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Mob Hanged Ed Johnson From Railroad
Bridge
Stay Granted By U. S. Supreme Court Hastened
Negro’s Execution
Chattanooga,
Tennessee,
March 19 -- Ed Johnson, colored, was
taken from the jail at 10:45
o’clock tonight by a mob of
seventy-five men and hanged to a beam of the county bridge over the Tennessee
River.
The rope broke and the negro’s body fell and the mob quickly riddled it
with bullets.
Sheriff Ship and the jailer were locked in a
bath room while the mob secured the prisoner.
The negro was to have been hanged tomorrow but
the United States
Supreme Court today granted a stay of execution and this action served to anger
the citizens of the city and all day there was great excitement and it was
freely talked on the streets that violence would result tonight.
Early in the evening the mob began to form and
it was all done so quickly that only those in the immediate vicinity of the
jail knew when they were ready for action.
At 10:45
o’clock seventy-five determined
men assembled at the jail and at once gained admission. Overpowering the sheriff and his deputies,
they secured the prisoner and quietly led him to the bridge, where the hanging
was carried out in the most orderly manner, the mob immediately
dispersing. There was not the slightest
attempt at rowdyism and the mob was composed of men of mature years.
The negro is said to have confessed when first
taken by the mob, but when the rope was placed about his neck he stoutly
maintained his innocence.
It is declared that the victim was dead of
strangulation before the rope broke, but the mob, to make sure work of him,
filled his body with bullets.
The city was as quiet at the hour of the hanging
and afterwards as though nothing unusual had occurred.
The crime for which Ed Johnson was lynched was
an assault on a prominent white girl at S. Elmo, a suburb, which occurred some
weeks ago. Immediately after the crime a
mob made an unsuccessful attempt to get
the prisoner, but Sheriff Shipp had him taken away. At that time the jail was attacked and almost
torn down, and during the excitement several persons were seriously injured.
Macon
Weekly Telegraph – March
20, 1906
Supreme Court Defied By Mob
Hanging 0f
Negro at Chattanooga, Without Precedent
Execution
Stayed But
in Face of Order From the Highest Tribunal, Citizens Effected Lynching
Special
to The Telegram
Chattanooga, Tennessee, March 31.— Morally in contempt of the United States supreme court, this county of Hamilton, of the state of Tennessee, is waiting to see whether grave complications
will not arise over the lynching of Ed Johnson, colored, after the highest
tribunal in the land had ordered a stay of execution. The law was taken into its
own hands, as has been so often done in the south, by a band of determined,
individuals to uphold the rather popular principle that crimes against the
honor of white woman must be met with the extreme penalty as the only
practicable deterrent.
Johnson’s
victim was Miss Nevada Taylor, 19, who was waylaid while on her way home in the
suburbs. She is a working girl. Johnson was convicted in the state court last
February6, and
sentenced to be hanged March 20. Four days later N. W. Parden and S. L. Hutchens, colored attorneys, attempted to
file a motion, for a new trial, but under a rule of the court it was too late.
The supreme court of Tennessee reviewed the record and said no error
had been committed in the trial.
A
writ of habeas corpus for Johnson was then sought of United States Circuit
Judge Clark at Knoxville. He refused it. An appeal from his action was taken, and at noon on March 19 the United States supreme court granted a stay of
execution.
In
the meantime preparations had been made for the legal hanging on the next day
of Johnson, who was again in the Chattanooga Jail.
The
city seemed quiet that evening. It was decidedly so at the jail. Except for
Jailer Gibson, the coast was entirely clear. At 8 o'clock a dozen men, some with handkerchiefs
over the lower part of their faces, strolled into the jail office. Then a few
more came in and after a while there were about seventy-five. About one-third of them were actively engaged
in what followed.
While
some of them argued with Gibson, two heavy doors were laboriously battered
down. Just two and a half hours were consumed at the jail by the mob and in the
course of that time Sheriff Shipp was summoned to the jail by telephone.
He
endeavored to argue with the mob, but was locked up in a bath room.
After securing him the mob dragged the negro through the street
vetoing the suggestion of several men,
" kill him now."
On
the bridge all demands for a confession were met with the words from Johnson. "I'm ready to die, but I
never done it." He was promptly
hoisted off his feet by a
rope around his neck, allowing the body
to drop to the floor. No More time was
wasted. The body had fifty bullets in it
when it was found there by officers.
