The perpetrators of the horrible, atrocious extermination of the poor family of Mr. Lynch, at Hockley, will hardly be brought to justice, or if tried will never be hanged. They are rich. They have plenty of friends at court, and this gives the continuances and changes of venue, and witnesses strangely disappear and the story is worn out, and people forget the rage excited when the sun rose upon the frightful scene of horror. Then decency was appalled, and each citizen felt himself outraged, that villainy dared to compass such deeds in a country we call our own. The Waco Examiner commenting on courts and juries and prosecuting attorneys says:
A murderer is a murderer, remarks the Sherman Register, reviewing the case of the Calder murderers. That is a sad mistake. A murder is not a murder if committed by a prominent man.
The Lynch murderers are said to be prominent citizens. The good, modest constables and sheriffs do not, therefore, make arrests. Perhaps they await knowledge of the fact that Governor Hubbard has issued the usual proclamation, proposing to pay citizens and sheriffs to do their duty. But there is no reason for arresting these people, if the Houston Telegram be well informed and just in its deduction from the facts that the brutal villains who burned a family to death in their own home are guarded by an abundance of money.
"The Perpetrators Will not be Brought to Justice.", Weekly Democratic Statesman, (Austin, Tex.) Thursday, October 3, 1878, p. 1, col. 6-7.
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