August 8, 1930: Lynching in Marion

James Cameron (age 16), Thomas Shipp (age 18), and Abraham Smith (age 19) of Marion were driving in a 1926 Ford roadster when they decided to rob a white couple.  The couple’s names were Claude Deeter and Mary Bell.  Shipp gave Cameron a .38 caliber revolver to commit the crime.  However, Cameron realized that Deeter was his friend, so he gave the gun back and ran away.  Deeter was murdered nonetheless.  Cameron, Shipp, and Smith were captured and put into separate cells at the Grant County Courthouse.  There was an attempt to get Cameron to sign a paper stating that he committed the crime.  An angry mob, led by the Ku Klux Klan, attacked the jail to abduct the men who were accused of murdering Deeter and raping Bell.  Shipp was beaten, dragged in the street, and hung from the jailhouse window.  Smith also was dragged, then lynched by a rope thrown over a maple tree.  The mob then came for Cameron.  He recalled the noose being placed around his neck, at which point he said, “Lord forgive me my sins.”  He said he felt a calm wash over him.  Cameron then heard a voice say, “Take this boy back.  He had nothing to do with this.”  Cameron was set free.  The mob then attempted to burn Smith and Ship’s bodies.  Lawrence Beitler, a photographer, took a photo of Smith and Shipp.  He printed thousands of copies and sold them for fifty cents apiece.  Bell later stated that Cameron fled the scene of the crime before anything happened and that she was never raped. 

August 9, 1930 : Muncie Responds to the Marion Lynching

August 9, 1930: Marion Mayor Requests Troops

Cited by:  Black Holocaust Museum, Milwaukee, WS.