Next day the negroes were
given their dead and they buried Johnson.
Since then the city has been in a ferment. Numerous clashes between whites and blacks
have occurred, and at time it seemed as if the city was on the verge of a huge
race battle.
There
is somewhat of a hush to see whether the supreme court or the federal
authorities will act on this first nullification in history of an order of the
highest court. If action does follow it
will prove a grave matter. Results seem
to hinge upon whether, under a strict construction of the law, the man Johnson
was in the custody of the Federal Court at the time he was taken from jail.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram – April 1, 1906
Chattanooga Sheriff
in Trouble
United States to Punish Officials for Allowing Lynching
Washington, May 24 — For the first time is so serious a
case, the supreme court of United States will undertake to mete out
punishment for the crime of contempt of the court itself, and the importance of
the occasion will be enhanced by the number of the defendants.
The proceeding will take place in connection with the
cases of Sheriff Shipp and Deputy Sheriff Gibson of Hamilton County, Tennessee, and four other residents of
that county named, respectively, Williams, Nolan, Padgett and May. These men
were declared to be guilty of an act of contempt in combining, in March, 1905,
in a conspiracy to lynch a negro, Ed Johnson, who had been sentenced to death
by the local courts on the charge of assault, and in whose case the supreme
court had interfered to the extent of granting an which had the effect of a supersedes.
On the night following the announcement of the court's
action, Johnson was taken out of the jail in Chattanooga by a mob and lynched. There
was no resistance on the part of the jail authorities, and Shipp
and a number of his deputies, as well as about twenty five citizens, were
proceeded against on the charge of contempt of the federal court.
The case has been pending ever since and the number of
defendants was from time to time reduced to nine. Of these nine, three were today found guiltless,
while the other six were ordered to be brought into court next Tuesday week for
sentence. They will be taken into
custody immediately, and will appear in court in chard of Marshal Wright. The sentence may be either fine or
imprisonment or both.
Of Exceptional Interest The case is regarded as of exceptional interest because
it is practically the first time that this the highest court in the United States has ever undertaken to assert
its dignity or to present acts or words reflecting upon it. In one previous case some years ago a defendant
was fined for some expression of contempt, but the case was comparatively so
insignificant as practically to leave the present proceeding standing alone.
In the cases of Sheriff Shipp and Deputy Gibson the
court in effect declares that there may be may be contempt in a failure of
officers of the law to prevent a crime in contempt of the court and in
cognizance of an offense at so great a distance, the court for the first time
asserts by action its right to compel the proper respect for and treatment of
its verdicts in all parts of the Union.
The charge of contempt against Sheriff Shipp and his
co-defendants was sue to the fact that when Johnson was lynched he was
constructively in the custody of the court. Only a month before the negro has been found guilty and had been
sentenced to death.
The supreme court
had granted an appeal from a decision of the United States< Circuit court denying him a
writ of habeas corpus which effected a stay of proceedings in the convicts
case.
The appeal was allowed on March 19 and on that night
Johnson was taken out of jail at Chattanooga and hanged. This action was strongly resented by the
court, and immediately complaint was made to President Roosevelt who ordered an
investigation by the department of justice.
This investigation resulted in the filing in the court by the attorney
general in May, 1905 of an “information” in which Shipp and nine of his
deputies and 17 other persons were charged with complicity in the lynching.
Shipp and some of his subordinates by
absenting themselves from the jail on the night of the tragedy, and the others
by actual participation in it. Each and
all pleaded innocence.
Seventeen Discharged
Deputy Clerk Maher of the court was sent to Chattanooga as a commissioner to
investigate and take testimony. The
investigation failed to connect with the charge 17 of the men implicated and
the cases against them were dismissed at the beginning of the present term.
The chief justice presented a complete review of the
Johnson case. He concluded that neither
Shipp nor his deputy, Gibson, had made an effort to prevent the removal of
Johnson from the jail, to prevent his killing, after he was taken out, nor to discover
the participants in the lynching after it took place.
Justice Peckham delivered a dissenting opinion,
declaring that there was not the slightest testimony to support the charge
against Shipp. He therefore did not
believe that that officer should b e subjected to the possibility of “a
disgraceful imprisonment” and made an earnest plea against such a course.
