She Smiled as She Cut Down the Dead Body of Her Ravisher (1893)

Macon Weekly Telegraph, Georgia
27 February 1893

SHE SMILED

As She Cut Down the Dead Body of Her Ravisher.
Knoxville, Tenn. Feb 26 -- The lynching at Jellico last night of the negro Joe Payne for ravishing Miss Fannie Cecil was in itself a very tame affair. He confessed his crime and was swung up to the nearest tree without any noise.

The mob pinned a placard on his back vowing death to any one who should disturb the body until 10 o'clock today.

At that hour fully 5,000 people had gathered from the neighborhood.

Miss Cecil, who was not badly injured, sent word that she would take pleasure in cutting the body down. She severed the rope with a sharp knife and the body fell to the ground. She smiled as she cut the rope. Her act was greeted with cheers from the vast crowd. She is a very handsome young woman of 18 and of good family.

Len Tye, who ravished Miss Bryant on the same spot last December, has been located in West Virginia and will be brought to Jellico in a day or two. He will be lynched as soon as he arrives.

The negroes of that locality are wrought up over the affair.