The Ouachita Telegraph - German Peddler Murdered Date: May 2000 Submitted by: Lora Peppers ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** The Ouachita Telegraph Saturday, May 3, 1873 Page 2, Column 5 A HORRIBLE MURDER. On Monday night last, or early Tuesday morning a peddler, evidently a German, was attacked by four negroes in front of the old Soniat plantation, about a mile and a half below the ferry landing and brutally murdered. One of the hands employed on the plantation going to the river early in the morning to put out a fish-line, discovered the body lying in the water, near the bank, where it had been thrown by the murderers after committing the horrible crime. The alarm was immediately given and search made to discover the authors of a deed so terrible, but for a time, without success, as there was no clue to direct the officers of justice. Between seven and eight o'clock, a negro named George Harris alias Spot or Spotted George, offered for sale at the ferry landing a gold ring at so a low a price as to excite suspicion, which was increased when stains of blood were discovered upon it. An attempt was then made to arrest him, but it proved an ineffectual task owing to his herculean size and strength, and for the time being he escaped. The hue and cry was then raised and a large body of citizens, white and colored, started in pursuit of him and succeeded in capturing him about dark, but only after a desperate struggle. He then confessed the crime and gave the names of his accomplices, who are John Pernel, John Allen and Miles Whiting, all the colored, the first two named and himself, having just been released from the Penitentiary. They attacked their victim with clubs, beating him over the head, fracturing the skull and inflicting a heavy gash upon one of the cheeks, and when life had disappeared, they rifled his body and threw it into the river where it was found as described above. The impudence and audacity of the man Harris almost surpass belief. After plundering the body of the peddler and taking possession of his goods, he offered part of the booty for sale within a short distance of the scene of his crime, and when the first attempt was made to arrest him he was at the ferry landing sitting on the bag containing a portion of the murdered man's goods, quietly awaiting the arrival of the ferryboat to cross to the opposite side of the river; when summoned to surrender, he defiantly replied "to shoot and be d — d?" although he made off with considerable alacrity. During the night he committed suicide and a verdict was returned in accordance with the facts by the Coroner's jury. John Purnel was captured during Wednesday night, and we have reason to believe the other two will not long remain outside of the prison walls. The foregoing article is from the West Baton Rouge Sugar Planter. The New Orleans Republican of a later date says that the other negroes were captured, informally tried and summarily executed by the citizens. # # #