Justice Peckham concluded by asserting that Mr. Shipp,
whom he described as “an invalid old man,” had been held to a degree of
responsibility far beyond any reasonable limit.” He also held that the testimony against
Deputy Gibson, who was the jailer, was insufficient to convict him of contempt. Justices White and McKenna conferred in the
dissenting opinion.
The chief justice in the course of his opinion said
that even before the case was brought to the supreme court there had been many
threats of lynching Johnson, because of the seriousness of the negro’s
offence. Continuing he said, “The
assertions that mob violence as not expected and that there was no occasion for
providing more than the usual guard of one man for the jail in Chattanooga and
quite unreasonable and inconsistent with statements made by Sheriff Shipp and
his deputy that they were looking for a mob on the next day.”
The chief justice pointed out that the jail had been
left entirely unguarded and in charge of Deputy Gibson, when every precaution
to guard the prisoner should had been taken.
The Chief Justice continued.
Grounds of Decision
“In view of this, Shipps failure to make the slightest
preparation to resist the mob, the absence of all of the deputies except Gibson
from the jail during the mobs proceedings, occupying a period of some hours in
the early evening the action of Shipp in not resisting the mob and his failure
to make any reasonable effort to save Johnson or identify the members of the
mob justify the inference of a disposition upon his part to render it easy for
the mob to lynch Johnson and to acquiesce in the lynching.”
The Chief Justice also declared that after Johnson was
taken from the jail the sheriff had made no effort to go after the lynchers or
to reach the police or militia or others.
“When,” he said, “Shipp reached the jail he could have gone about three
blocks to the police station and got the police. No attempt was made to summon a posse. He sent no one after deputies. He made no effort to send any one for help.”
Reaching his conclusion, with reference to Shipp, the
Chief Justice said it was that “Shipp not only made the work of the mob easy,
but in effect aided and abetted it.”
The court found Jailer Gibson to be involved in the
same condemnation, though undoes less responsible.
In conclusion the Chief Justice said, “In our opinion
it dies not admit of question on this record that this lamentable riot was the
direct result of opposition to the administration of the law by this
court. It was not only in defiance of
our mandate, but was understood to be such.
The State, Columbia, S.C., Tuesday Morning, May 25, 1909
Would
Punish Tennessee
Mob
Attorney
General Moody Takes Action In Supreme Court Against Lynchers
Asks
that Men, Twenty-Seven of Whom He Names, Be Cited for Contempt in Interfering
With Appeal—Sheriff and Deputy Charged With Neglect of Duty
Washington, May
28.—The government has taken steps to punish the persons who were responsible
for the lynching in Chattanooga, Tennessee., March 19, of the negro, Ed
Johnson, who was under sentence of death for rape and had been allowed an
appeal by the United States supreme court from the circuit court of the United
States for the eastern district of Tennessee.
In the supreme
court today Attorney General Moody filed information naming 27 persons alleged
to be implicated in the lynching and petitioning that they be cited for
contempt of the supreme court. The circuit court for the eastern district of
Tennessee refused a writ of habeas corpus from which decision the supreme
court allowed an appeal, the allegation being made that the negro had been
denied a fair trial in the Tennessee courts.
The petition of the attorney
general recites that after the publication of the action of the supreme court
in the Chattanooga evening papers, the sheriff and his deputies had every
reason to believe that an attempt would be made to lynch Johnson and
notwithstanding these facts, the sheriff withdrew from the jail early in the
evening the usual guard and left the jail in charge of the night jailer, Deputy
Sheriff Gibson.
It recited further that when the mob attacked, Sheriff Shipp
returned to the jail and while the mob was in possession of the place neither
he nor Deputy Gibson did anything to prevent the lynching, but in fact aided
those engaged in it. The sheriff and deputy are among the persons whom the
court is asked to punish.
Sheriff Shipp Talks of Case
Declares
Supreme Court Should Not Have Interfered
Birmingham, Alabama, May 28.—John F. Shipp of
Chattanooga, sheriff of Hamilton County, Tennessee, against whom steps have
been taken by the federal government in connection with the lynching in that
city in March, spent the day in Birmingham.
“The supreme court of the United States was responsible for this lynching."
said Captain Shipp. “In my opinion the act of the supreme court in not allowing
the case to remain in our courts was the most unfortunate thing in the history
of Tennessee. The jury that tried the negro
Johnson was as good as ever sat in a jury box.
