JIM KING - BURNED AT THE STAKE - Smith County, 1895

Submitted by East Texas Genealogical Society 
P. O. Box 6967, 
Tyler, TX 75711 

*********************************************** 
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
***********************************************

From Wills Point Chronicle, Thursday, Oct. 31, 1895:

BURNED AT THE STAKE

Jim King, a Negro Rape Fiend, Pays the Penalty of His Brutal 
Crime.

Jim King, a negro, who murdered and outraged Mrs. Bell in 
Smith County Monday, was captured near Kilgore Tuesday and 
brought to Tyler where a mob took him and burned him to a 
stake in the public square. The awful crime aroused the 
entire community, there being nearly 500 men in the crowd 
that burned the black demon. Officers were powerless to 
protect him.

The crime he committed was a most revolting one, the victim 
being a young married lady but 19 years of age, the wife of 
Leonard Bell, residing near Tyler. She fought desperately for 
her honor but the black brute overpowered her and after 
killing and outraging her he deliberately cut her throat and 
ripped her body open with his knife.

He admitted his guilt and piteously begged for mercy, but his 
appeals were only answered by cries for vengeance and amid 
piercing shrieks of the ?? wretch and the yells of the 
maddened crowd, fierce flames ended the earthly career of one 
more demon of human form.