Horror, Sleaze and Trash.

congenitaldisease:

The grim photograph above depicts the lynching of Laura Nelson and her 15-year-old son, L.D. Nelson. Disturbingly, this photograph was once used as a proud postcard for Okemah, Oklahoma. On the 2nd of May, 1911, Deputy Sheriff George Loney formed a posse and made his way to the Nelson farm. A cow had been stolen from another nearby farm and they had penned L.D. as the thief of said cow. When they arrived at the house, L.D.’s father, Austin, confessed that he had stolen the cow purely because he had no money to feed his hungry family.
What happened next has been obscured by time; several reports offered different versions of events. What is known for fact is that a scuffle broke out and L.D. shot and killed Sheriff Loney. It was said that Laura had attempted to hide the gun so that violence could not unfold. Both L.D. and Laura were charged with the murder and sent to county jail, where they awaited their arraignment. However, that arraignment would never come.
On 24 May, a group of a dozen to 40 men arrived unannounced at the jail at approximately midnight. The men bound, gagged and blindfolded the jailer, rendering him unable to later identify them. Once he was immobilised, the group kidnapped Laura and L.D. from their cells. Several reports claim that Laura was raped my several of the kidnappers in her jail cell. From the jail, the lynchers took them to a bridge over the North Canadian River and hanged the mother and son.
Nobody was ever charged with the brutal murder but it was alleged that one of the perpetrators was Charley Guthrie, the father of the singer, Woody Guthrie.