Show FIVE NEGROES HANGED II I I Shackled in Chains They March Upon the I Gallows Together and Are Dropped I at the Same Moment j I Ir t Necks of Four Were Snapped Like Reeds The Fifth Died of Strangulation Stran-gulation Execution Marked the End of an Organized Gang of MurderersTheir Motto Was Death to the WhitesAII Refused to Confess or Talk of Their Crime I I J Sylvania Ga June HThe hanging of five men on the same gallows at the same moment here today marked the end of what is thought to have been an organized gang of murderers The men executed were Arnold Augustus Au-gustus Andrew Davis Richard Sanders San-ders William Hudson and Samuel Baldwin all negroes I The victims of their crime were Constable 1 Con-stable Mears and Fillmore Ilerrlngton whom they ambushed and shot to death and CapL Wade whom they seriously seri-ously wounded I ATTEMPT AT LYNCHING On at least two occasions efforts were i made to lynch the murderers but by the prompt action of the ofilcen of the 1 law they were frustrated On one of these occasions the Governor found It necessary to order out three companies of the State militia I The execution today was strongly guarded by local militia because of a I rumor that an effort would be made by negroes to effect the rescue of the ance condemned But there was no disturb I EXECUTION WAS PRIVATE The hanging was in private tho stockade being surrounded by a strong cordon of troops Five thousand persOns per-sOns gathered the village but only about forty wore admitted to the In closure The condemned men maintained main-tained a stoical reserve refusing to confess or to talk about the crime They were attended by ministers of their own race who besought them to ease I their consciences by making acknowledgments acknowl-edgments of their sins Still they re fused to talk The five shackled In chains were marched upon the gallows together When the trap fell the necks of four were snapped like reeds The fifth struggled for five minutes and died of strangulation The five bodies were cut down In a drizzle of rain jxiir mSTOKYCOF CRIME j These five negroes were convicted of a murder committed under an alleged criminal conspiracy oy an organised band of blacks known as Knightsof the Archer TJaemotto of1the organization or-ganization It is said was Death to the Whites The mUldcI for which the inch idled was but the culmination a long series of crimes It is common report I that the charter of this organization or-ganization was signed in blood and the leader Andrew McKinney assembled assem-bled his band only at night when he swore them with awesome rites to secrecy se-crecy and to deeds of death and rob per eryOFFICERS SHOT DOWN On a night In October 1809 Milton Mears a Constable of Screven county Fillmore Herrington and Copt Jesse Wade started out from Sylvnnia to serve a warrant for the arrest of Joe Sanders a young negro wanted for some trivial offense No sopncr had they reached his house than Cr0111 the crack between the logs of the cabin and from a thicket dwarf trees closely close-ly came the flash of rifles and shotguns shot-guns and the three men fell despvr ately wounded Capt Wade managed l I to crawl to his buggy and make IllS ay SylvAnia where he told l of the I shooting Ilerrlngton and Mears were literally shot to pieces The inurdetora ± escaped but one attcr another live I were arrested and placed In jail here These were the men who met death today J I The others including McKinncy and the real leaders of the Knights of the Archer stiqcessfully effected their escape I I es-cape and have never been captured |