December 2, 1893: Lucius Holt

Join me in a jaunt to 1893 Georgia through the pages of The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) dated December 3, 1893:

MURDER AVENGED.

Retribution Followed Swift Upon the Heels of Holt's Crime.

HE WAS ONE OF THE SEARCHERS

He Did Not Have the Nerve, Though, to Go to the Spot Where He Had Left His Victim.

Zebulon, Ga., December 2.—(Special.)—The negro, Lucius Holt, who so brutally murdered Arthur Reynolds Thanksgiving night, near Concord, was taken to the place of his crime last night and lynched.

He was first hanged and then riddled with bullets. He was then cut down and dropped in the ditch, where the body of his victim was found.

Holt lived on the farm of Reynolds's [sic] father and, after committing the murder, got in the wagon and drove the team near home, where he left it and slipped into his cabin. When the alarm was given Holt joined in the search for Reynolds, but just before reaching the murdered man, stopped, saying he was tired and could go no further. Still he was not suspected of the horrible deed until next morning when he was caught at Sullivan's store.

He failed to connect anyone else with the crime, though it is not definitely settled that he alone did it. The lynching of Holt is generally approved by white and black, and it is said that the negroes themselves wanted to dispatch him.

Thank you for joining me and as always, I hope I leave you with something to ponder.