The ghost of desperado Ben Furlong was said to haunt the grounds of an old Berrien County sawmill when he died in 1886. But it was the lack of justice for his victims that haunted the conscience of Berrien County residents.
A short editorial piece appeared in the Alapaha Star along with other details of Furlong’s crime.
Three weeks ago, B. W. Furlong brutally murdered a defenseless negro and with the aid of J. M. Lofton and Thomas Sharon buried the body in a horse lot with a hundred and —–y yards of his house. A number of persons, white and black, had every reason to believe that a murder had been committed in their midst, and yet not a syllable was uttered that might lead to the punishment of the perpetrators of this great crime until the principal actor had hurled himself into eternity and his accomplices had fled. The first news of this terrible tragedy that reached Alapaha was on Friday evening of last week, the evening on which Furlong died. At the inquest some of the witnesses testified that they knew they would be killed if they mentioned their suspicion to outsiders, and it was this fear of Furlong that clogged the machine of the law for three weeks.
Henceforth, let every man, black and white, in Berrien county, to bring the offenders against the law —–punishment —————crimes as the one mentioned above.
Ray City History Blog 
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