![]() |
||||
| Shot as He Talked Over Phone Elliott was a well-known Eastern Shore business man. He was shot to death in his office as he talked over the telephone to Thomas Chatham, produce broker, six blocks away. Chatham, hearing the shots, was the first to notify the police. The Negro, after shooting Elliott, turned his pistol on himself. He apparently had come to the lumber dealer's office for the purpose of slaying him, a« he carried with, him the pistol and 37 shells to fit it. The shells were found by police in his oockct' "I was talking to Mr. Elliott over the phone at the time he was shot," Chatham told The Post over long-dibtance telephone. "I heard two shots in rapid succession, and then the sound of the telephone falling. Negro Makes Statement "Then J heard a third shot, evidently the latter one being when the Negro shot himself. I rushed, of course, to call the police. I did not know what had happened. "Mr. Elliott seemed to be in the V*st of spirits until the bullets crashed into his head and cut off our conversation. So far as I know, person. And there were too many in the mob for me to try to make any arrests." Tie Rope Around Neck Followed by a rapidly growing crowd, the Negro was marched several blocks to the courthouse square. At a fire station en route some one picked up a rope one inch in diameter. At the square a man climbed a tree and tossed the heavy rope over a limb. The rope was tied about the Negro's neck. Handy's eyes were still covered with bandages when a score of willing hands jerked the rope that pulled his body 15 feet off the ground. The rope was jerked several times to be sure the neck was broken. Story of the lynching was related today by an eyewitness—a prominent Salisbury resident, who, although he had no active part in the lynching, said if he is called in the investigation he "will remember no names or faces." He said: "The Negro's eyes were covered by his bandages. I couldn't tell when they stood him under the tree in the square whether he knew what was coming. But he didn't say any- adults, took the Negro from the hospital and hanged him in the public square. There was reported no rowdyism and no shouting. The Negro was raised several times by a score of willing hands until he was quite dead. There was no cheering. Then he was left hanging 15 feet in the air for more than 20 minutes. "It was during this time that the younger element joined in the 'Bo-man holiday,'" a witness related. "Leaders seemed to change from middle-aged men to youngsters in their early twenties." Drap Negro Several Blocks Members of this latter mob cut the Negro down from the tree, and dragged the body—holding the rope still fastened to the Negro's neck— several blocks to a vacant field on Poplar Hill Ave. Several members of the mob went to a bus filling station nearby and demanded gasoline and oil with which to set fire to the Negro's body. It is reported that approximately 40 ..gallons of gasoline were carried from the filling station to the field, in which Handy's body had been lain, face upward. Gasoline from buckets was poured on the body. But the strait- |