Henry Smith

Henry Smith (1876 – February 1, 1893) was an African-American youth who was lynched in Paris, Texas.

Smith allegedly confessed to murdering the three-year-old daughter of a law enforcement officer who had allegedly beaten him during an arrest.

Smith fled, but was recaptured after a nationwide manhunt.

He was then returned to Paris, where he was turned over to a mob and burned at the stake.

His lynching was covered by The New York Times and attracted national publicity.

Henry Smith was a handyman in Paris, Texas.

One day in early 1893, Smith was seen acting drunk and disorderly, and Deputy Henry Vance was sent to arrest him.

Smith resisted, and Vance "was forced to use his club" to subdue him.

On Thursday, January 26, 1893, Henry Vance's three-year-old daughter disappeared from the front of the boarding house where her family lived.

Witnesses said they saw Smith "picked up little Myrtle Vance ... and ... carry her through the central portion of the city. En route through the city, several people asked him what he was doing with the child."

One of the witnesses Smith spoke to was the mayor of Paris.

Smith claimed he was taking her to her mother or the doctor.

Smith returned home on Friday morning.

His wife asked him about "that white child ."He replied: "I ain't seen no white child and don't have nothing to do with white folks."

Smith left and was not seen again until he was captured in Arkansas.

About 2:00 p.m. on Friday, January 27, 1893, a search party formed at the courthouse and found the child's body covered by leaves in Gibson's pasture.

When the girl was found dead on the side of a road, the townspeople were furious.

Rumor spread that the victim had suffered severe injuries from rape and physical mutilation.

However, an investigation by journalist Ida B. Wells revealed it to be her opinion that the rape accusation was false:

"As a matter of fact, the child was not brutally assaulted as the world has been told, as an excuse for the awful barbarism of that day. Persons who saw the child after its death have stated, under the most solemn pledge to truth, that there was no evidence of such an assault as was published at that time; only a slight abrasion and discoloration were primarily noticeable about the neck."

However, Doctors Chapman and Baldwin, who were the examiners of the three-year-old murdered child, stated that the child died from wounds it suffered from being "outraged," a word used in place of rape during the time and that the abrasions and wounds about the rest of her body were not significant.

The child's bloody underclothes were found some feet away from the body.

"Report of Physicians Who Examined the Body of the Child.

SWORN STATEMENT

Of the Physicians Who Examined Myrtle Yance, the victim.

On the 26th day of January 1893, by request of A. Cate, mayor of Paris, and J. C. Hunt, Justice of the Peace Precinct No. I, Lamar County, Texas, examined the dead body of Myrtle Vance, aged about three years.

We found the body in a semi-rigid state and based our opinion on the fact that death had occurred not more than six or eight hours previous.

The chest, abdomen, and lower extremities were covered with blood and bruises under the angle of each jaw, giving evidence of an effort at strangulation and abrasion in front of the left ear.

Found complete laceration of the perineum, extending an inch and a half up the rectum.

The posterior part of the vagina ruptured, connecting the abdominal cavity with the vagina, parts bruised and mutilated, unmistakable evidence of rape, hair from the mons-veneris of the negro being found on the pudendum of the baby, held by the clotted blood.

J. B. CHAPMAN, M. D.,

City Health Officer.

wo S. BALDWIX, M. D. "

The search for the alleged murderer captured the public imagination, and railroad companies offered free transportation to anyone involved in the manhunt.

Smith was tracked east through Reno and Detroit, Texas.

On January 31, he was captured near his hometown in Hempstead County, Arkansas, at the unincorporated flag station, Clow, Arkansas, 50 miles from the Texas border.

Search party members from Paris immediately identified him.

Initially denying any involvement in the murder, Smith finally confessed on the train to Paris.

He said he was drunk and was motivated by revenge against the child's father.

Smith said he spent the night sleeping in the pasture next to the dying child, killing her by suffocation when he awoke the next morning.