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Negro Who Shot White Man Lynched by Mob at Dothan. MONTGOMERY. Ala., Jan. 20.—A special to the Advertiser from Dothan, Ala., says:
Cleveland Franklin, a negro employe of the Southern Cotton Oil company, was lynched here last night about 8 o’clock by a masked mob of 200 angry citizens. The negro’s body was riddled with bullets after it had been swung from the limb of a tree in the northern part of town.
Franklin shot and seriously wounded A. C. Faulk, secretary and treasurer of the oil company, here Saturday night after he had been caught in the act of robbing the cash drawer at the mill.
About 9 o’clock on Saturday night, after an absence from the office of a few minutes, Mr. Faulk returned and found the negro on the floor under the cash drawer fumbling with the combination. He asked the negro, who was in the employ of the mill, what he was doing, and was informed that the superintendent had sent him in to do some repair work and began to make other excuses.
Mr. Faulk turned to call the superintendent and ask for an explanation. The negro, seeing that his ruse would not enable him to escape, pulled a pistol and fired five times at Mr. Faulk, two of the shots taking effect.
The sheriff was notified immediately after the shooting and a posse was organized. A diligent search was made for the negro Saturday night, but without result. Sunday morning the sheriff learned that the negro was at Webb, Ala., and later in the morning he was captured there. Franklin was brought back to Dothan by private conveyance. After putting the team up at the stable and just as the start was made for the jail a mob of 200 men, all masked, swooped down on the sheriff and his posse and forcibly took the prisoner, and carried him to a point a short distance above the oil mill, where they strung him to a limb and riddled his body with bullets.
The lynching created a great deal of excitement here, but no further trouble is expected. None of the men in the mob were recognized.
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