The spark that led to the purge of black residents of Comanche County came with the murder of Mrs. Ben Stephens (Sally) on a farm nine miles north of Comanche. Ben Stephens had just gone into town to buy parts for his plow when a man on a mule rode up and told him his wife had just been killed. According to interviews 75 years later, a farm worker, 18 year-old Tom Turner, was angry that he was not allowed to accompany Ben to town. Using hawk near the chickens was his excuse for bringing out the family shotgun and then shooting the farmer’s wife in the back. Posses were immediately organized to search for the young man. Tom was barefooted and everyone thought he would be caught right away, but Tom was able to make it nearly to Stephenville before he was captured two days later. He was returned to the Stephen’s farm where a large crowd was waiting to see the hanging. Frank Sherill, who had a rabid hatred of black people, argued that Tom should be burned alive, but “Zack Hulsey, the father of the murdered woman, said, “Now boys, the laws of our land say hanging, not burning; so we’ll hang him.” Deputy W.D. Cox made a weak attempt to take the prisoner from the mob for a legal trial, but rode away when threatened by a shotgun. Tom was placed in a wagon to be used as a gallows platform, as the rope was being fitted around his neck, Hulsey asked Tom if Sally had mistreated him. Tom replied, “No sir, she’s the best kind to me.” “Then why did you kill her?” Tom replied, “Just for meanness.” [Keep in mind this is 75-year-old oral tradition] When the wagon was pushed Tom’s weight broke the limb. While a boy attached the rope to a stronger limb, Frank Sherill, jumped upon a stump and harangued the crowd to ride house to house to demand that all black families leave the county in ten days. Later”there was a lucrative business in souvenirs carried on by an itinerant peddler who sold ‘authentic remains’ of the Last Negro.'” These sales lasted as late as 1889. Lightfoot, The Negro Exodus from Comanche County, Texas, 1953.