For nearly half an hour, they took turns whacking Zimmerman - on his legs, his torso, his face - until his body was one giant, swollen bruise. Once there, according to newspaper accounts, the men began beating him with a stick about 2 feet long and 2 inches thick, and with their fists. ![]() With pistols jabbed into his side, Zimmerman was led to a vacant lot behind Strayhorn's yard, some 200 yards from her house. All their faces were covered with either a white mask or a black hood. "If you make any noise," the stranger snarled, "you will be killed."įour more men surrounded Zimmerman, two of them also brandishing pistols. Grabbing the crank from his car to protect himself, he approached the man, but he suddenly found himself staring down the barrel of a revolver. When Zimmerman arrived around 7:30 p.m., he parked on the back side of the house, as he always did, and noticed a man standing by a shed in the backyard. Somehow, though - Zimmerman didn't know how - the masked avengers found out he was coming, and they were waiting for him. Zimmerman had lived with the Strayhorns in Thomasville and considered them to be almost like family, so it was not unusual for him to pay them a visit. 10, 1923, Zimmerman and a friend had planned to go to a Wednesday evening prayer meeting in High Point, but when the friend backed out, Zimmerman decided to go to Thomasville instead and visit Hattie Strayhorn and her son, Lionel. He had since affiliated himself with the General Motors Truck Co. ![]() until - this is apparently the source of the avengers' anger - the company went bankrupt. Zimmerman - was 36-year-old automobile dealer Reuben Elcy Zimmerman.Īt the time of the assault, Zimmerman was living at High Point's Elwood Hotel, but he previously had lived in Thomasville, where he'd operated the Superior Motor Truck Co. ![]() It happened a century ago, in January 1923, but the narrative is no less terrifying than it would be if it had happened last night.īased on our research, we believe the victim - identified in newspaper accounts only as R.E. This is the story of an angry band of masked avengers, five unknown men who were hellbent on sending a strong, pointed message to the High Point businessman they claimed had wronged them.
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