Indianapolis Times, Volume 42, Number 77, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 August 1930 — Page 1

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STATE ACTS TO PUNISH MARION MOB

GIRL’S DREAMS SHATTERED BY ROAD TRAGEDY Youth Slain by Negroes to Have Bought Betrothal Ring Saturday. WEDDING DATE WAS SET Gave Life Trying to Save Sweetheart, Outraged by Mob Victims. BY CARLOS LANE Times Staff Correspondent MARION. Ind.. Aug. B.—A narrow auto trail leads from Marion’s outskirts through wide vacant lots rank with weeds, to suburban Bucktown, home of families of foundry laborers. Over it shortly after dawn today a sorrow-bent man trudged, seeking again to view evidence of vengeance for a crime against his daughter, leaving behind a mother whose grief was alleviated a little by fate meted out to her child’s violators, and a 19-vear-old girl whose brightest hope in life lay dead with her lover in a Marion morgue. He was Frank Ball, father of Mary Ball, assaulted by two Negroes Wednesday night, while her sweetheart was murdered by a third Negro as he fought to rescue her. Two Pay With Lives Two of the three assailants late Thursday night paid for their outrage with their lives when a lynchmob of 20,000 persons stormed Grant county jail here and wrested the prisoner.; away from the law. Although Mrs. Ball this morning admitted the double lynching lifted a portion of the burden from her heart, she shared the pangs of her daughter. That affection was one glimmer of light that shone fiercely for Mary amid the squalid surroundings of a tiny shelter she shares with her parents, four sisters and two brothers and known as home. September Wedding Date In September she was to have wed Claude Deeters, Fairmount, slain while attempting to defend the girl. “Yes, he was going to buy the ring Saturday,” the mother mourned. “He was a good boy. Everybody liked him.” Mary and Claude were sweethearts more than four months before the fateful auto ride Wednesday night during which a flat tire necessitated a stop on a lonely road not far from the boy’s home. From the bushes at the roadside sprang the Negro trio. One of them forced Deeters to march down a cornfield at the point of a gun. The other attacked the defenseless girl. She screamed. There were sounds of a struggle in the cornfield, and then three shots. Finally the Negroes ran away.

Crawled Part of Way “I went to a house. The farmer called the police, and we found Claude lying by the road. He crawled that far,’’ Mary narrated. Deeters died of the bullet wounds Thursday, a few hours before the mob applied the ancient law of the hemp to two of the Negroes. Mrs. Ball and Mary watched the sun rise from behind a cloud with eyes that had not closed during the tumultuous night. "Frank was there last night. I don't know whether he helped. Now he's gone back, I guess just to get away from here. Those niggers got what they deserved.” the mother pronounced through tight lips. "But that doesn’t bring Claude back," Mary lamented, with a nod toward the courthouse spire, beneath whose shadow a crowd, still sullen with hatred, guarded the tree that gave them their revenge. BABY DROWNED IN BATH Child. 2 Falls in Six Inches of Water Reaching for Toy. By United Press BELLWOOD, Neb., Aug. 8 — As Caroline Eberly, aged 2, reached for one of her toys in a bath tub, she fell and was drowned in six inches of water.

Odd ‘Vagrant' Roams Streets With $17,000 tv United Press KENDALLVILLE. Ind, Aug. B.—A fortune of $17,000 was found on the person of Frank Brown. 58. odd character. who roamed the streets of Ligonier aj>jarently penniless, when taken into custody by Sheriff William Hoffman, after being adjudged insane. Brown was found to possess $2,000 in cash and a $15,000 certificate of deposit on a Canton (O.) bank. It was thought he inherited the money recently, as he had not paid taxes for years. The money was placed in the Ligonier bank and Cleland Caibeck. Ligonier. named guardian. Brown will be taken to ||h Richmond insane hospital

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The Indianapolis Times Partly cloudy tonight and Saturday. Not much change in temperature.

VOLUME 42—NUMBER 77

Girl Victim , and Scene of Lynchers’Fury

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Miss Mary Ball, fiancee of Claude Deeter, Fairmount (Ind.) youth, who was wounded fatally by the Negroes who were lynched by a mob at Marion Thursday night.

