1880: John Phillips of Memphis, Trial Information.......

CRIMES AND CASUALTIES.
MEMPHIS, March 24.-Memphis can claim in the person of one John Phillips the champion brute of the nineteenth century. He was sent to jail yesterday afternoon, charged with the rape of Lee Turner, a white child about nine years old, whom he, it is alleged, outraged about three weeks ago. John Phillips, a shoemaker by trade and has resided in the city for five years. The testimony adduced at the trial was of such a revolting nature that a regard for common decency debars its publication. Suffice to say that at the time the brute perpetrated the heinous crime upon the little white girl he also outraged two colored children. All three were enticed to his room under the pretense of giving them money to purchase candy. The colored children are fourteen and twelve years of age. The most disgusting circumstances of the outrage is that the white girl is afflicted with a loathsome disease. The ladies’ Christian association have the little girl under their care. Bail was denied Phillips by the magistrate before whom the investigation was held.

Source: Columbus Daily Enquirer-Sun, Columbus, Georgia, Saturday Morning, March 27, 1880; Pg. 1