Matt Williams
MSA SC 3520-13749
Lynched in Salisbury, December 4, 1931
Biography:
Matthew Williams was lynched on Friday, December 4, 1931 at 8:05pm in Salisbury, Maryland located in Wicomico County on Maryland´s lower Eastern Shore. During the afternoon hours, Matthew Williams went to the office of his employer, Daniel J. (D.J.) Elliot, who ran a local lumberyard and box factory for produce shipped to the Western Shore, apparently to discuss his low hourly wage. Williams had been a laborer for Elliot since childhood, and to all who knew him, was liked by and extremely loyal to the Elliot family. D.J. Elliot was in his office located on Lake Street in Salisbury talking on the phone with another Salisbury businessman, Thomas Chatham, when Williams entered. According to Chatham, who heard the incident over the phone, remembers no words were spoken and that just two gunshots were fired. Chatham immediately called the authorities. Williams allegedly walked up to Elliot who was seated at his desk, and put the muzzle of the shotgun to the head of Elliot and fired, then turned the barrel towards himself, and fired again. Elliot´s son James heard the shots from the house and ran out to investigate the commotion. Upon arriving, he noticed Williams lying on the ground in a pool of blood, and his 67 year-old father hunched over his desk, dead. As James ran to call for help, Williams recovered enough strength to pick himself up and flee towards the lumberyard, only to be stopped by James Elliot with a gunshot to the shoulder and leg, ending the chase.
Once Matthew Williams arrived at Peninsula General Hospital in downtown Salisbury, he was immediately restrained in a straitjacket to prevent further attacks from the half-dead and semi-conscious Williams. As soon as Williams´ head and shoulder were wrapped, State´s Attorney Levin C. Bailey and Wicomico County Sheriff G. Murray Phillips questioned Williams, where he is quoted "I got my man." The late edition of the Salisbury Times wrote that Williams died at the hospital, but as soon as they learned he was still alive, a crowd began to gather on the hospital lawn. People were exiting from their homes, shops, restaurants and corner stores and added to the commotion that evening. A number of men entered the hospital demanding for them to turn Williams over to them, but were stopped by Police Chief N.H. Holland and Deputy John Parks who blocked the entrance. Six members of the mob then went around to an open side entrance and reached the Negro ward of the hospital. There, hospital superintendent Miss Helen V. Wise instructed them "If you must take him, do it quietly." The men threw the bandaged Williams out the window down to the crowd of 300 people anxiously waiting below.
As the crowd of 300 escorted the blinded Williams towards the courthouse, onlookers joined in the event, and 300 quickly grew to a crowd of over 1000. Williams, still straitjacketed, was pushed, stabbed, and then dragged behind a truck the three blocks to the courthouse lawn. There, with either an unconscious or already dead Williams, at around 8:00 pm, the crowd strung up a noose and found a branch twenty feet above the ground, tied Williams’ neck, and began to lift him up, then drop him. County Sheriff Phillips attempted to prevent the lynching, but the mob simply pushed him to the side, hopeless in stopping their actions towards Williams. After repeating this several times, the mob allowed Williams to hang lifelessly for 20 minutes, meanwhile mocking the victim and taking parts of his anatomy as souvenirs. Then, after Williams thumped to the ground one last time, the crowd of approximately 2000 followed the body being dragged behind a truck once again, towards a black section of Salisbury off Poplar Hill Avenue. Finally, after about an hour of torture, Williams´s corpse was tied to a light post, doused in gallons of gasoline and oil, and set on fire. The sheriff cut the charred body down at around 9:00 pm.
It is said that this lynching was in response to the delayed justice the Delmarva Peninsula experienced in the past year with the trial of Euel Lee, accused of murdering a white family of four in Berlin, Maryland. Lee´s lawyer, Bernard Ades, felt that there was no way that he would receive a fair and unbiased trial on the Eastern Shore and had the trial moved to Baltimore, which deeply angered the residence of Worcester County. Immediately after hearing of the Williams lynching in Salisbury, Governor Ritchie set up a task force with Attorney General William P. Lane to look into prosecuting those who were involved in any way with the mob that killed Matthew Williams, stating that the actions on the Eastern Shore were disgraceful to the entire state. After interviewing those officers and hospital workers who were present during the abduction, no one could recall or recognize anyone that was present that night. It is said that most of the active mob members were those from other parts of the peninsula, including Delaware and Virginia, and to this day, no one has been charged or prosecuted for the lynching of Matthew Williams.
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