MOONEY, BILLINGS RETRIAL DEMANDED

Water Is Sold for Nickel a Glass in State Bu United Press MONTICELLO, Ind., Aug. 8. —Water in the southern part of Indiana is being sold for 5 cents a glass or 50 cents for enough to fill an auto radiator, A. C. Brown, Lafayette business man, said today, after returning from a trip through Brown and Jackson counties. “Armed men stand guard over the few remaining wells that still give water, and skeletons of fish, landlocked when the rivers and creeks gave out, line the dry banks,” he said. “Leaves of trees have turned brown, water is being shipped in milk cars from Louisville, and farmers have been forced to sell practically all their livestock —even to the hound dawgs—because of lack of food,” he said.

DANCE 2,831 HOURS Hammond Couple Wins Long Grind at Chicago. j Bu United Press \ CHICAGO. Aug. B.—Mike Gouj vas, Hammond, Ind., and Miss Ann Gerry, Chicago, are the new claimants of the world’s marathon dancing championship. Mike and Ann danced for 2,831 hous and 44 minutes in a contest which began at the Merry Garden ballrooom, April 11 and ended Friday night, after Jack Ritof, Joliet, HI., and Theresa Zito were forced to withdraw because Nitof’s ankle was so badly swollen physicians would not allow him to continue. Drought Boosts Milk Prices Bu United Press NEW YORK, Aug. B.—The drought will drive the price of milk up 1 cent a quart here Monday. That may not look like a formidable advance, but the added cost to the city will amount to $35,000 a day. Pasturage has been burned out, producers say.

GRAPHIC STORY OF LYNCHING IS TOLD BY WRITER, EYE-WITNESS OF HANGINGS

William E. Hallbcrg w.s an eyewitness to the lynching of two Negroes at Marion. Ind., last night. His reaction. describing *he unusual nature of the mob. is gicen in the following story: BY WILLIAM E. HALLBERG United Press Staff Correspondent MARION. Ind., Aug. B.—Scars at the doors and windows of the Grant county ;ail remained today to remind citizens that the second mob in forty years had formed, carried out its work and scattered, leaving two Negroes dead by strangulation, as victims of its fury. It happened that this correspondent also saw the 5,000 persons who gathered more or less peacefully in 1919 to demand Sunday movies, and won its point. That was the only other mob to form here since the lynching of a Hearo some Jour score year* mo.

Defense Hurls Challenge for Decision by Jurors on Conspiracy Charge. BY MAX STERN Times Staff Correspondent SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 8. A challenge to the Fickert prosecution to retry Mooney and Billings on conspiracy charges in connection with the preparedness bomb outrage was hurled Thursday by Edwin McKenzie, Warren K. Billings’ counsel. It was his answer to the amazing declarations on Wednesday of Edward Cunha,. Mooney’s 1916 prosecutor, and James Brennan, Fickert aid against Billings, to the effect that they had relied in trying the pair on indirect evidence and “outside circumstances.” Destroyed Own Case “The prosecution’s own witnesses, MacDonald and Estelle Smith, have destroyed its entire case so far as direct evidence is concerned,” McKenzie said. “These two witnesses now are completely discredited by cameras, clocks and logic, regardless of even their confessions of perjury. Now the state suddenly contends that even if Mooney arnd Billings were convicted on perjured testimony, they are guilty of conspiracy. "Conspiracy finds no support in the records in either case. So far as my client, Billings, is concerned he gladly will meet any conspiracy I evidence either at anew trial or at this hearing. “If the prosecution will not muddle the case and concede that he was not at the bombing scene, then their case should be tried over again on their new theory. Trial on Any Theory “We submit Billings for trial on any theory. We will waive any claim of jeopardy. We will take the first twelve jurymen called, risk a hanging verdict and waive all hearsay rules. There can be no possible objection to this, since Cunha has announced he has the evidence. “For years we .have asked for a new trial, and it is only because of legal obstacles that we have asked a pardon. We would much prefer anew trial. It always was in the power of the prosecution to grant it, never in our power to obtain it.” ,

But the backbone of the five or six thousand persons who started assembling aftei supper last night was a mob of different mood. Only a few more than fifty were active. The rest was curious citizens. a a a THE crowd gave the rioters its moral support, partly by cheers, mostly by passive inaction, forming a background against which Sheriff Campbell and deputies feared to shoot. Until 9 p. m., the hour at which the waterworks whistle still blows a curfew, it was an ordinary crowd standing in family groups at a safe distance from the jail, which is half a block off the courthouse square. The sheriff aided by Police Chief Lewis Lindenmuth. made several attempts to scatter the grpwyag thrcags, ftut succeed*}

INDIANAPOLIS, FRIDAY, AUGUST 8,1930

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Through this door to the Grant county jail at Marion, Ind., Thursday night, a mob battered its way to seize two Negro prisoners who then were lynched in the courthouse yard. In this flashlight photo, taken by The Times staff photographer, shortly after the hanging, W. O. Miller, left, turnkey, and C. A. Marsh, C. & O. railway detective are pictured in the doorway.

