Butts County GaArchives News.....Evans McDowell was Hanged For Brutal Crime November 1923
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Don Bankston http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00024.html#0005864 February 7, 2010, 7:06 pm

Jackson Progress Argus - Butts County Ga. November 1923
McDowell Was Hanged For Brutal Crime
 
EXECUTED FRIDAY MORNING FOR THE MURDER OF MR..C. A. PITTMAN. SAID HE HAD       
 TOLD THE TRUTH
 
 
Evans McDowell, 23-year-old Jasper county negro, was hanged in the Butts 
county jail yard Friday morning for the murder of Mr. Charles A. Pittman, well 
known Butts county farmer, on July 20. 
 
The trap was sprung about 10:30 o'clock and in twelve minutes  McDowell was 
pronounced dead. His neck was broken from the fall, it was stated.
 
The execution was orderly and passed off without special incident.  A 
considerable crowd was attracted to town on account of the hanging which was 
private.  A canvass was constructed around the jail yard to cut off the view 
of the public.
 
    In his last statement McDowell declared that he had told the truth. He 
said he was guilty of Mr. Pittman's murder and that Flem Lynch, his brother-in-
law, was equally guilty and that he hoped Lynch would meet the same fate. He 
admonished everybody to let liquor alone, declaring that he would not have 
been in the trouble but for liquor. The doomed man prayed earnestly and 
fervently for several minutes, and his final prayer made a deep impression on 
all who heard it. 
 
None of the members of McDowell's family were present at the execution, it was 
said. They visited him the day  before.
 
McDowell's body was turned b over to Henderson and Woodward, local colored 
undertakers, and was taken to Jasper county for burial.
 
The recovery and murder of Mr. Pittman on July 20 was one of the most brutal 
and shocking in the criminal annals of the state.  Called from his house to 
the store, Mr. Pittman was robbed and his body thrown in the Ocmulgee River.  
The clue pointed to McDowell.  He was arrested and taken to Atlanta for 
safekeeping.  He confessed the robbery and murder.  He was given a speedy 
trial and was sentenced to hang on August 20.
 
In the meantime McDowell made a confession that implicated Flem Lynch.   A 
stay of execution was granted pending the trial of Lynch, who was convicted 
and given a life sentence on September 14.  A motion for a new trial was made 
and the execution of McDowell stayed until September 20.  A new trial was 
granted Lynch and McDowell was again respited until October 20, and pending 
Lynch’s second trial a respite was granted until Friday November 2.
 
The last hanging in Butts county was on September 24, 1915, when  Joe Persons, 
a Negro boy, was executed for assault.  
 
Bill Turner was hanged December 14, 1911, for the murder of Jesse Singley.
 
At a special term of Butts superior court on October 29, Flem Lynch was 
convicted of the murder of Mr. Pittman and was sentenced to be hanged on 
November 23.
 
Jackson Progress Argus
     November 9, 1923



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