Others of the relic hunters remained until the ashes cooled to obtain
such ghastly relics as the teeth, nails, and bits of charred skin of the
immolated victim of his own lust. After burning the body the mob tied a
rope around the charred trunk and dragged it down Main Street to the
courthouse, where it was hanged to a center pole. The rope broke and the
corpse dropped with a thud, but it was again hoisted, the charred legs
barely touching the ground. The teeth were knocked out and the
fingernails cut off as souvenirs. The crowd made so much noise that the
police interfered. Undertaker Walsh was telephoned for, who took
charge of the body and carried it to his establishment, where it will be
prepared for burial in the potter's field today.

[Illustration: Scene of lynching at Clanton, Alabama, August 1891.]

[Illustration: Facsimile of back of photograph. W.R. MARTIN, Traveling
Photographer. (Handwritten: This S.O.B. was hung at Clanton Ala. Friday
Aug 21st/91 for murdering a little boy in cold blood for 35¢ in cash. He
is a good specimen of your "Black Christian hung by White Heathens"
[illegible] of the Committee.)]

A prelude to this exhibition of nineteenth-century barbarism was the
following telegram received by the _Chicago Inter Ocean_, at 2 o'clock,
Saturday afternoon--ten hours before the lynching:

MEMPHIS TENN., July 22, To _Inter-Ocean_, Chicago.

Lee Walker, colored man, accused of raping white women, in jail here,
will be taken out and burned by whites tonight. Can you send Miss Ida
Wells to write it up? Answer. R.M. Martin, with _Public Ledger_.