The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 86, July 1982 - April, 1983 Page: 521
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The "Waco Horror"
boro, Fleming resumed his questioning of the accused in the presence
of Hill County Sheriff Fred Long, an interrogation that climaxed with
Jesse Washington's confession that he indeed had killed Lucy Fryer.
Washington identified the murder weapon as a medium-sized black-
smith's hammer and told his interrogators that he had hidden the ham-
mer in a field on the Fryer place. With this information in hand,
Sheriff Fleming returned to Waco, while Sheriff Long escorted the con-
fessed killer to Dallas, where Washington dictated a confession to Dal-
las County Attorney Mike T. Lively in which he admitted to raping
and murdering the wife of his employer. The black youth signed this
confession with an X in lieu of his name, which he was incapable of
writing. Lively then had Washington locked in the Dallas County jail
to await trial and, presumably, to protect him from possible mob as-
sault.9
Meanwhile, Sheriff Fleming arrived back in Waco and, accompanied
by deputies Lee Jenkins and Joe Roberts and County Prosecutor John
B. McNamara, drove to the Fryer farm. There the search party discov-
ered a blood-caked blacksmith's hammer under a pile of hackberry
brush adjacent to the field in which Jesse Washington had been work-
ing the previous day, and precisely in the location the black youth had
described as the hiding place for the murder weapon.'0
The discovery of the hammer allegedly used to kill Lucy Fryer, coin-
ciding with the publication of the black suspect's confession in the
Waco newspapers, inflamed passions among Robinson's citizenry still
further and led some to insist upon drastic action. Shortly after 10o:oo
P.M. that evening, Sheriff Fleming encountered a procession of some
500 citizens from Robinson, Rosenthal, and several smaller communi-
ties in southern McLennan County headed toward Waco along the
Lorena road. The ringleaders of the group demanded that Fleming re-
lease Jesse Washington to them so that swift "justice" might be carried
out, and one of the men reportedly declared: "When we left home to-
night our wives, daughters and sisters kissed us good bye and told us to
do our duty, and we're trying to do it as citizens." When Fleming in-
formed them that the suspect had been removed from the city for safe-
keeping pending his trial, several of the men refused to believe him and
requested to search the jail. Fleming acquiesced, and the caravan of
automobiles, buggies, and horses carrying the vigilantes proceeded
oWaco Morning News, May io, 1916 (quotation); testimony of Fred Long, Mike T. Live-
ly, and W. J. Davis in Texas v. Washington, 2-4.
10Testimony of S. S. Fleming in Texas v. Washington, 4-5-521
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 86, July 1982 - April, 1983, periodical, 1982/1983; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101209/m1/581/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.