JUDGELYNCH HIS FIRS T HU N D RED Y EARS BY FRANK SHAY NEWY ORK WASHBU RN IN C. IVES , By th e Same Auth or IRON MEN AN D WOODEN SHIPS MY PIOUS FRIENDS AN D DRUNKEN COMPANIONS ’ HERE S AUDACITY# INCREDIB LE PI#ARRO PIRATE WENCH etc . etc. , JUDGELYNCH HIS FIRS T HU N D RED Y EARS BY FRAN K SHAY N EWY ORK WASHBU RN IN C. IVES , CO IG H 1 8 B Y K H PYR T, 93 , FRAN S AY All rights r eserved P R I N T E D I N T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S O F A M E R I C A - B Y T H E VA I L B A L L O U P RE S S , I N C . , B I N G H A MT O N , N . Y . Carrter m Preface “ TO HELL WITH THE LAW Chapter One THERE WAS A JUDGE NAMED LYNCH Chapter Two THE EARLY LIFE AN D TIMES OF JUDG E LYNCH Chapter Three ’ JUDG E LYNCH S CODE Chapter Four ’ JU DG E LY NCH S JURORS Chapter Five THE JURISDICTION OF JUDG E LYN CH Chapter Six ’ SOME OF JUDG E LYNCH S CASES ’ ’ e — Leo (A) Judge Lynch s Cause Cel bre Fr ank — Or ( B ) The Mob Was Or der ly New leans Mafia w . ( C ) The Bur ning of Henry Lo ry CO N TE N T S (D) The Law Never Had a Chance Claude Neal ( E ) Th e Five Thousandth— Raymond G unn ( F ) Twice Lynche d in Texas— Ge or ge Hughes (G) Thr ee Governors Go Into Action 1 9 3 3 Who D efie d (H) Those the Bo sses ( 1 ) I 9 3 7 Chapter Seven THE REVERSALS OF JUDG E LYNCH L nch -Executions in U ni d S s 1 882— 1 y the te tate , 93 7 Bibliography P r efa ce TO HELL WITH THE LAW LYN CHING has many legal definitions : It means one thing in Kentucky and North Carolina and another in Virginia or Minnesota . For the purpose of this work it is defined as the execution without process of the law, by a mob , of any individual suspected or con victed of a crime or accused of an offense against the prevailing social customs . The State of Minnesota clearly defines it as the killing of a human being by the t act or procurement of a mob . In Ken ucky and North Carolina the lynch -victim must have been in the hands of the law or there was no lynching . Virginia defines it simply as murder and ordains that every person composing the mob , upon conviction, shall be pun ishe d by death . There is more than the Simple dictionary definition of lynching . Behind every lynching, beyond the de is the struction of the unfortunate victim, debasement x democr a of citizenship , the crucifi ion of justice and f l t t of oflicia s, tic government, the pros i ution public P R E FACE - and the depraved behavior of the mob members . The f es ef ects of a lynching on the mind of an observer, eciall l . u p y a chi d , cannot be estimated The co se quences of sadistic practices put human relations on a “ : considerably lower plane . Dr . A . A . Brill states Any one taking part in or witnessing a lynching cannot t e ” main a civilized person . It is seldom that a mob gives voice to its creed as one u did the outside Covington , Tennessee , in Aug st, 1 9 3 7 : when urged by the sher iffto let the law take its “ #” course , it cried , To hell with the law It is not only the cry of the lyncher but of ever y other type of criminal . 1 88 2 Since , when lynchings were first recorded, 1 I z vic through 9 3 7 , the toll of the mob has been tims . More than four fifths of these were Negroes , of whom less than one Sixth were accused of rape . Lynchings have declined from a high of 2 3 5 in 1 89 2 1 was to a low of eight for 9 3 7 . The decrease not con Stant: in 1 9 3 2 the number fell to ten only to rise to - twenty eight in the following year . It is an inevitable fact that during the coming years certain Americans will meet their deaths at the hands of mobs . Lynchers are criminals in the same sense that mur der er s and kidnapers are criminals : lynching is a CI‘lIIl l nal activity, and to be put down it must be considered as such . Obviously law enactment is not enough ; rigid 8 P R E FAC E enforcement is necessary and it must be backed up by a public sentiment against the crime . Even the most serious protagonists for a Federal law against lynching do not believe that it will stop the practice . They point out that proposed Federal legislation