I saw a magazine in a bookstore several years ago which had an article by some liberal full of guilt because the employees of his grandfather's business had lynched a black man back in the early 20th century. The person who was killed had just committed a murder--there was no doubt about that. Of course he should have been arrested, put on trial, and then executed by the state instead of by a mob.
She told me it was a man who had killed his wife in a rage and everyone wanted him dead...his wife was a local school teacher and popular
Back then you were hanged in the county of crime....Parchman did not have a death house then and did not want the stigma as death row so you got kilt by the state in the county of the offense
“Mama” described it as a carnival affair with food and crowds etc....a preacher...last words
then snap...and the women cried and kids were sorta shocked
it left an impression on folks...something we have lost
I witnessed vigilante justice in Petit Goave Haiti in 1990...robbers...corralled by the locals and stripped and beaten to death by a mob of everyone...old women, kids, you name it...then sliced to shreds by the men
all the while the robbers pleading for mercy and shown none
later the hoogan (witch doctor) came out and laid their guts out in rows and sprinkled dust and chicken feed to condemn them to Hell...
they left the bodies piled on the side of the road like a deer camp gutpile for days to send a message to those who wish to run wild thru the countryside robbing, raping and killing....this is your fate
i hate to say it but it's hard to argue with when no other established law is about
i was the only white guy ...I had a mulatto Jamaican buddy with me...man...we both felt way outta place
but they were very cordial to us...they knew we were ship owners driving out to the Miragoane port but explained that this was just something had to be done for the safety of the community...I got it.
our translator had 6 fingers and 6 toes...and was a Hoogan too...so they would not have messed with him anyhow
...that was not my only experience with lynchings or vigilantism in my life around the world but it stuck with me
the children and the old women in thier bright pretty cotton dresses...wailing away...numbed to the pleadings..it sticks with ya...I respected them in a way...brutal...but they refused to be victims