| Case(s) | |
|---|---|
| Source Type: | Newspaper |
| Author: | n.a. |
| Publisher: | Fort Smith Times |
| Place of publication: | Fort Smith, AR |
| Date of publication: | 4/6/1908 |
| Transcript: | Mobile, Ala., April 6. – Walter Clayton, a negro, who was serving 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 men outside the limits of Bay Minette. The assault occured at the woman’s home, six miles below Loxey. Clayton entered the house, it is said, choked Mrs. White, and accomplished his purpose. The negro returned to the convict camp, where he was arrested Saturday night. He 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, 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 yards before it was discovered the men were handcuffed together. The deputy was then released and the negro carried away. Late yesterday afternoon the sheriff was still looking for the body of the negro. 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. |
| Citation: | “Two Lynchings; One Negro For Assault And One For Murder Receive Mob Vengeance; White Woman Ravished; Negro Confessed And Was Hanged By Mob; Wanton Murder of White Boy Led to the Second Mob Execution.” Fort Smith Times (Fort Smith, AR), April 6, 1908. |