George Armwood
MSA SC 3520-13750
Lynched in Princess Anne, October 18, 1933
Biography:
On the evening of October 16, 1933, seventy-one year-old Mary Denston was walking down a road from the post office in Princess Anne, Maryland to her home a few miles away. As Mrs. Denston passed a field outside of town, a young black man jumped out and attempted to assault her. Startled, Mrs. Denston could only scream and hope that her calls were in ear-shot of nearby laborers. State road workers heard the commotion, and ran towards the shouts. Frightened but uninjured, Mrs. Denston provided details of the incident and described her assailant as twenty-three year-old George Armwood, a laborer for John Richardson who lived near Pocomoke City in the southern portion of Somerset County. The Evening Sun wrote an article in their October 18 edition stating that a young boy witnessed Armwood and Mr. Richardson driving away together following the attack. Police officials in Somerset County organized a search party to look for George Armwood in the woods near where the incident took place. After questioning those in the area, and after police confronted Mr. Richardson who employed Armwood, word spread that Armwood had been found at the home of his mother, Etta. Authorities took Armwood to the jail located in Salisbury, MD just ten miles north of Princess Anne to avoid possible violent reactions from county residence.
Unfortunately for Armwood and the local authorities, the residence did gather, and by 5:00 PM, the threat was eminent enough to relocate Armwood to Baltimore City. After sneaking the accused off the Eastern Shore, Somerset County Judge Robert F. Duer and State Attorney John Robins assured Governor Albert C. Ritchie that if George Armwood were to return to the Eastern Shore, his safety would be guaranteed. Governor Ritchie agreed, and Armwood was escorted back down to Princess Anne during the early morning hours of October 17. However, the crowd did not forget Armwood, and once the residence of Salisbury and Princess Anne heard that he was back in town, a mob grew to nearly 1000. On October 21, The Sun wrote a detailed account of the phone calls that were exchanged between Gov. Ritchie and the authorities of Somerset County. By 7:30 that evening, Judge Duer would have to confront the crowd of people waiting outside the jailhouse for Armwood. "I know nearly all of you," protested Judge Duer to the crowd, hoping to serve as a warning to anyone who planned to take matters into their own hands and interfere with the justice system. This scare tactic seemed to work, for the crowd dispersed into the night, but as soon as Judge Duer left, the crowd returned more determined than ever to reach their target. Deputy Sheriff Norman Dryden, Captain Edward McKim Johnson, and the twenty-three other officers watching the jailhouse that evening knew drawing their pistols would just insight more violence, so they threw teargas into the crowd instead. As soon as the smoke cleared, the crowd decided that would be the moment they breach the jailhouse doors, using two fifteen-foot timbers as battering rams. After knocking out Capt. Johnson, the mob forced the keys from Deputy Sheriff Dryden that opened the second floor "cages" where George Armwood and other black prisoners were held.
Immediately after the mob found Armwood hiding under his mattress, the noose was tightened around his neck. Armwood was dragged out of the jail, beaten, stabbed, and kicked as the crowd tied him to the back of a truck and look for an appropriate location to lynch him. At first, the mob wanted to use a large oak tree near Judge Duer´s home, but opted to use a tree found on ninety-one year-old Mrs. Thomas Bock´s property who lived nearby. Armwood´s ears were cut off and his gold teeth were taken out before the mob raised and dropped his lifeless body from a branch above the ground. Once it was clear that Armwood was dead, the mob dragged the body back to the courthouse on Main Street in downtown Princess Anne, where the body was hanged from a telephone line and burned. After the body was extinguished, the corpse was moved and left in Hayman´s Lumber yard until authorities gathered it the following morning.
The Afro-American printed an account of the incident in their Sunday issue and described the mob as dancing around the burnt body singing "John Brown´s Body" and "Give me something to remember you by." Ralph Matthews, editor for the Afro- American newspaper, in an interview with Deputy Dryden, gave the name Shelburn Lester, the man who rushed and injured Capt. Johnson. It is apparent that people of Salisbury and Princess Anne were deeply involved with the lynching, and the mob was not composed of strangers and out-of-towners as many witnesses confessed. Whether or not people were identifiable in the crowd, the reasoning behind the lynching was to avoid another incident like the Euel Lee, a.k.a. "Orphan Jones" case where a black man killed a white family and was able to avoid lynching long enough to be executed by the state. There are quotes from the George Armwood episode that explained "we don´t want any Euel Lee in Somerset County," and that because of the Lee case, George Armwood was lynched. "It would have cost the state $1000, and it cost us 75 cents!" Immediately after hearing about the lynching on the Eastern Shore, Governor Ritchie blamed Judge Duer and State Attorney Robins for the death of Armwood and prompted an investigation to find those responsible. Judge Duer swore to protect Armwood and afterwards responded ingenuously that he had made a mistake. Judge Duer felt that since the trial was set for the following Monday, hopefully the people would be satisfied it would take place soon after the crime, unlike in the Lee case.
Two years later, a grand jury heard testimony from forty-two witnesses to the Armwood lynching, including twelve black men who were held in the jail as they heard, if not saw, Armwood be dragged out to certain death. As predicted, many felt that the organizers of the lynching were not from the local community, and therefore could not positively identify anyone involved that night. Even after state police identified nine men as acting leaders of the mob, a local jury issued not one indictment for Armwood´s murder. Attorney General Preston Lane then ordered the National Guard to Salisbury and arrest suspected lynchers. Twelve men total were named as being members of the mob that took Armwood´s life, and hostilities between the Salisbury locals and the National Guard ensued. It reached the point where Lane was spotted and chants of "Lynch Lane," prompted the State Attorney General to leave the city. The next day in Somerset County, four men were on trial for the lynching in Princess Anne on a habeas corpus hearing. One thousand supporters were there to cheer loudly as the jury ordered the release of the accused, and dismissed the case forever.
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