The abductors announced that Neal would be lynched that night between the hours of 8 o'clock P.M. and 9 o'clock P.M. at the Cannady farm. A large group gathered at the farm formed to witness the Neal lynching; estimates of the crowd's size ranged from hundreds to several thousand. The leaders in the group of spectators attempted to calm the group so that Neal could be brought to the property for the lynching, but became apprehensive as the group became impatient and unruly. The leaders, who had promised the Cannady family that they could be the first to attack Neal, tried to move the family away from the crowd to the site where Lola's body was found, in order to allow her father, George Cannady, to kill Neal. When they learned that the Cannady family was on the move, the crowd quickly caught up, but when Neal was still not shown, the group grew increasingly restive. The committee of six in charge of Neal's lynching were worried that a riot could break out if Neal was brought in front of the crowd, and decided they would have to kill him in private. The men holding Neal took him to a spot in the woods near Peri Landing along the Chattahoochee River for the murder. Claude Neal was tortured and subjected to castration, his genitalia were stuffed in his mouth, he was stabbed, burned with hot irons, and he was raised and lowered in hanging before he finally died. The men tied his corpse to an automobile and drove to the Cannady property about 1 A.M. After the body was delivered, George Cannady, upset at being deprived of vengeance, shot Neal three times in the forehead. The crowd kicked the body, stabbed it, and ran over it with cars. Some people cut off toes or fingers for souvenirs. Children were encouraged to stab the body with sharpened sticks. The crowd turned outward, burning shacks in the area known to be owned by blacks. The body of Claude Neal was hanged from a tree outside of the county courthouse at 3 o'clock A.M. Photographers took souvenir photos of the body. When Sheriff Chambliss discovered Neal's body at 6 A.M., he cut it down and buried the man. A mob formed outside the courthouse, with over two thousand people having arrived by noon, but they were too late to see Neal's body. Some purchased picture postcards of the corpse from photographers for fifty cents each. The mob demanded that the sheriff hang Neal's body again outside the courthouse but he refused.