Atrocious Crime in Texas
January 6, 1906
Summary
"Whitecaps” in Texas brutally murder Asa Flood and his wife.
Transcription
Atrocious Crime in Texas
Texas seems to be determined to lead in the matter of fiendish crimes. The following telegraphic report explains itself:
PARIS,TEX, Dec. 14. -- A band of armed and mounted whitecaps visited the home of a man named Asa Flood, near Glory, Tex, this morning between midnight and day, and murdered him by the first shooting him and then cutting off his head.
After killing Flood, the whitecaps fired several times at his wife, who has rushed to him when she heard the first shot, and wounded her fatally, leaving her lying across her husband’s body.
About a half hour before the visit of the whitecaps a man named Allen Young, returning home late from Glory, was passed on the road by a band of the mounted men, who rode close together with their faces masked. Young thought nothing of the circumstance until he learned of the murder this morning, although he could give no clew to the identity of the men by whom he was passed.
Mrs. Flood was still alive when found this morning and unable to give an account of the murder. She said that Flood had heard a noise about the woodpile and went to investigate it. Hardly had he reached the spot when she heard what sounded to her like a volley of musketry. She sprang out the door and stumbled over her husband’s body then heard a crash and knew no more until morning.
A bloody ax was found near the woodpile. It is thought it was used in cutting off the colored man’s head.
Flood’s wide was a half-breed Indian while he was the man who had a difficulty with a white man on the streets of Paris last Saturday and who fled, pursued by a mob. He had been in hiding since that time.
There is no allegation that Flood killed the white man or that he committed or attempted to commit a heinous offense upon a white female. The fiendish manner in which he was murdered and the horrible treatment accorded his wife, who is said to be fatally wounded beggars description. A man would be safer in the midst of roving bands of Indians than he apparently is in this “civilized” section of Texas. The account tells its own story. The wiping out in blood of this entire family is a closed chapter, so far as the officers of the law are concerned. We cannot understand how it is that colored men will not realize and understand that in communities where no protection is afforded, the must protect themselves. All colored men must know that when the lynchers are on their trail, be the offense alleged, trivial or heinous, their end has come and it remains for them to fight to the death, giving no quarter and asking none.
If they ? at the stake fire all but one charge and let that one be for the defender of himself and family. Colored men are too afraid of sacrificing their hope of heaven by self-destruction. A man who is ready to die by his own hand after he had killed as many as he can of his would-be murderers will hardly ever find it necessary to perform his job.
If we will imitate the better class of white men, and avoid those of the lower type, God will smile upon us and all will be well.
Lynch-law must go!
Texas seems to be determined to lead in the matter of fiendish crimes. The following telegraphic report explains itself:
PARIS,TEX, Dec. 14. -- A band of armed and mounted whitecaps visited the home of a man named Asa Flood, near Glory, Tex, this morning between midnight and day, and murdered him by the first shooting him and then cutting off his head.
After killing Flood, the whitecaps fired several times at his wife, who has rushed to him when she heard the first shot, and wounded her fatally, leaving her lying across her husband’s body.
About a half hour before the visit of the whitecaps a man named Allen Young, returning home late from Glory, was passed on the road by a band of the mounted men, who rode close together with their faces masked. Young thought nothing of the circumstance until he learned of the murder this morning, although he could give no clew to the identity of the men by whom he was passed.
Mrs. Flood was still alive when found this morning and unable to give an account of the murder. She said that Flood had heard a noise about the woodpile and went to investigate it. Hardly had he reached the spot when she heard what sounded to her like a volley of musketry. She sprang out the door and stumbled over her husband’s body then heard a crash and knew no more until morning.
A bloody ax was found near the woodpile. It is thought it was used in cutting off the colored man’s head.
Flood’s wide was a half-breed Indian while he was the man who had a difficulty with a white man on the streets of Paris last Saturday and who fled, pursued by a mob. He had been in hiding since that time.
There is no allegation that Flood killed the white man or that he committed or attempted to commit a heinous offense upon a white female. The fiendish manner in which he was murdered and the horrible treatment accorded his wife, who is said to be fatally wounded beggars description. A man would be safer in the midst of roving bands of Indians than he apparently is in this “civilized” section of Texas. The account tells its own story. The wiping out in blood of this entire family is a closed chapter, so far as the officers of the law are concerned. We cannot understand how it is that colored men will not realize and understand that in communities where no protection is afforded, the must protect themselves. All colored men must know that when the lynchers are on their trail, be the offense alleged, trivial or heinous, their end has come and it remains for them to fight to the death, giving no quarter and asking none.
If they ? at the stake fire all but one charge and let that one be for the defender of himself and family. Colored men are too afraid of sacrificing their hope of heaven by self-destruction. A man who is ready to die by his own hand after he had killed as many as he can of his would-be murderers will hardly ever find it necessary to perform his job.
If we will imitate the better class of white men, and avoid those of the lower type, God will smile upon us and all will be well.
Lynch-law must go!
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Lower Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Emma Roberts
Citation
“Atrocious Crime in Texas,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed June 17, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/131.