The story spread across sleepy Lake County like fire in a stand of slash pine. By nightfall all the county knew that Willie Padgett's 17-year-old wife had been raped by four Negroes; two of the suspects were already locked up in the county jail at Tavares.
Sullen, glint-eyed men collected in murmuring knots in the dusty, farm-town streets. Soon, the small angry knots had. become one 125-man mob pulling up at the Tavares courthouse in a 20-car caravan. Most of the mob stayed behind while its leaders walked up the steps to talk...
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