Negro Confesses To Criminal Assault And Is Lynched By Mob

• Walter Clayton (Attempted Lynching)

MOBILE, Ala., April 5. – Walter Clayton, a negro, who was serving time at the stockade of the Hand Lumber company for manslaughter, late Saturday afternoon criminally assaulted Mrs. Joseph White, aged 20 years, and was lynched by a mob of 75 ment outside the limits of Bay Minette, last night.

The assault occured at the woman’s home, six miles below Texley. Clayton entered the house, it is said, choked Mrs. White, and accomplished his purpose. The negro returned to the convict campt where he was arrested late Saturday night. The negro told the officers not to take him back to the scene of his crime, as he committed it and it was not necessary to have him identified. The officers hurried him to Bay Minette, the county seat of Baldwin county.

As they approached the front gate of the jail, 75 men arose from behind a fence and took charge of the negro, dragging him and the deputy 75 yards before it was discovered the men were handcuffed together. The deputy was then released and the negro carried away.

The negro’s body has not yet been found.

Clayton was given a 15 years sentence in the Mobile courts last summer on a charge of manslaughter. It being charged that he robbed and murdered John McKenzie, an old white man, in this city on Christmas eve, 1906. He was a model prisoner at the stockade and was made a trusty.

“Negro Confesses To Criminal Assault And Is Lynched By Mob.” The Semi-Weekly Citizen (Asheville, NC), April 7, 1908.