Kidnapping Serious Problem in Macon, Ga., Aug. 18, 1923

Kidnapping in Macon Is Becoming Serious Thing. . . Police and Flogging Gang Stage Pistol Battle in a Principle Street. . . Kidnapped a Citizen. . . Cries of “Help” Heard from Automobile Short Distance from Station—Police Follow but Fail

Macon, Ga., Aug. 18—Police engaged in a pistol battle in front of the Macon terminal station early today with an alleged flogging gang who had kidnapped a white man.

Cries for “help” came from an automobile 50 yards from the main entrance of the station. A group of men who responded faced several shots. They dodged to cover and Patrolman Rowe started toward the automobile. He was fired upon and returned the fire.

The kidnappers speeded away from the station and as they passed, they could be seen beating someone in the rear seat, it was said by witnesses.

The police commandeered an automobile and pursued the floggers’ machine toward East Macon, losing it in the chase. Several more shots were exchanged in the chase.

The victim of the kidnapping, according to the police, made no report of the affair, and they profess not to know the name of the victim.

The sheriff’s office had just established a motorcycle patrol to meet just such emergencies, but it did not work to perfection the first night after being established.

Police, however, reported that they had the automobile with kidnappers and the victim bottled up in a dead-end street in East Macon, when the machine suddenly turned around and dashed through them. No shots were fired then. No arrests have been made. The kidnapping and shooting today followed a series of others during the last 10 days. A week ago Thursday four men were kidnapped. Three of these have left the city in response to threats that they would be killed if they remain here.

A fourth man, Ollie M. Perry, under federal indictment for illicit liquor traffic, is in a helpless condition in his home here, and doctors fear that he cannot live. Perry is a victim of the band. The skin was worn from his back during the beating and blood flowed from the broken flesh.

Previous to this series of whippings there a number of others including Dr. R.N. Mills, Dr. Eugene Schreiber, Lynwood Bright and others. In the Bright case, Mrs. Fredericka Pace of New York was also kidnapped and taken to the scene of the whipping, but she was not harmed.

Rewards totaling $2,100 have been offered for the arrest and conviction of the kidnapping gang.

From the Durham Morning Herald, Sunday, Aug. 19, 1923