Sighing for Eden: Sin, Evil, and the Christian Faith

p. 13

In Pickeve, South Carolina, February, 1947, a mob of about 50 whites descended on Pickens County Jail where a black man, William Earle, was incarcerated on suspicion of knifing Tom Brown, a white taxi driver. The mob beat, stabbed and shot Willie Earle so that the bushes around his body were spattered with brain tissue and blood. Who handed over Willie Earle to the mob? An aged jailor who handed over Willie without question. “I guess you boys know what you’re doing,” the jailor said. He did have one request. Would the mob boys please use no profanity? His wife lay sleeping upstairs, after all.