“The people of Hamilton County were willing to let the law
take its course until it became known that the case would probably not be
disposed of for four or five years by the supreme court of the United States.
The people would not submit to this, and I do not wonder at it.
"These proceedings in the supreme court of the United States recently appear to me only a matter
of polities. I do not wish to appear in the light of defying the United States courts, but I did my duty and I am
ready for any conditions that may come up."
Idaho Statesman – May 29, 1906
Sheriff Shipp Sent to Prison
United States
Supreme Court Acts On Case of Former County
Officer
Two Members Do Not Agree
Justices Peckham and McKenna Assert Evidence Lacking -- Say Mob Would Have Overpowered Man
Creates Great Interest In National Capital
Staff Special to The News
Washington, November 15 – The sentencing of Sheriff Shipp of
Tennessee and five associates in the contempt case has been the chief topic of
interest in the National Capital toady, the speculation being largely in
relation to the effect the case may have on the legislature endeavor to make
contempt out of the present of the court punishable only after trail by jury.
Staff Special to The News
Washington, November 15 – The culmination of a grave human
tragedy was effected in the United States Supreme Court today when that hugh
tribunal sent John F. Shipp, former Sheriff at Hamilton County, Tennessee, to
prison for a period of ninety days. Two
others accused of complicity in the lynching were sentenced to ninety days and
three others, including Sheriff Shipp’s jailer, to sixty days. The six men are serving out their sentences
in the District of Columbia Jail.
Thousands of telegrams from all over the south pleading for a pardon for
the men have already reached President Taft, but it is give out that the Chief
Executive has not pardoning power in contempt cases.
Former Sheriff Shipp has a family of seven children; one
son, Clarence Shipp, living in Dallas.
Scene Solemn
Solemn and impressive as was the scene when the venerable Chief
Justice passed sentence on the physically broken former Sheriff of Chattanooga,
the impressiveness of the spectacle is over shadowed by the whole tragic train
of events leading up to this climax from the inception of the case. Starting with the terrible crime of a negro
against a young white girl, involving the unbridled fury of a community
impatient over the law’s delay and the failure of an elderly sheriff to check
that mob outbreak even to the point of bloodshed, it was a tragedy of
circumstances and of judgment, as far as the aged ex-Sheriff is concerned, and
of a reckless fury on the part of the lynchers.
Story of Tragedy
The story of this tragedy, whose trail leads from a peaceful
home in the suburbs of Chattanooga to the prison cell of an aged and honored
member of an average fair and law abiding community, is not one alike
comprehensible in all sections of the country.
The 1,200 page transcript of the contempt hearing tells how on the
evening of January 23, 1906, a respectable young white woman, the daughter of
an old Federal soldier, the keeper of Forest Hill Cemetery, was maltreated by a
negro. The offender lay in wait for his
victim, and approaching from behind threw a leather thong around her neck and
choked her in helplessness. Two days
later a negro named Ed Johnson was arrested.
He was identified by a young man who had seen him lurking about the
scene of the crime some ten minutes before the commission of the deed. He was identified, though not absolutely, by
the young woman at the trail.
With the negro standing by her side, the victim said:
“I would not be the
cause of taking an innocent man’s life, God knows, but I believe he is the
man.”
Negro Condemned
The Trial lasted three days.
The prisoner was found guilty and condemned to die. He was ably defended, though no appeal was
taken, one of his lawyers publishing a statement that no appeal was sought,
because to have done so would have been certain to have brought on a lynching. During all this time there were threats of an
attempts at lynching, which Sheriff Shipp personally avoided by spiriting the
prisoner away, unknown event to this own deputies. Up to that point Sheriff Shipp handled the
case with skill and tact.
The day of execution was set for March 3. In the meanwhile two negro attorneys espoused
Johnson’s cause. The applied to the
Supreme Court of Tennessee for a stay and a new trial, but that tribunal
refused their petition.
To U. S.
Supreme Court
Then they appealed to the United States Court of the Eastern
District of Tennessee on a writ of habeas corpus, but the Federal Judge denied
their request and they turned to the United States Supreme Court. That tribunal granted a stay, thus taking the
case out of the State court. A few days
after this action, on March 19, a mob broke into the jail and lynched Johnson.
All this time Sheriff Shipp was in the heat of a campaign
for re-election at a primary to be held a few days after the date on which the
lynching occurred. He says he did not
look for trouble over the Johnson case that night, and he left a deputy,
Jeremiah Gibson, in charge of the jail.
