et al. United States v. Shipp: 1907-09

When Nevada Taylor regained consciousness, she walked home and told her father, William Taylor, what had happened. Her father called for Sheriff Joseph F. Shipp. When Shipp arrived at the Taylor house he asked Nevada Taylor what she could remember of the attack. She couldn't recall much. Shipp asked, "Was the man white or Negro?" Taylor answered at first that she did not get a good look at the attacker, but then added that she thought he was black.

An investigation of the crime scene turned up a black leather strap that perfectly matched red streaks around Taylor's neck. Will Hixon, a man who worked at a medicine company near the cemetery, reported that he had seen a black man "twirling a leather strap around his finger" shortly before 6 P.M. on the evening of the rape. Hixon called Shipp later to say that he had just seen that same man walking north toward town with a tall black man. Finding the tall black man alone, Shipp learned that his companion—and now prime suspect—was a drifter and sometimes carpenter named Ed Johnson. Within hours, Shipp spotted Johnson riding on the back of an ice wagon. Johnson was seized, handcuffed, brought to jail, and identified by Hixon as the man he had seen with the strap.