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It was from this cell in the county jail at Marion, Ind., that a mob Thursday night dragged Abram Smith, 18-year-old Negro, to his death by hanging in the courthouse yard. With sledges and crowbars, the rioters broke the lock from the barred cell door after jailers’ resistance weakened before the mob.

Jack Edwards, Marion’s “boy mayor,” who left the city Thursday for an unnamed destination, was expected to return today to aid other officials in investigation of the lynchings.

GREEN APPLES FATAL Four-Year-Old Boy Dies From Eating of Fruit. CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind., Aug. B.—Green apples, eaten earlier in the week, caused the death Thursday of Thomas Franklin Dowell, 4, son of Mr. and Mrs. George Rowell, who live north of Crawfordsville.

only in forcing a general circling movement. He then called the fire apparatus. The hook and ladder truck scattered the crowd, but they reassembled nearer the jail. When the murmurs became shouted threats, curiously mixed with good-natured laughter, Sheriff Campbell and deputies went inside the jail and locked all doors. a a a RELATIVES of Dee ter and his sweetheart were in the forefront of the crowd. Hoot Ball, father of the girl, was among them. So was Deeter’s father, the girl’s uncle, and several young men who had gone bo school in Fairmount with Deeter. To not more than thirty had the previous night’s tragedy been personal. Hoot Ban drifted into the jai} aod spoke to Capjbgfi veil-

NEAT TO HOLD GRIPONSTATE Little Relief From Drought Is Promised. Not much change in temperature was the prediction of the United States weather bureau for Indianapolis tonight and Saturday, and the state was promised little relief from the drought and heat. Local thundershowers were predicted for the northern portion of the state tonight or Saturday. Rainfall reports from the state for the twenty-four-hour period ending at 7 this morning included: South Bend, .01 inch; Angola, .68 inch; Lafayette, .08 inch; Farmland, .28 inch; Cambridge City, .01 inch; Columbus, .35 inch; Paoli, .06 inch. Two deaths were attributed to heat in Indiana Thursday. James Auchue, 42, Logansport cobbler, died suddenly. David H. Larson, 43, farmer near Lafayette, shot himself because the drought had ruined his crops. James A. Orr, 73, dropped dead in Muncie, presumably the victim of a weak heart, over-taxed by the heat. Hourly Temperatures 6a. m 78 10 a. m 84 7a. m 81 11 a. m..... 84 Ba. m 84 12 (noon).. 85 9 a. m 85 1 p. m. 88

ing him the crowd was bent on a lynching, and begged him to turn loose the three Negroes. Campbell refused. Ball walked out, ran into some one’s elbow, and fell. That was the signal to leadership, which the crowd had lacked. Not one of the rioters attempted to hide his identity. All were their late teens or early twenties except Ball, his brother, and Oeeter’s father. I was in and out of the thick of the crowd, none of whom had been drinking excepting a young model of a village blacksmith. The mob attacked the jail at three points—the main door, through the garage and from the roof. a m a WT TITHIN a few minutes the W main body had swept through a heavy, iron door, two

Entered as Second-Class Matter at FostofUce. Indianapolis. Ind.

