. . . in a short while Bunk was in custody, but kept away from Tom Johnson, the first arrested, and told that Tom was dead, but that before his execution he had told that Bunk was the guilty party. He [Bunk] then made a partial confession and implicated Tom. Finally by adroit questioning it was made certain that both these were concerned in the crime and that there was another . . . engaged in its commission with them. He was soon located and with this confessions in part were obtained from all of them, and they were brought together, and face to face with the fate they knew awaited them told the awful and unprintable details of the most atrocious crime ever committed in Florida.
. . . the crowd . . . of over a thousand men . . . made the [guilty ones to] kneel and a volley of shots literally tore their bodies to pieces, and it was over. . . It was only with the greatest difficulty that the [neighbors] in that section could be induced to take up the bodies of the murderers of little Bessie Morrison from where they were shot and given burial, but they were finally persuaded to do so.
[Contributed by Michael Strickland]