The following excerpts picture a fraction of the terrible cruelties which here characterized many lynchings.

“The lynching was devoid of the minor brutalities that frequently mark such occasions.”

“The woman was raped by members of the mob before she was hanged.”

“Before the torch was applied to the pyre, the Negro was deprived of his ears, fingers and other portions of his body with surprising fortitude.”

It was really only ten minutes after the fire was started that smoking soles and twitching of the Negro's feet indicated that his lower extremities were burning…. The Negro had uttered but few words. When he was led to where he was to be burned, he said quite calmly, “I wish some of you gentlemen would be Christian enough to cut my throat,” but nobody responded. When the fire started he screamed, “Lord have mercy on my soul,” and that was the last word he spoke though he was conscious for fully twenty minutes after that. His exhibition of nerve aroused the admiration even of his torturers.³¹

Mrs. Turner (a Negro) made the remark that the killing of her husband on Saturday was unjust, and that if she knew the names of the persons in the mob … she would have warrants sworn out against them and have them punished in the courts…. The mob determined to teach her a lesson…. She was captured at noon on Sunday…. Mary Turner was in her eighth month of pregnancy…. Her ankles were tied together and she was hung to the tree, head downwards. Gasoline and oil from the automobiles were thrown over her clothing and while she writhed in agony … a match applied and her clothes burned from her person…. While she was yet alive, a knife, evidently such a one as is used in splitting hogs, was taken and the woman's abdomen was cut open, the unborn babe falling from her womb to the ground. The infant, prematurely born, gave two feeble cries and

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