Claude Neal
| Claude Neal | |
|---|---|
| Died | October 27, 1934 (age 23) Marianna, Florida |
| Nationality | African American |
| Occupation | Farmhand |
| Known for | Victim of spectacle lynching |
Claude Neal was an African American farmhand living in Jackson County, Florida who was accused of raping and murdering Lola Cannady, a nineteen-year-old white female, just outside the town of Greenwood on October 18, 1934. Neal was arrested and charged for the crime and despite a lack of sufficient evidence against him to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, lynch mobs began to form to find and kill him. In order to keep Neal safe from the lynch mobs he was moved to multiple jails but was finally captured and brought back to Marianna, Florida. Neal was then tortured and finally killed by a group of lynchers and the body was brought to the Cannady farm where it was further mutilated by those who had come to witness the lynching. The body was later hung in front of the Marianna courthouse before being cut down and buried by the sheriff in the morning. A large group of people came to the courthouse and made demands to see the body be hung up again and eventually started attacking blacks in the area and rioting. The lynching of Claude Neal and the riots that followed played a large part in bringing about the end of the practice of lynching in the United States.
Lola Cannady, who lived near Claude Neal, never came back home on Thursday October 18, 1934 after leaving home to walk to a water pump to water the family's hogs. Friends and neighbors helped the Cannady family in their search for Lola Cannady in the fields behind the family's land and at 6:30 A.M. the next day, they found the body of Lola Cannady poorly hidden in the woods under the cover of two logs and a pine tree branch. Upon finding the body it was apparent that Lola Cannady had been bludgeoned to death with a hammer that had been taken from the Cannady field; it was also later determined that Lola Cannady had been raped. After Lola Cannady's body had been found, Sheriff Flake Chambliss became focused on two suspects; one suspect was Claude Neal who was black and the other was Calvin Cross who was white. Sheriff Chambliss had received reports that Claude Neal had been in the field near the same water pump that Lola Cannady had gone to and that he was gone for about two hours before going home. Claude Neal was then placed under arrest about two hours after the discovery of Lola Cannady's body.
Although the evidence that was gathered against Claude Neal was enough for him to be a prime suspect in the case of Lola Cannady's murder, it was not enough to completely prove that he was guilty of the crime. The evidence against Neal included bloody clothes that were found at the home he shared with his mother, as well as a bloody piece of fabric which Sheriff Chambliss claimed fit a tear in Claude Neal's shirt. Claude Neal also reportedly had cuts on his hands and was inconsistent in his descriptions as to where they had come from; he gave three different explanations for the cuts with one being that he had gotten them while fixing a fence, one being that he had cut his hands in a fight, and one being that he had cut them jumping a fence. In addition, there was less convincing evidence such as Claude Neal missing a ring on his pocket watch when a common and standard watch ring had been found near the spot where Lola Cannady had been murdered. There were also no tests done on the murder weapon to determine whether or not Claude Neal's fingerprints were on it. Claude Neal's mother and aunt were also moved from the town by the sheriff to prevent them from being harmed and therefore, did not get to testify in front of the coroner's jury about allegedly washing Claude Neal's bloody clothing.
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