Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1888 — HORSE THIEVES LYNCHED. [ARTICLE]

HORSE THIEVES LYNCHED.

A Deputy Marshal’s Poms Has a Severe Battle with Outlaws in No , . I Man’s Land. Kansas Vigilantes Pursue the Desperadoes in Force and Hang Four of Them. [Oklahoma (Ind. Ter.) special.] A courier from Shawneetown, forty miles from here, in “No Man's Land,” on the North Fork of the Canadian, brings the ; report of a terrible battle between outlaws and a posse of the United States Marshal which was followed by an uprising of the farmers on the border of Kansas, who meted out summary justice to four horsethieves and have the rest of the band besieged in the hills. Three colored horse-thieves stole a ! bunch of horses from Long Tom, a Shawnee Indian. When the theft was dlscov- ! ered, a Deputy United States Marshal, 1 with a party of Sac and Fox Indian police, | gave pursuit and came up with the negro thieves, who at once opened fire upon the officers with Winchesters, unhorsing one policeman at the first round. A regular pitched battle then followed, in which two of the negroes were killed, and one policeman mortally wounded, dying soon after. I The Marshal was also badly wounded. The horses were recovered. When this affair became known a party of fifty ranchmen started for the haunts of the outlaws. They had hardly crossed the line before they were met by a band of the thieves and succeeded in capturing four of them. They were immediately strung up to the nearest tree. The remainder of the band were then so hotly pressed by the avengers that they were compelled to run to earth in a dugout, ; where they were held at bay when the ! courier left. It was the intention of the farmers to compel them to surrender by starving them out. There are thought to be six in the dugout, and when captured they will undoubtedly be hanged. To increase the excitement there are flocking into the Territory quite a number of Oklahoma boomers who firmly believe that this portion of the Territory will soon be open for settlement, and the soldiers are kept continually escorting them back to the State line. There is now being prepared a military map of the Territory to be used by the commanding officers in their scouting in search of the boomers as well as fugitives from justice. Further actions and developments are anxiously awaited. [Woodward (Ind. Tor.) special., A large band of horse-thieves have lately made their headquarters in the neutral strip generally known as “No Man’s Land” and have been making frequent raids on the border towns of Southern Kansas, driving off both the cattle and the horses of the farmers. This has so incensed the farmers that they have organized themselves into vigilance committees, determined to rid themselves of this pest. About twenty-five men from the vicinity of Coldwater, Kansas, overtook one of the band named Gill about fifteen miles from this point and shot him. Gill had in his possession at the time he was captured six horses belonging to the members of the vigilance party. Armed parties are continually passing and repassing this point on the lookout for horse-thieves, and If any are caught they will enforce the death penalty without tnal.