The change of jails, however, did not protect Neal. It was during the depression and many poor whites had lost their farms, and were forced to compete with blacks for a dwindling number of jobs, as well as for government relief. Moreover, racial tensions had recently increased. Between 19, six people had been lynched in the county. The sheriff knew that lynching was a real threat. They said that Neal's hands looked "skinned up." A piece of bloody cloth, found near the girl's body, seemed to match a shirt belonging to Neal. Several people said they saw Neal near the crime scene the day Lola Cannidy was murdered. Suspicion immediately focused on a 23-year-old married black man, Claude Neal, who lived in the area and sometimes worked as a hired hand on the Cannidy farm. She had been raped and beaten to death with a hammer. On October 19, 1934, the battered body of a 19-year-old white woman, Lola Cannidy, was discovered in a wooded area of Jackson County, Florida.
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