leaves the appr e he nsion and punishment of lynchers to the state , that it only makes recalcitrant states abandon their do - noth fi ing policy, and that it forces peace of cers to resist the mob beforehand and to prosecute it afterwards . It seeks to guarantee the humblest citizen the due pro cess of the law and the equal protection assured him by the national Constitution . It provides that cowardly and unfaithful public officials may be fined and impr is u o ed , and that the people of the county who permitted the murder be made liable for monetary damages . Such a law will not eradicate the crime of lynching, but it will convince peace ofli cer s that they must not release their prisoners to a mob and that the lynch minded must suppress their sadistic desires : it will serve as an effective curb on a crime that many Ameri n ca s condone . It is almost impossible to verify statistics relating to lynchings . For this work the author has gone to several sources : from 1 88 2 to I 888 the accepted totals are those compiled by Cutler from the files of the Chicago 9 P REFACE r ibune 1 88 1 T , and from 9 to 9 3 7 the records are those of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People . Some independent research has not materially changed these figures . For prevented lynch ings, the estimates of Monroe N . Work , of the Depart e ment of Records and R search at Tuskegee , have been accepted . In many communities there are forces strong enough to suppress news of lynch -executions ; in others the bodies of the victims are destroyed or secretly buried , and the members of the small mobs sworn to silence . For my research I have used the published material of many individuals and organizations . That I have been materially aided by the work of James Elbert Cutler, Walter White , Arthur F . Raper, and James Harmon Chadbourn is apparent and herewith ac knowledged . Organizations such as the National As sociation for the Advancement of Colored People , the Southern Commission on the Study of Lynching, the A ni merican Civil Liberties U on, the Industrial Work ers of the World , the International Labor Defense , ’ and the Workers Defense League have be en helpful in letters and documents loaned . To the Federal Writ ers ’ Project thanks are due for a leave of absence to complete this work . 1 0 P REFACE To Alfred Hartog I am indebted for considerable aid and valuable time devoted to research , to Miss Ri chetta G . Randolph and Julian B . Thomas for the T loan of valuable material and helpful suggestions . O my wife , Edith Shay, my thanks for counsel and help in the arrangement of material and for the compila tion of the bibliography and index . I I J UD GE LYNCH Chapter . Oue THERE WAS A JUDGE NAMED LYNCH IT was not until forty years after his death that the name of a Virginia soldier in the War for Independ ence was given to the practice of summary punishment as - is he had introduced a war time measure . It a long way from the mild , repressive measures of Colonel s was Charle Lynch, who known to some as Judge b ear m Lynch , to the legendary figure g his name whose known victims now number many Of whom went to their deaths by methods almost incon c i l e vab e . Judge Lynch , the real, was an honorable t pa riot , a #uaker whose religious scruples forbade the taking of human life even in war; Judge Lynch, the legend, whose code contains only the sentence of n death, is a savage American whose practices bri g shame to all other Americans . r e A century of lynching, with more than im t t corded vict s in a lit le more han half that time, has placed America in an unenviable position before the 1 anuar 1 1 8 . J y , 93 I 5 JU D G E LY N CH entir e world . It has done incalculable harm not only to as our reputation a civilized country but to ourselves, t our manner of thinking , and the welfare of fu ure gen er ations . No nation, ancient or modern , has been entirely free “ ” — from mobs and mobocracy . But mob law is not - - necessarily lynch law, whereas lynch law is always executed by mobs .