Thursday, September 28, 2023

Three Convicts Killed in Explosion at Rock Quarry, Sept. 28, 1923

Three Convicts Are Killed in Exposition

By the Associated Press

Charlotte, September 28—Three convicts, one white, were killed today by an explosion of dynamite at a quarry where rock was being blasted for road construction near Cornelius this county.

The white man killed was Hugh Lester Jenkins, serving a five-year term for automobile theft.

Jenkins was from McAdenville and is survived by his mother and two sisters.

Eight or 10 other persons were injured; two of them seriously by flying rocks. H.M. Bost, blacksmith, and Will Crim, guard, being taken to hospitals for treatment.

The explosion occurred according to Chairman Thomas Griffin of the county highway commission when a “dud” placed six weeks ago in the rock was struck accidentally by a drill today. Six weeks ago a series of charges of dynamite placed in the great stone were set off and the belief is that the explosive in one of the drill holes failed to go off until it was accidentally struck today.

From the front page of The Tri-City Gazette, Leaksville, N.C., Sept. 28, 1923

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