| Source Type: | Newspaper |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The Montgomery Times |
| Place of publication: | Montgomery, Alabama |
| Date of publication: | 1912 |
| Transcript: | “There should be a special fund set aside by the state to employ several special agents whose duties would be to secure evidence against lynchers and other violators of state law,” said Governor O’Neal this morning in discussing the efforts to secure the names of the persons who lynched Sam Verge near Demopolis early in August. The governor has been endeavoring to find evidence against the lynchers has instructed the sheriff of Sumter County where the affair occurred to make every effort to bring the criminals to justice. The negro Verge killed a white man named Hutt, and is said to have escaped. Another negro, said to be a brother of the accused negro taken from a man who had captured him and was shot to death. The sheriff of Sumter County writes that he is unable to secure the names of any men who committed the deed. An anonymous letter to the governor, however, states that the negro lynched had nothing to do with the crime and that hi’s death resulted because the mob was angry because the real murderer could not be apprehended. The writer of this letter, who, in all probability is a negro, claims that he can furnish the names of some of the mob. Governor O’Neal is firm in his stand against lynchers , but realizes the need of special agents to work up such cases as these. The governor says that the men employed for this duty should be of high character and such integrity that the evidence presented would stand the test of the severest cross-examination. The lynching of Verge occurred at Hall’s creek in the eastern end of Sumter County near Demopolis. It is reported that the mob that lynched the negro formed in Demopolis and that some of the members were residents of that city.
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