Negro Who Shot Springer Carried Birmingham Jail: Mob Tried to Get Him Down in Sumter, at Place of Killing

NEGRO WHO SHOT SPRINGER CARRIED BIRMINGHAM JAIL

Mob Tried to Get Him Down in Sumter, at Place of Killing.

John Henry McCoy. the Birmingham negro who killed Mr. C. O. Springer near York on Monday last, was brought to Tuscaloosa by Sheriff D. D. Davis, of Sumter county, late Tuesday afternoon. The killing took place across the line in Choctaw county at a saw mill where Mr. Springer was working. The murder, from all accounts, was a most brutal one and caused great indignation in the community. Young Springer is said to have been shot in the back as he was walking away from the negro’s house, after telling his to come down to the office and get his time, as McCoy had quit work. The murderer was on his way to Birmingham, but was captured by the Sumter authorities before he could board a train on the A. G. S. for the big city up the road, where he resided. A mob was organized to hang McCoy and Sheriff Davis, fearing for the life of his prisoner, put him in a fast car and carried him to Eutaw. The Eutaw sheriff did not care to be bothered with the man, it is said, and asked the Sumter Sheriff to bring him to Tuscaloosa. Sheriff Hughes, after a conference with Judge Foster. did not think it wise to try to keep him in the jail here. where young Springer made his home and was popular, so the Sumter sheriff started for Birmingham in his car with his prisoner, where they are better prepared to take charge of such criminals. It is not likely that any attempt would have been made to take him from the Tuscaloosa jail, but Sheriff Hughes thought it the part of wisdom not to keep his here, where there is a good deal of suppressed feeling at the brutal, cowardly manner in which Mr. Springer lost his life. He will be safer in the Birmingham jail, where he is likely to remain till he is taken back to Choctaw, where he will have to stand trial for his life.