The 1916 Waco Horror: A Barbaric Chapter in American History
A gentle breeze swept across the fields of McLennan County, Texas, on a spring afternoon in 1916. The Fryer siblings, a young man and his teenage sister, trudged home across their family’s two-hundred-acre farm, weary from a day spent cutting cotton. When they arrived at the house, they immediately noticed something was wrong. Their mother, Lucy Fryer, was not there to greet them, as she always did. Concerned, they began searching the farmstead, calling her name as they checked each outbuilding.
Just as the young man was about to look further afield, he heard a scream. Rushing toward the sound, he found his sister standing near the seed house, horror frozen on her face as she stared through the window. He followed her gaze and was met with a grisly sight: their mother lay still on the floor, a pool of blood around her head. Lucy Fryer was dead, brutally bludgeoned.
A Crime, a Confession, and a Rush to Judgment
The murder sparked immediate police action, and the investigation quickly pointed to Jesse Washington, a 17-year-old Black farmhand who worked for the Fryers. That night, sheriff's deputies traveled to Washington's home, finding him in front of the house wearing blood-stained overalls. He said the stains were from a nosebleed. Jesse, his brother William, and their parents were taken to nearby Waco to be questioned by the county sheriff's department; although Jesse's parents and brother were released after a short time, he was held for further interrogation without an attorney or his parents present. His questioners in Waco reported that he denied complicity in Fryer's death, but offered contradictory details about his actions.
On May 9, the Sheriff Fleming took Washington to neighbouring Hill County to prevent vigilante action. On the way there, Jesse reportedly curled up in the back of the police car and fell asleep—a strikingly odd behaviour for someone accused of murder. This was just one of many indications that Washington, who was severely mentally disabled and illiterate, might not have fully grasped the gravity of his situation.
The Hill County sheriff, Fred Long, questioned Washington with Fleming. Washington eventually told them he had killed Fryer following an argument about her mules and described the murder weapon and its location. Long then brought Washington to Dallas, while Fleming returned to Robinson. Fleming soon reported that he found a bloody hammer where Washington had indicated. In Dallas, Washington dictated and signed a statement that described the rape and murder of Fryer; the confession was published the next day in Waco newspapers. Newspapers sensationalised the murder, describing Fryer's attempts to resist Washington's attack, but the doctor who had examined her body concluded that she was killed before any assault.
A lynch mob assembled in Waco that night to search the local jail, but dispersed after failing to find Washington. A local paper praised their effort. That night, a small, private funeral and burial were held for Lucy Fryer.
The Show Trial
On the 15th May, the courthouse was packed as the trial began. The crowd almost prevented some jurors from entering. Observers also filled the pavements around the courthouse; more than two thousand spectators were present, trying to catch a glimpse of the days proceedings. As Washington was led into the courtroom, one audience member pointed a gun at him but was quickly overpowered.
As the trial commenced, Judge Richard Irby Munroe attempted to keep order, insisting that the audience remain silent. Jury selection proceeded quickly: The defense did not challenge any selections of the prosecution. Judge Munroe asked Washington for a plea and explained the potential sentences. Washington muttered a response, possibly "yes", interpreted by the court as a guilty plea.
The prosecution described the charges, and the court heard testimony from law enforcement officers and the doctor who examined Fryer's body. The doctor discussed how Fryer died but did not mention rape. The prosecution rested, and Washington's attorney asked him whether he had committed the offense. Washington replied, "That's what I done" and quietly apologised. The lead prosecutor addressed the courtroom and declared that the trial had been conducted fairly, prompting an ovation from the crowd. The jury was sent to deliberate.
After four minutes of deliberation, the jury's foreman announced a guilty verdict and a sentence of death.The trial lasted about one hour.
A Mob’s Bloodlust
Court officers approached Washington to escort him away but were pushed aside by a surge of spectators, who seized Washington and dragged him outside.Washington initially fought back, biting one man, but was soon beaten overpowered by the mob. A chain was placed around his neck, and he was dragged toward city hall by a growing mob; on the way downtown, he was stripped, stabbed, and repeatedly beaten with blunt objects.
By the time he was taken to city hall, a group had prepared wood for a bonfire next to a tree in front of the building. Washington, semiconscious and covered in blood, was doused with oil, hanged from the tree by a chain, and lowered to the ground. Members of the crowd cut off his fingers, toes, and genitals. The fire was lit and Washington was repeatedly raised and lowered into the flames until he burned to death. German historian Manfred Berg believes that the executioners attempted to keep him alive to increase his suffering.
