again, using another term. so henry and tiger left the apartment on herndon avenue, looking for a black person to kill and to lynch, solely because the klan wanted to, quote, send the message . there was fear the black community would start increasing its vote, legislatures would change in the south, and, possibly, throughout the country. and the hierarchy of the klan viewed it as, maybe, a spark that started a fire that couldn t be put out. what we see in american history, again and again, is this ugly convergence and correlation between black ascendency, and retribution and revenge at the hands of white
from under his fingernails with a pocket knife. this was evidence that was piling up. so four days later, we arrested and charged them for the murder of michael donald. we have them in jail. we re starting to pick up pieces here and there. we determine there had been a burglary that occurred at the end of herndon avenue. when we finally figured out who the burglar was, he admits that he saw two guys fighting with a black guy at the tree. they weren t fighting. they were trying to get his body lifted up to get him hung into the tree. but you can t put a burglar on the witness stand and expect a
speculation, shall we say, that mr. anderson would either be acquitted, or the case would result in a mistrial. the joseph anderson trial started the week before michael was, you know, killed, and i watched the trial the whole week. the fifth day of the trial, the case went to the jury. that evening, all of these people congregated on herndon avenue and waited to see what the 10:00 news was gonna report. the 12 jurors couldn t reach agreement according to the foreman. judge joseph hocklander said he was forced to declare a mistrial in the five-day-old case. the news came on and we was watching it, and i saw him coming out the courtroom. i got up from the tv, and got dressed, and went to my sister s house.
avenue. simply because of the proximity, we obtained permission to search, and that was when we found a gun, a knife, a picture of a hangman s noose hanging in a tree. we brought them to police headquarters downtown and questioned them, and then all of the sudden, a character surfaced by the name of johnny ray kelly. mr. kelly said on friday night he was five blocks west of herndon avenue on springhill, and he said i was standing out here and up walked jimmy, johnny and ralph. kelly claimed that he observed blood on ralph hayes clothes. ralph told them that he had, quote, jumped a black dude. and ralph has a spot of blood this big on his t-shirt. and one of the edgar boys is literally cleaning blood out
position was, some cyclops, a grand titan, or some klan-related rank that he held. he was very volatile, very angry, very strange behavior. bennie hays was a paradox, grandfatherly with a cane but capable of sudden outbursts of anger. take it off me, son of a bitch. get it off. bennie jack was a terrible man, and i don t like speaking ill of the dead, but he was pure evil. and he was coming up herndon avenue, fussing and raising cane, talking about i own all these houses. what the blank you doing keeping me from coming to my properties? he was just loud-mouthing. i think there are certain parts of mobile that feared him all the way to his death. they knew that it was the klan.