Mob Rule in New Orleans: Robert Charles and His Fight to Death, the Story of His Life, Burning Human Beings Alive, Other Lynching StatisticsWells-Barnett, Ida B.
History
Mob Rule in New Orleans: Robert Charles and His Fight to Death, the Story of His Life, Burning Human Beings Alive, Other Lynching Statistics
Wells-Barnett, Ida B.
Lynching
The ride to the station was a wild one. Exnicios had all he could do to
watch his prisoner. A gang climbed into the wagon and administered a
terrible thrashing to the black en route. It took a half hour to reach
the police station, for the mule that was drawing the wagon was not
overly fast. When the station was reached a mob of nearly 200 howling
white youths was awaiting it. The noise they made was something
terrible. Meyers was howling for mercy before he reached the ground. The
mob dragged him from the wagon, the officer with him. Then began a
torrent of abuse for the unfortunate prisoner.
The station door was but thirty feet away, but it took Exnicios nearly
five minutes to fight his way through the mob to the door. There were no
other officers present, and the station seemed to be deserted. Neither
the doorman nor the clerk paid any attention to the noise on the
outside. As the result, the maddened crowd wrought their vengeance on
the Negro. He was punched, kicked, bruised and torn. The clothes were
ripped from his back, while his face after that few minutes was
unrecognizable.
This was the treatment accorded and permitted to a helpless prisoner
because he was black. All day Wednesday the man hunt continued. The
excitement caused by the deaths of Day and Lamb became intense. The
officers of the law knew they were trailing a man whose aim was deadly and
whose courage they had never seen surpassed. Commenting upon the
marksmanship of the man which the paper styled a fiend, the
_Times-Democrat_ of Wednesday said:
One of the extraordinary features of the tragedy was the marksmanship
displayed by the Negro desperado. His aim was deadly and his coolness
must have been something phenomenal. The two shots that killed Captain
Day and Patrolman Lamb struck their victims in the head, a circumstance
remarkable enough in itself, considering the suddenness and fury of the
onslaught and the darkness that reigned in the alley way.
Later on Charles fired at Corporal Perrier, who was standing at least
seventy-five yards away. The murderer appeared at the gate, took
lightning aim along the side of the house, and sent a bullet whizzing
past the officer's ear. It was a close shave, and a few inches'
deflection would no doubt have added a fourth victim to the list.
At the time of the affray there is good reason to believe that Charles
was seriously wounded, and at any event he had lost quantities of blood.
His situation was as critical as it is possible to imagine, yet he shot
like an expert in a target range. The circumstance shows the desperate
character of the fiend, and his terrible dexterity with weapons makes
him one of the most formidable monsters that has ever been loose upon
the community.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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