Thread by @_ValTown_, Frank Embree was only 19 when he was tortured and then lynched [...]

Frank Embree was only 19 when he was tortured and then lynched for a crime he didn’t commit in 1899.

Thread below.

In June 1899, a white girl named Willie Dougherty was riding her horse one afternoon to visit a friend and she was dragged off her horse.

Supposedly, a black man dragged her off that horse and assaulted her. The Black Man was known as “the fiend”, “negro ravisher”, and “the black brute”.

The Black Man who attacked her was riding a horse which was owned by John Collins, and was thought to be John’s nephew Frank Emory; which they called him.

The nephew’s real last name was “Embree”, and he was from Kansas. There was a $300 reward for his capture.

When Frank was arrested, after investigation, an intelligencer said that they may have caught the wrong person. Frank has no idea what was going on.

Willie knew it wasn’t Frank who assaulted her, and the authorities didn’t want to believe that they caught the wrong person.

So disregarding the intelligencer’s advice, they interrogated Frank. Frank maintained his innocence, and was whipped 103 times by a bullwhip until he finally couldn’t take it anymore and said he did it. Just to stop the pain.

Frank then asked if he could be shot or hanged, so that the beatings could stop.

Frank was brought before the public, and they asked if he had any special requests. He asked if his body could be buried instead of burned afterwards, still maintaining his innocence; he also asked if he could say a prayer. The prayer was written down in the newspaper.

Before Frank was hung, he was castrated in front of everyone.

They tightened the rope around his neck, and threw him over a limb.

The editorial of the newspaper wrote: “His fate is a fair warning to all others who would commit such hellish crimes. The citizens of Howard County will not tolerate such. The negro was given no more than he deserved. Let others beware.”

Frank’s picture was turned into postcards and sent all over the country.