HIGH POINT CONFIDENTIAL: The masked avengers-Anonymous mob assaulted High Point man in 1923

Jun. 3—THOMASVILLE — They wore masks and hoods to conceal their identities.

They spoke little as they dragged their victim into a vacant lot and assaulted him mercilessly, taking turns beating him with a good-sized stick as the others held him at gunpoint. A gag across his mouth prevented him from screaming.

They snipped off most of his hair and cut up his clothes, then jabbed his legs with the same pair of scissors.

They poured acid over his head.

They muttered something about his shady business dealings, warning him to never return to Thomasville.

Then they disappeared and were never heard from again.

This is the story of an angry band of masked avengers, five unknown men who were hellbent on sending a strong, pointed message to the High Point businessman they claimed had wronged them. It happened a century ago, in January 1923, but the narrative is no less terrifying than it would be if it had happened last night.

Based on our research, we believe the victim — identified in newspaper accounts only as R.E. Zimmerman — was 36-year-old automobile dealer Reuben Elcy Zimmerman.

At the time of the assault, Zimmerman was living at High Point's Elwood Hotel, but he previously had lived in Thomasville, where he'd operated the Superior Motor Truck Co. until — this is apparently the source of the avengers' anger — the company went bankrupt. He had since affiliated himself with the General Motors Truck Co.

On the evening of Jan. 10, 1923, Zimmerman and a friend had planned to go to a Wednesday evening prayer meeting in High Point, but when the friend backed out, Zimmerman decided to go to Thomasville instead and visit Hattie Strayhorn and her son, Lionel. Zimmerman had lived with the Strayhorns in Thomasville and considered them to be almost like family, so it was not unusual for him to pay them a visit.

Somehow, though — Zimmerman didn't know how — the masked avengers found out he was coming, and they were waiting for him.

When Zimmerman arrived around 7:30 p.m., he parked on the back side of the house, as he always did, and noticed a man standing by a shed in the backyard. Grabbing the crank from his car to protect himself, he approached the man, but he suddenly found himself staring down the barrel of a revolver.

"If you make any noise," the stranger snarled, "you will be killed."

Four more men surrounded Zimmerman, two of them also brandishing pistols. All their faces were covered with either a white mask or a black hood.

With pistols jabbed into his side, Zimmerman was led to a vacant lot behind Strayhorn's yard, some 200 yards from her house. Once there, according to newspaper accounts, the men began beating him with a stick about 2 feet long and 2 inches thick, and with their fists. For nearly half an hour, they took turns whacking Zimmerman — on his legs, his torso, his face — until his body was one giant, swollen bruise.

Then they held him down and scalped him, mutilated his suit and overcoat, and jabbed tiny gashes in his legs, all with the same pair of scissors.

Finally, the men poured what Zimmerman believed to be a concoction of ink and acid over his head.

The men spoke very little, but when Zimmerman asked why they were beating him, they said it was because he had cheated people out of money through his failed auto dealership.

"We're going to fix you so you won't get anybody else," one of the men told him.

Zimmerman told a reporter, however, that he hadn't cheated anyone.

"I lost more money in the bankruptcy than any of the others," he said. "I'm out about $7,000, which I'll never get back."

Nonetheless, the masked avengers delivered their painful message and then left, warning Zimmerman not to come back to Thomasville. He apparently did return — continuing to visit the Strayhorns and probably other acquaintances, too — but he did not go into business there again.

Unfortunately, Zimmerman's assailants were never caught. Even when an anonymous group of High Point businessmen offered a $500 reward for their arrest and conviction, the masked avengers remained at large. They went to their graves knowing they'd gotten away with a horrific crime.

And sadly for R.E. Zimmerman, he went to his grave knowing the same thing.

jtomlin@hpenews.com — 336-888-3579