While at home the Attorney General of the State spoke to him over the telephone and told him he had better go
to the jail, as there was trouble there.
Negro Lynched
The former Sheriff says he hurried to the jail, running part
of the way, and walking rapidly the rest of the distance. He saw a group of men on the street and
seeing the jail door open, he rushed in.
Here he was seized by five or six men and carried upstairs, while the
rest of the men hammered in the cell door and carried the prisoner away. He says he remonstrated with the mob, but did
not recognize any of the persons except two newspaper reporters and a doctor,
none of whom were participating in the lynching. He says it would have been useless to have
attempted to use his gun.
Lynching Probed
The Supreme Court took cognizance of the affair. Secret Service Men investigated the lynching,
and as a result twenty-three men were haled before it court on the charge of
contempt. The deputy clerk of the
Supreme Court was sent to Chattanooga
to take testimony, which has been pu8blished in a volume of 1,200 pages. AS a result of this testimony, Sheriff Shipp
and his jailer, Gibson, and four citizens who are charged with participation in
the lynching were found guilty of conspiracy in contempt of the Supreme Court.
Justice Fuller’s Decision
In rendering the decision of the Supreme Court, Chief
Justice Fuller Said:
“In view of this, Shipp’s failure to make the slightest
preparation to resist the mod; the absence of all the deputies except Gibson
from the jail during the mob’s proceedings, occupying a period of somewhere in
the early evening; the action of Shipp in not resisting the mob and his failure
to make any reasonable effort to save Johnson or identify any members of the
mob, justify the inference of a disposition upon his part to render it easy for
the mob to lynch Johnson and to acquiesce in the lynching.”
Justice Peckham and McKenna, in a lengthy dissenting
opinion, held that there was not evidence whatever connecting Sheriff Shipp and
his deputy with the lynching. The
dissenting opinion refers to Sheriff Shipp as “an invalid beyond any reasonable
limit.”
Commenting on Sheriff Shipp’s statement that he had made no
attempt to hurt any of the lynchers.
Justice Peckham said he could not have done anything if he had made the
effort, because of the number against him.
The effort, he said “ could not have resulted only in his being actually
overwhelmed and possible killed, while the negro would not have been saved.”
The severity of the sentence, in view of the division of the
court on the subject of conclusiveness of the evidence against Sheriff Shipp,
was a surprise to the prisoners and their friends.
At the Jail
As the big barred doors of the jail swung open to receive
the prisoners this afternoon, immediately after sentence had been imposed,
Warden McKee stood before them.
“at least we are in the hands of a soldier.” Exclaimed
Captain Shipp, who had been in many a fight for the Confederacy, as he espied a
G.A.R. button in the lapel of Warden McKee’s coat. Then turning to his five fellow prisoners he
said: “Boys, it will be all right.”
Warden McKee has indicate
methods of punishment at the jail as humanitarian as the various classes
of prisoners will allow; and he was prepared for the reception of the six men
from Tennessee.
About a year ago, during the imprisonment of an unusually
large number of women, the warden had fitted up a storeroom on the fourth floor
of the jail as quarters for female prisoners.
It was in this large room, 20x35 feet, that he locked the six
prisoners. In the rooms were beds, one
for each of the prisoners, while at one end of the room was a table, upon which
“trustees’ will set the prisoners meals three time a day. A bathroom adjoining will be sued by the
prisoners exclusively. Four large
circular windows open to the south and the west, giving excellent views of the
front building.
Satisfied with Quarters
In fact, so pleasant had the prisoners found the quarters
that Capt. Shipp sent his attorney, Major
Cliff, to the office of the Supreme Court to withdraw a request made
when sentence was imposed to be sent to the Federal prison at Atlanta, Georgia,
instead of the jail in this city. During
the afternoon the six men received calls from Tennesseans and others. Sitting on his straw bed, half reclining on
his pillow of straw, Capt. Shipp made this statement:
“We are very well pleased with the treatment given us by
Warden McKee and are delighted with the quarters assigned us.”
A few hours in jail made Gibson reminiscent.
He told his companions that his was not the first time he
had been in prison in Washington. But the other time I was brought here as a Confederate prisoner.” He said.
The Dallas
Morning News, Tuesday, November 16,
1909
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