Feb. 14. 1924
Think Last of Humphrey Assailants Now Located

The hand of the law reaches across continents and few there be that can elude it.  
Twenty-five years ago Henderson county and especially the Transcedar country 
held the attention of the world, for it was that long ago that the now historic 
Humphrey's lynching took place.  It is unnecessary to recount the details of the 
affair today for it is still vivid in the minds of Henderson county people.  Of the ten 
men implicated in the lynching, nine were convicted and served out their time in
 the penitentiary.  The man Commodore Mahan, made his escape and a nation-wide 
search failed to locate him.  But time solves all mysteries.  Mahan has enjoyed 
twenty-five years of freedom -- or rather he has eluded the officers for that length of 
time.  But he may yet pay the penalty of his part in the Transcedar affair.  A. letter 
received today by Senator J. J. Faulk from H. C. Geddie, a lawyer of Kerrville, gives 
an account of the arrest of a man there on a moonshining charge, who has been 
identified by a former Athenian as Commadore Mahan, who participated in the
 lynching.  Mr. Geddie's letter is as follows:

"There is an old man in jail here who gives the name of Williford, and who has just 
been indicted for moonshining.  He has been hid away in the hill for some months, 
perhaps a year or two and very few people have known him.  A man by the name 
of Taylor who used to live in the vicinity of Athens has told the sheriff here that this 
man is one of the men who took part in the lynching of the Humphries in the 
Transcedar region years ago.  Taylor said the man's name was Commodore 
Mahan or Mahoney or some such name.

"I was not able to give the sheriff the facts but told him I would write to someone 
who was there at the time.  Taylor says that one of the ten was never captured 
and that in his opinion this is the man.  He is a small man, blue eyed, rather 
hunched over now, badly weather beaten and says he has lived in Arizona 
and everywhere else except that part of the country.

"Taylor was seventeen years old, according to his story, when this occurred 
and says he knew the man and that to the best of his knowledge this is the party.

"If there is anything to the statements made by him concerning the matter, 
you might give this letter to the sheriff and let further investigation be made.  
The man may be tried next week, the latter part, and if he should be acquitted, 
of course he can disappear."

When the letter was read among a group of lawyers at the Deen Hotel today
 it served as an occasion for reminiscences.  R. A. Brack, a traveling salesman, 
who is stopping at the Deen, recalled that he was among the party that searched 
the country for the lynchers at the time.  He was just a kid, so he relates and 
accompanied Deputy Sheriff Joseph Quarles of Ranger county all over East 
Texas in search of the men.  It was also recalled that Bill McDonald was very 
active here at that time as head of the Ranger force and that Captain Bill 
received his first licking at the hands of a man who is now a citizen of Athens.

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