Shelbyville - Murders and Mob Justice in a Small Town

When the No.5 left Nashville, little did anyone know the events of February 10, 1912, would take an ugly turn. Three NC&St.L Railway employees, brothers Wat Greer and David Neal, and a third man, Charles Dane Bomar, would be charged with the murder of S.W. Everson, a railroad detective, and within two weeks, two of these three men would be dead at the hands of a lynch mob.

In the winter of 1911, Shelbyville, Tennessee, a town that had not seen significant crime in decades, suddenly faced the troubling murder of three of its law enforcement officers. Sheriff "Big Jim" Williams found himself in the difficult position of having to protect four suspected murderers from citizens of Shelbyville, who were determined to take the law into their own hands and deliver their version of justice to the alleged killers. In one case, the sheriff successfully safeguarded the suspects; however, in another case, he experienced a dismal failure.