DOUBLE INQUIRY STARTED INTO LYNCHING OF TWO YOUNG NEGRO SLAYERS

Maddened Throng Batters Down Doors of Jail, Kills Prisoners. THOUSANDS ON SCENE Tear Gas Bombs Hurled in * Vain; No Shooting Is Sheriff’s Order. BY LOWELL NUSSBAUM Times Staff Correspondent MARION, Ind., Aug. B. Downtown streets of Marion through which late Thursday night and early today surged a tempest of hate, climaxed by lynching of two young Negroes, this afternoon were calm. It was a calm, however, that authorities feared might be only a lull before anew and more ferocious outburst of race antagonism. Only a few stragglers remained of a crowd of several thousand that tore the Negroes from Grant county jail. But groups of youthful Negroes, ostensibly under the influence of liquor, were reported roaming through the downtown section in autos, mumbling threats of retaliation for the lynchings. Deputy sheriffs and police will be on the alert to quell any fresh outburst, chiefs of the county and city law enforcing bodies indicated. Throughout the night they patrolled the Negro district, after threats were reported against residents there. Bodies Cut Down After the night of rioting, quiet was restored around the courthouse and county jail early this morning, and the bodies of the mob victims were cut down without molestation from a thousand citizens who milled around the grounds. Spirited to the state reformatory at Pendleton, another Negro, one of the trio accused of killing a white youth and attacking his sweetheart, was safe. Two other Negro prisoners were taken to Huntington county jail. The lynching victims were Thomas Shipp, 18, and Abraham Smith, 18. Smith’s body dangled until this morning from the same maple tree where he was hanged by the infuriated mob at about 9:30 Thursday night. Shipp was hanged in the jail yard, his body cut down a while later, and dragged to the courthouse lawn to be hoisted up to another maple, a grim reminder of the night of terror. Bodies Cut Down Sheriff Campbell cut the bodies down at 5:32 this morning, after they had swayed from the tree limbs approximately eight hours. There was no gentleness about the procedure. The victims’ feet were about five feet off the ground when the sheriff’s knife cut the the ropes. The Negroes dropped with a thud. It was the signal for a morbid crowd to surge upon them. Penknives were invoked to slash shreds of clothing from the corpses. Others pulled buttons from what tom clothing still remained on the bodies. Authorities did not interrupt the vulture-like scene, witnesses said. Finally an ambulance arrived and carried the bodies to the Higgs undertaking establishment. Coroner O. L. Stout held a brief inquest, after which he returned a verdict that the Negroes had met death as the result of a riot by persons so far unknown. Officers said the two Negroes and a companion, Herbert Cameron, 16, confessed that on Wednesday night

sheet iron doors and two steelbarred doors. Through the garage and into the basement went another group. Still others swarmed down the sides of the three-story structure of the roof, peering inside for Negroes. The sheriff and deputies fought rioters at the main entrance, cracking heads with clubs, hurling half a dozen tear gas bombs—but rifles and riot guns remained on racks and revolvers weree untouched. They were swept aside. The mob brought out the two Negroes. The first was hanged at the end of a rope fastened to bars of a window on the second iloor of the jail. His body was cut down and taken to the courthouse yard, where the second Negro was hanged. Care was taken to select the Negroes identified hR the Safi

Barred The Times obtained a number of closeup pictures of the Marion lynchings, showing the victims, but is not reproducing them. We believe that printing such pictures is a harmful practice, serving no purpose of journalism-, catering only to morbid tastes, and trust that our readers will view the matter in the same light.

they shot and fatally wounded Claude Deeter, 23, of Fairmount, and' attacked his sweetheart, Miss Mary Ball, 19. The Negro youths were arrested Thursday morning. In the afternoon crowds began forming about the county jail. Word went out that all three Negroes had confessed. Feeling began running high. By nightfall a crowd of 2,500 persons was milling about in the vicinity of the jail. The story of how the Negroes had held up Deeter as he drove along a highway, dragged him from his car, robbed and shot him and then attacked Miss Ball, was retold over and over and with each re-telling the general anger grew in intensity. Father Sees Sheriff About 9 o’clock Foot Ball, father of Mary Ball, entered the jail to talk with Sheriff Jacob Campbell. About the same time a group of men arrived from Fairmount, Deeter’s home town, eleven miles from Marion. Ball remained in the jail a short time, then walked out into the crowd. He has been ill recently and was weak. The crowd jostled him and he fell. It was the signal for violence, and within a few minutes the crowd, then numbering about 4,000, was storming the jail. It was estimated that only about seventy-five men actually took part in the rioting, but hundreds of others packed about the jail, shouting encouragement. Sheriff Campbell issued orders, to his deputies that no shots were to be fired, but police clubs were wielded freely and several heads were bruised. The mob attacked in two groups, one from tfle front of the jail, the other from the side. Tear gas bombs were tossed from the jail windows, but the supply soon was exhausted and they stopped the mob only temporarily. One bomb was picked up and hurled back into the jail, where it exploded among the forty-five prisoners quartered there. Rip Doors Off Using crowbars and hammers, the mob ripped iron doors from hinges, tore out windows, punched holes in the inside walls, and forced its way into the jail, where more than a dozen terror-stricken Negro prisoners knelt in prayerShipp and Smith were dragged from the jail, beaten, kicked, and hanged. Smith was taken a block away to the courthouse, shrieking in terror as he went. The rope with which he was hanged was fifteen feet too long. The rioters tore the extra part into bits and passed them out as souvenirs. The mob then returned to the jail and found Cameron. The youth, begging for mercy and protesting innocence, was dragged down the street toward the courthouse lawn, scene of the two previous hangings, but was returned to the custody of officers when Sheriff Campbell and Prosecutor Harley F. Hardin convinced the leaders they were about to hang an “innocent” man. Police reinforcements were arriving by that time from Indianapolis, Anderson, Huntington, Alexandria, Kokomo, Wabash, and Muncie and there was such a heavy guard around the jail that the crowd, satisfied to some extent over the (Turn to Page 1, second section)

