Claude Neal

Claude Neal was born in 1911 and was further lynched on October 26, 1934. He lived in Marianna, Florida on farmland across from the Cannidy family. One day, Lola Cannidy went to go water the family livestock but she had never returned. Her body was later found, and it was dismembered. Since Claude Neal was just across the way from her house, he was arrested and charger with the rape and murder of Lola. He was taken into custody and it was claimed that he had confessed and signed a written confession; he was most likely abused into saying he committed the crime. Claude Neal was relocated several times before being entered into the Brewton jail in Brewton, Alabama. On the morning October 26, he was moved back to Marianna. They only gave him a 12 hour advance notice that they were planning to lynch him that night. He never even recieved a trial, and it was one of the most horrific lynchings in the United States. The lynching took place at the Cannidy farm. Thousands of people showed up to witness the event. All the people made the men who were handling the lynching nervous so they moved Neal to a more rural location with less people. When they arrived at the new location, they began to mutilate Claude's body. They cut off his limbs and was stabbed with knives and sticks. They burned him with hot irons and shot him multiple times. The "Lynch Committee of Six" then tied him to the back of an automobile and brought him back to the Cannidy farm for the people waiting to see the body. They hung him up on a tree and souvenired off his toes and fingers that they had cut off earlier. The next morning, the body was taken down but the townspeople protested for it to be hung back up. The sheriff refused to and it caused chaos in the streets and lead the people to attack the remaining blacks.