Detectives were placed upon the track of the negro and within three hours he was captured. When found he had substituted his short pants for the trousers he had on earlier in the u.u elI1, wuu dl uu niiuN Deputy sheriff, Patch, knowing timt the life of the negro would be taken by a mob if he brought him into this city, caused him to be conveyed to a station several miles up the Mobile and Ohio railroad. He was not taken to the jail at all and was at least eight miles from the city when the mob, which determined to have him, approached the building. ; There have been several assaults upon white women within the last few weeks, ana the news of this lait foutrage caused intense wrath and excitement. Tha n ! w if .rvaa naai rnt 1 hv aav eral speakers who urged them to take the life cf the negro if hV ccuU be found, and in a short time the entire crowd wa3 on the march for the jail. While several men, including Hoyle and Lyons were still in jail, a por-tionticvi of the crowd, led by a tall, rawboned man whose name is not known, seized a telephone pole which had been blown down, in the’ recent storm and dashed it against the closed part of a double door, cne-haif cf which waa open. The door fell with a crash, and almost instantly a shot i came from a revolver in the hands cf a mnnstanding in the gate.. At once the members of the moh commenced a fusillade, and about a clozn r-rvcl-ver shots were fired, and th?n casie several shots from a rifle held in cTie hand3 of a man who leveled :t ahevo his head and worked it vigorously ( while holding it in that position. J Tha cob was widely scattered and j In a few seconds Alderman Lyons, who had been on the inside cf tie jail, caDtejHit and holding up his hand, from which the bleed was strsaming, announced tha fact that ho was shot and that Rcy Hoyle had received a bullet throuch the leit lung. Tha fact that Hoyle had hoen Rhct while lookbg through the jail in order to ascertain if the nesro was there, tcok all the Cght cut of the mob, and for the most part It rii,nBraiJ nn’rAlv The big man Who had led the ganag with the telephone pole, however, was anxious for f;ir-thor vengeance on the regroes, end passionately urged the crowd to fellow hl:u to the colored section of the city, declaring that “We will give’ thm what they got ln Atlanta.” ‘ The crowd later recelvei Inforna- tlcu that Robinson had been talwn i from the city to Eight-Mile Point, cn i the Mobile and Ohio road, where he was to be placed upon the train and carried further. As soon, as this was known, fully 300 men boarded the Mobile, and. Ohio passenger trahjMagoon, 5 today the President recon-leaving here at 8:25 p.m., with the, side’red I ‘tJie plan he had formed last expressed intension, of , lynching the evening, of sending the Judge to Cuba negro, if hey could get. hoid. of him, as Civil’ Governor and ‘decided’ that in Excitement Continues High. viewof the fact that ‘ Secretary Tatt Element continues .high over the had feirady ken up the ‘ subject attack en-The-iail lastnight and the wth B?ma? WUrthrop, the present death Of Rev Hovu, at an Parlv hnr ” GoVe,flPr f Poit0 Rlc0’ not ! this moxnine. The three T eomDani of militia ordered here from Fort fle- posit, Evergregn and Brewer arrived “‘ early in the .day andjire’ now tsatioried, -i ‘,. s ” h 7 about the citv. – ; The negro Dick Robinson has not been,, located by the crow as yet, and tha nMlL ,,. vi’ v the probabilities are that .tie has been placed beyond the clutches of the peo- pie of Mobile. While there is a general feeling of condemnation for the mob. of last night, which, without excuse or rea- son, opened fire on the jail, there is a strong feeling that something must be done, and done soon, to stamp out such crimes as Robinson’s. .They have been frequent here of , late, and the Indignation and wrfrttti of the – white people Is so intense that any trivial episode Jmay at any .minute cause a serious outbreak. ! Gov. Jelks saiftifoday that while he did not aonrehnnd nnvmnra trnnhlo right new, he considered it wise to hold the troops here for some days to guard against contingencies. Safe at Birmingham. ( Birmingham, October 3. Two dep uty sheriffs from Mobile reached Bir- haVing ln charge Cor. neiius Robinson, the negro Vouth who ,g allege(1 tQ haye assaulted Ruth Sossaman a 12.yeaTld wflite near that city last afternoon and because of which crime a mob stormed the Mobile jail last night, two men befag shot. Robinson was placed in the Jefferson county jail for safekeeping. He denies his guilt, but was identified by his victim. The officers say that after the arrest and identification of Robinson he was rushed, to the Mobile” jail, but kept there only long enough to secure a team, when he was driven to Carey Station, on the Southern Railway, a few miies out, where a train to Birmingham was caught at 6:30 o’clock last eveaing. Robinson was not in the Mobile jail when the mob gathered.

“Mob Invades Mobile Jail and Shoots Officer.” The Morning Mercury (Huntsville, AL), October 04, 1906.