Newspaper Page Text
had just left her house to milk and feed the cows In the
barn when she was killed Instantly by two shotgun
blasts fired from behind.
Newspapers reported that "(njews of the deed
spread rapidly and hundreds of citizens from Clarke and
Oconee counties joined the officers in search of the
murderer."
John Lee Ebert art, a young black man who worked
for the Lee family and allegedly had recently stolen a
gun from Mr Lee. was immediately suspected of the
crime. Authorities went to Eberhart's home, but he was
not there. It was then learned that Eberhart had proba
bly gone to Athens where he had a friend who worked at
the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house. Police, accom
panied by Eberhart’s father, went to the fraternity, but
Eberhart was not there. Later, at about 2 p m..
Eberhart’s friend called police and told them that
Eberhart was at the fraternity and wanted to surrender.
Eberhart was arrested there with a gun in his posses
sion belonging to Mr. Lee. For his own protection.
Eberhart was not returned to Oconee County but
instead placed in the custody of Clarke County Sheriff
Walter E. Jackson and lodged in the Clarke County jail,
on the top floor of the present courthouse on
Washington Street.
According to newspaper accounts, Eberhart, who
supposedly was “well-known as a criminal character to
the officers of Clarke County." admitted killing Mrs. Lee.
placed In an automobile which then sped off.
Eberhart was driven to a wooded area near the place
where Mrs. Lee had been murdered that morning In the
presence of a huge menacing mob which had quickly
assembled, he was chained to a tree and wood and kin
dling piled around him During the next hour, the mob
carefully organized itself and conducted a sort of sham
trial, even choosing prosecutors and judges.
Before the pyre was lighted. Eberhart was told he
would not be harmed until he had been given an oppor
tunity to confess his guilt. Eberhart. however, denied his
guilt.
The scene that followed, newspaper accounts said,
was “one of the most horrible in the history of the
state."
The Constitution reported: “The torch was applied
and as the flames began to leap high into the air, the
leaders of the crowd in charge of the work asked him
time and time again for a statement as to his guilt, and
each time his reply was that he was innocent. The torch
was applied about 9:30 o’clock and shortly after the
flames had enveloped his body. The crowd then slowly
and quietly disappeared."
The next day the Oconee County coroner held an
Inquest over the remains of Eberhart. The coroner’s jury
was coldly unsympathetic to Eberhart. reporting that he
“came to his death at the hands of unknown citizens, and
that he was guilty of committing the murder of Mrs. Lee."
John Lrr Eberhart was burned to death where these woods now stand.
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making a "clean-cut confession to Sheriff Jackson."
During the late afternoon and early evening hundreds
of people from Clarke, Oconee, Oglethorpe and Jackson
counties began to gather around the courthouse, arriv
ing by automobile, on horseback, or on foot. By 8 p.m.
the courthouse was surrounded by a crowd of 3,000
people, most of whom were, according to a Clarke grand
jury report filed a week later, merely "Idly curious" and
innocent spectators." The only law enforcement officer
inside was Sheriff Jackson, who had taken the precau
tion of sending away the keys to the jail.
The trouble began shortly after 8 p.m. when, accord
ing to the grand jury report, “a group of men came to
the courthouse in automobiles and made their way
through the mass of people" encircling the courthouse.
These men forced their way into the lobby of the court
house by smashing the plate glass windows and break
ing down the front doors. Using the elevator and a nar
row stairwell, they ascended to the jail floor. They
immediately proceeded to attack the jail at two separate
points, with an acetylene torch being used at one point
of attack, and sledgehammers and chisels being used at
the other. Sheriff Jackson, endeavoring to defend his
prisoner, actually wrested away the acetylene torch and
blocked entry Into the jail at that point. While he was so
occupied, however, the other attack team burst into the
jail and seized the terrified Eberhart. who was chained,
dragged downstairs, hustled out the back entrance, and
Both University of Georgia president David C. Barrow
and Clarke superior court Judge Andrew Cobb publicly
castigated the lynching and the lynchers. Numerous
Athenians sent letters to Gov. Hugh Dorsey complaining
that Eberhart had received insufficient protection and
pointing out that the lynchers were not from Clarke
County. The Athens Ministerial Association denounced
the lynching as barbarism" and "subversive of every
Interest we hold precious." However, despite investiga
tions and reward offers, not a single member of the moo
was ever prosecuted.
Ida D. Lee and Walter M. Lee (who died in 1974) are
buried in a family plot In the Union Christian Church
cemetery, behind the new Oconee County High School.
The small white clapboard house in which they lived
and outside which Ida was murdered still stands. (It is a
private residence, and the privacy of Its Inhabitants
should be respected.) Athenians who want to see the
house may do so by simply by driving south on the
Macon Highway (US 441 south of Athens). The house is
In Oconee county, one mile beyond the Clarke-Oconee
county line, and on the same side of the curving road as
the Friendship Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Lee was slain
near the large oak tree on the side of the house.
John Lee Eberhart was burned to death in the wood
ed area immediately across the Macon Highway from
the house.
Donald E. Wilkes. Jr.
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