Washington attempted to climb the chain but was unable to do so without fingers. After two hours the fire was extinguished, allowing bystanders to collect souvenirs from the site of the lynching, including Washington's bones and links of the chain. One attendee kept part of Washington's genitalia; a group of children snapped the teeth out of Washington's head to sell as souvenirs. By the time the fire was extinguished, parts of Washington's arms and legs had been burned off, his torso and head were charred and his cranium was exposed. His body was removed from the tree and dragged behind a horse throughout the town. Washington's remains were transported to Robinson, where they were publicly displayed until a constable obtained the body late in the day and buried it.
A Chilling Spectacle
The violence unfolded in broad daylight, with local officials—including the mayor and the chief of police—watching impassively. Sheriff Samuel Fleming, fearing political backlash, instructed his deputies not to intervene. Among the spectators were families, children, and business owners, all united in their grotesque voyeurism. Some brought their children to watch, describing the event as a lesson in justice.
A National Outcry
Fred Gildersleeve, a Waco-based professional photographer, arrived at city hall shortly before the lynching, possibly at the mayor's request, and photographed the event. His photographs provide rare depictions of a lynching in progress, rather than typical lynching photography, which shows only dead victims. Gildersleeve's photographs include views of the crowd shot from a building and close images of Washington's body; some may have been taken by an assistant. Gildersleeve produced postcards featuring images of adolescents, some as young as twelve, gathered around Washington's body. The individuals in the photographs did not attempt to hide their identities. Berg believes that their willingness to be photographed indicates that they knew that no one would be prosecuted for Washington's death.
Although some Waco residents sent the cards to out-of-town relatives, several prominent local citizens persuaded Gildersleeve to stop selling them, fearing that the images would damage the town's reputation.The horror of Jesse Washington’s lynching reverberated far beyond Waco. The NAACP, then a relatively new organisation, seized upon the event to galvanise its anti-lynching campaign. Journalist Elisabeth Freeman conducted an investigation, gathering testimonies and photographs that would later be published in The Crisis, the NAACP’s magazine. These efforts helped expose the brutality of the lynching to a national audience, although no one was ever prosecuted for the crime.
Within a week, news of the lynching was published as far away as London. A New York Times editorial stated that, "in no other land even pretending to be civilised could a man be burned to death in the streets of a considerable city amid the savage exultation of its inhabitants". In the New York Age, James Weldon Johnson described the members of the lynch mob as "lower than any other people who at present inhabit the earth".
Although many southern newspapers had previously defended lynching as a defense of civilized society, after Washington's death, they avoided casting the practice in such terms. The Montgomery Advertiser wrote that, "no savage was ever more cruel ... than the men who participated in this horrible, almost unbelievable episode". In Texas, the Houston Chronicle and the Austin American criticised the lynch mob, but spoke highly of Waco.The Morning News of Dallas reported the story, but did not publish an accompanying editorial. In Waco, the Times-Herald refrained from editorialising about the lynching.
The Waco Morning News briefly noted disapproval of the lynching, focusing criticism on papers they felt had attacked the city unfairly. They cast the condemnatory editorials in the aftermath of the lynching as "Holier than thou" remarks.A writer for the Waco Semi-Weekly Tribune defended the lynching, stating that Washington deserved to die and that blacks should view Washington's death as a warning against crime.
Reflection
The 1916 Waco Horror as it came to be known, remains a stark reminder of the racial violence that plagued early 20th-century America. It epitomises the era’s systemic racism, where justice was often supplanted by mob rule, and Black lives were expendable in the face of white rage.
In 2011, German historian, Manfred Berg concluded that Washington probably murdered Fryer but doubted that he raped her. The same year, Julie Armstrong of the University of South Florida argued that Washington was possibly innocent of both charges. In her 2006 book, Patricia Bernstein noted that Washington's motives have never been established clearly, although he did confess to having a dispute about mules with Fryer and there was a witness who alleged to have seen a dispute, as noted previously. She also states that his confession could have been coerced and that there is evidence he had limited intellectual capacity. She suggests that the murder weapon—perhaps the strongest evidence against him—could have been planted by authorities.
Bernstein states that Washington's lynching was a unique event because of its scale and location; not only did it occur in a larger city with a reputation for progressiveness, but it was attended by 10,000 spectators who were excited by the brutal torture. Similar acts of mob violence typically occurred in smaller towns with fewer spectators. William Carrigan of Rowan University argues that the culture of central Texas had glorified retributive mob violence for decades before Washington's lynching, maintaining that this culture of violence explains how such a brutal attack could be publicly celebrated.
Jesse Washington’s lynching stands as a harrowing chapter in American history, one that reveals the depths of human cruelty and the failure of justice. It serves as both a warning and a call to remember the victims of racial violence, ensuring that their stories are not forgotten in the broader narrative of history. The Waco Horror is not an ancient relic of barbarity but a chilling reminder of the work that remains to dismantle the systems of hatred that allow such atrocities to occur.