The Other Victims

In addition to the heinous murders of Mary Turner, her baby, and Sidney Johnson, the following people were also killed that week in May, 1918.

Will Head, the first victim, was captured and killed Friday morning, May 17, 1918. When caught by the lynch mob, Mr. Head allegedly confessed to a multi-person plot to murder Smith. Mr. Head was taken to Troupville, Georgia, five miles west of Valdosta and hung from a large oak tree by a mob of three hundred men or more. One report stated that a rope secured to the tree was tied around his neck. He was then forced to climb the tree and jump from a limb. Sometime after the lynching a "court" inquest into his death decreed that he "came to his death by jumping from the limb of a tree with a rope tied around his neck."

Julius Jones was captured and hung late on Friday May 17, 1918. The specifics of his murder were not documented and his body was left hanging for at least one full day so the public could see it.

Hayes Turner, arrested for allegedly being part of a plot to kill Hampton Smith, was being held in the Brooks County jail. While transferring him to the Moultrie, Georgia jail for his safety, Brooks County Sheriff Wade and County Clerk Roland Knight were stopped by a mob of 40 masked men who took Hayes Turner into the night. He was later hung at the intersection of Morven and Barney roads.

Eugene Rice was captured and hung Saturday afternoon at the Camp Ground Church between Morven and Barney, Georgia.

Two unidentified men, who were not accused of any murder plot, were simply killed by the blood thirsty mob sometime over the weekend of May 17th.

Chime Riley was hung and later thrown into the Little River near Barney, Georgia.

Simon Schuman was taken from his home near Berlin, Georgia and was never seen again.

The above information is drawn from the following scholarly and historical sources.
Dr. Christopher Myers's article "Killing Them by the Wholesale: A Lynching Rampage in South Georgia" pgs. 214-235 in Georgia Historical Quarterly. Vol. XC. No. 2. Summer 2006.

"Memorandum For Govenor Dorsey from Walter F. White," July 10, 1918, Papers of the NAACP, Group I. Series C, Box 353, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Walter White, "The Work of a Mob," The Crisis 16 (September 1918), 221.