girl. The same procedure was followed when a third Negro was removed. a a a A BRIEF halt occurred when officials addressed the throng. The Ball girl’s uncle said he believed enough had been done, and was satisfied. Threats continued, but indecision had seized the mob, and it filtered away. By midnight all w T as quiet again, except for the thousands packing the streets, blocking all traffic. The man who knotted the ropes around the Negroes’ necks walked into a restaurant with his wife, and spent half an hour eating. During the early morning never fewer than a thousand persons were in the streets, half of them around the Maple trees from which the bodies swung. Two light showers failed to disperse the groups.

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Ogden Sends Three Aids to Grant County Capital for Probe. JURY CONVENES SEPT. 1, Prosecutor Declares He Will Do All in Power to Find Leaders. A two-day investigation of the double lynching at Marion was opened today by state and Grant county authorities. While Attorney - General James M. Ogden sent two deputies and an investigator to Marion, Prosecuting Attorney Harley V. Hardin of Grant county began his probe. The Grant county grand jury will convene Monday, Sept. 1, and will plunge immediately into an investigation of the hangings. Hardin promised that before she jury meets he will conduct a complete investigation of the mob action.

“Grant county’s officials are lawabiding and perform their duty regardless of any temporary influence,” Hardin declared. “Grant county’s citizens as a whole respect law and order and they have confidence that justice will be done to the full extent.” Subject to Death Penalty Declaring that participants in the double lynching are subject to the death penalty or life imprisonment. Attorney-General Ogden sent Earl Stroup and Merle Wall, deputies, to Marion to aid local authorities in steps for apprehension and prosecution of mob leaders. An investigator for the attorney-general accompanied the deputies. The penalties provided in the law against lynching are the same as those for murder. Witnesses who made no effort to stop the lynching are subject to imprisonment for terms of two to twenty-one years, the attorney-general declared.. It was estimated some 20,000 persons would be imprisoned or put to death if all participants and witnesses were convicted. Ogden Deplores Outrage “Although any official comment should come from the Governor, who is the chief executive of the state, there is no doubt such an affair gives the state a black eye and generally should be deplored,” At-torney-General Ogden declared. “You know ‘they sow the whirlwind and reap the storm,’ ” he added, referring to recent bombings at Marion, in which five persons were killed. L. O. Chasey, secretary to Governor Harry G. Leslie, termed the lynching a “deplorable incident.” “There should be an investigation of the riot and if the local authorities do not do it properly, someone else should take charge,” he declared. “I feel sure, however, that Marion authorities will do everything they can to bring the instigators of the riot to justice.” O. E. Clawson is Grant circuit judge. Leslie in Canada Governor Harry G. Leslie, who is spending this week of his vacation in a Canadian forest camp forty miles from a railroad, knew nothing about the Marion rioting early todays his secretary, L. O. Chasey, reported. Marion officials, in seeking the Governor’s aid to quell the mob Thursday night, called Gaylord Morton, also secretary to the Governor. Morton told them to call At-torney-General James M. Ogden, who in return referred them to Chasey. The latter got in communication at once with Camp Knox, Ky., and Adjutant-General Manford G. Henley, who is there with the entire Indiana national guard, reported troops in readiness to go to Marion if needed, Chasey said. DESERT MAY BE PARK Death Valley Considered by United States as National Monument. Bu Science Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 8— Death Valley, picturesque but forbidding trough of almost absolute desert in southeastern California, may become the newest addition to the lands administered by the United States national park service. President Hoover has signed an executive order temporarily reserving from entry certain strategic joints in and about the valley, pending investigation by the department of the interim: of its suitability for a national monument,

Ontdda Marlon County S Cents