M’LAMORE FELL A VICTIM TO THE VENGEANCE OF THE CLAN.
This is the same gentleman treated of in another place, who so mysteriously disappeared the evening after the trial, and, from that time to the present, has never more been heard of. Whatever fate he met with, no one has ever been able to tell; but from all the circumstances connected, it must be almost certain to the thinking mind of all that he was cruelly murdered by the conspiring clan, who had so long maintained a sad career of blood and revenge, with all the practiced modes of concealment.
The following is an extract from a letter dated DeKalb, May 21st, 1871, written by a prominent gentleman and ex-Sheriff of the county in which the town of DeKalb is situated:
“There has never been any person living in the county by the name of John R. Garland. Mr. McLamore has never been heard of since the time he was a witness in your case, during the month of February or March, 1859.”
Two powerful motives predominated for the termination of his existence. The first, the unrelenting revenge for the crushing defeat he gave to others, and particularly to Shoemake while on the witness-stand. And secondly, to prevent an indictment for perjury against Shoemake; for it will be remembered that he swore positively to the hand writing of Shoemake, who had immediately before denied the same on oath in open court. These two considerations, together with having just sold his cotton, the money for which he had then in his possession, will account for his presumptive murder. No one could better understand the hand writing of Shoemake than Cornelius McLamore, for, as the defendant has been authoritatively informed, the former was during some time book-keeping for the latter.