“The Lowrey outlaws: particulars of the murder of Col. F. M. Wishart in Robeson County, North Carolina—a base and treacherous assassination.” New York Times May 8, 1872, page 3.
This article is reprinted from the Wilmington Journal, May 4, 1872. It begins: “Those incarnate fiends, the gang of Robeson County outlaws, have added to their atrocious list of crimes one yet more atrocious, cowardly and fiendish—the murder of Col. F. M. Wishart, of Shoe Heel, Robeson County, on Thursday last.”
Stephen Lowrey and Andrew Strong boarded a freight train on the W. C. and R. R. R near Shoe Heel; Col. Wishart was already on the train. The band members talked with him about surrendering on the condition that he would work to secure a pardon for them (they would then leave the county). Wishart agreed to meet them on a public road 3/4 of a mile from Lebanon Church (between Shoe Heel and Red Banks). Shots were heard, and Wishart’s body was found in the road later that day.