Anderson, S.C., June 9—Robert W. Sullivan, secretary of the Orr Cotton Mills, and Miss Ruby Floyd were kidnapped from an automobile in front of the young woman’s home here late last night by a band of masked men who “gave them a lecture,” as they described it, and dropped them in the woods some three miles out of town.
The man was warned not to be seen in Miss Floyd’s company again, he told police, but he denied reports that had reached them that he had been beaten. He and Miss Floyd and the latter’s mother, Mrs. Adda Floyd, informed police that the men were dressed in regalia resembling that of the Ku Klux Klan, and Miss Floyd asserted she was positive one of the men was a negro. The couple said they would be unable to identify any of their abductors.
Sullivan, who is about 31 years of age, was recently taken into custody at Miss Floyd’s home, but no charge was made against him. A charge of “disorderly conduct” was made against her, however, as a result of remarks attributed to her in a conversation with a neighbor who had complained to the police. She is about 18 years old.
The masked band came up tonight in two automobiles, and four men put Sullivan in one machine while three took Miss Floyd in the other and rapidly left town, police were informed by Mrs. Floyd, but the only clue they had until the couple made their way back to town was the marks of a struggle around the cars. They were unable to ascertain which way the cars went.
Swearing in Public
According to the story told by the girl’s mother, who witnessed the incident form the time the two drove up to the home in Sullivan’s car, two automobiles of masked and robed men drove up behind them as they slowed down in front of the house.
“Ten or 12 men then crowded around the car,” stated Mrs. Floyd. “They dragged my daughter and Bob from the car. My daughter asked where they were going and they told her they were going to teach them a lesson. Then she called to me to call the officers. When I returned to the porch the two cars were disappearing around the corner.”
the party went to Eureka Church, according to the girl, about three miles from town. Four of the men occupied the front seat with Sullivan. The girl was escorted by two men in a Ford roadster, which followed the first car.
While the party was enroute to the scene of the picturesque church, the girl was repeatedly warned not to be seen in public again with Sullivan. According to her statement, in the car ahead, Sullivan was similarly instructed. On arriving at the destination, the two cars rolled slowly to a stop. Sullivan was instructed to accompany his captors into a clump of weeds behind the cemetery. He acquiesced, but when the two men attempted to follow with the girl they encountered lively, spirted and vehement abjection. She was not going to witness what they promised her would be an “obligation” on the part of her erstwhile companion to find more acceptable company than herself. She broke into tears, then into action. She was promised a dose of the same medicine alleged to have been given to Sullivan, and she temporized to the extent of sitting in the council which tried Sullivan.
Here two conflicting stores are told of the next proceedings. According to both Sullivan and the girl, both were again instructed not to be seen together again, which both refused to promise. The reports circulating on the streets of Anderson state, on authority, that Sullivan promised not to be seen in her company; that he would leave town if requested to do so; also that his life hereafter would be exemplary.
Sullivan was then stripped to the waist and severely whipped, and instructed that if he failed to heed this warning, other measures would be adopted, according to street rumors.
Sullivan is secretary and treasurer of the South Carolina Cotton Manufacturers’ Association, and the son of one of Anderson’s oldest families.
From page 2 of the Goldsboro News, June 11, 1922
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