Caesar Yerby Killed Wilbur Few, Escaped on Bicycle, March 6, 1923

Shoots Another, Escapes on Bicycle. . . Georgia Negro Kills Another. . . Controversy Over Negro Girl Whom Both Were Courting in the Stoney Point Section

“Wilbur Few came to his death from a pistol wound inflicted by Caesar Yerby,” was the verdict of the coroner’s jury returned Monday morning after Coroner T.C. Eskridge and a jury of six men had heard all of the evidence in a tragedy which occurred on the Grover Cline plantation near Stoney Point at 10 o’clock Sunday night. The officers were not notified of the killing until midnight, and when they arrived on the scene Caesar Yerby had a two hours’ lead on the officers, making his escape on a bicycle. The coroner and the jury did not complete the hearing until 3 o’clock Monday morning. It was a plain case of murder with no conflicting evidence as the circumstances of the killing.

Few and Yerby are Georgia negroes who came to Cleveland county last year. They are 25 or 30 years of age. Few lived on Let Dellinger’s plantation while Yerby lived on Grover Cline’s farm. They boarded at Annie Gidney’s and both were giving their social attentions to a young Gidney girl. Yerby became enraged when he discovered immoral relations between the Gidney girl and Few, so he drew a revolver from his pocket and fired, the bullet striking Few under the left shoulder blade. The range of the bullet was toward the heart. Few ran across a field a distance of 150 yards and fell dead on his face. The victim was unarmed and made no resistance whatever when Yerby fired on him.

From the front page of The Cleveland Star, Shelby, N.C., Tuesday, March 6, 1923