The Murder of C. D. Cole

• Reuben Sims

On the night of Tuesday, the 19th inst, Mr. D. C. Cole, one of the leading merchants in north Baldwin, was shot to death by a colored man, who had followed him to his store and on toward his home, the object being robbery. It has been reported that two colored men, Robert Tate and Rube Sims, were thought to be the guilty parties and their arrest followed. No definite information, however, has been received up to this time as to the facts.

That is a certainty that the lynchings that have been so frequent of late all over the country are chargeable largely to the maladministration of our courts. What, with the law’s delay, due to causes that are well known to all, cases are put over and new trials are had until the public forgets about the facts, witnesses die, move away, or worse, juries are secured from who the desired verdict can be obtained and the guilty escape. These facts make the law-abiding citizens feat that justice will not be meted out in the courts to the guilty, so the people resort to lynch law. If they have doen so in this case, it is because the they distruct the action or celerity of the courts. When the facts are known to the public we shall again refer to this case.

“The Murder of C. D. Cole.” The Standard (Daphne, AL), April 29, 1904.