Ernest McGhee

Page 2 names Ernest McGhee among three Black Memphis defendants condemned at Hernando. The February 13 dispatch says the all-white jury returned its verdict after seven minutes the previous day, with indictment, trial and death sentence on the same day. It alleges denial of defense counsel and family contact and a tortured confession while soldiers guarded against a mob. McGhee and Jones are described as 23 and Howard as 25. The charge concerned an alleged December 27 assault on a seventeen-year-old white girl and robbery of her relatives. The article links the prosecution to racial terror and proposed public-hanging legislation. The March 16 hanging date was prospective; no execution is established. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n039-feb-14-1934-DW-LOC.pdf

PDF page 3's retrospective describes three unnamed Mississippi defendants associated with Senator Collins's relative, indicted/tried/condemned within twenty-four hours, and says all three were executed. The distinctive facts match the named Hernando trio reported in February, supplying a reported later outcome beyond the scheduled March date. Because the retrospective does not individually name them or date the execution, the statement is preserved as corroborating context without inventing an exact death date or custody total. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1935/v11n01-jan-1935-orig-LD.pdf