Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1903 — KANSAS MOB HANGS NEGRO. [ARTICLE]

KANSAS MOB HANGS NEGRO.

Murderer of Policeman la Lynched at ‘ ' Pittsburg. Montgomery Godley, a negro who twt> hours before had murdered Policeman Milton Hinkle, was taken from the jail In Pittsburg, Kan., and lynched. The policeman was killed w ith his own revolver, which the negro took while the policeman was fighting a mob of negroes. The mob gathered, overpowered and captured. the officers, took the uegro from the jail and strung him up to a telephone pole. The rope broke and the of his keys to the jail, but he convinced the members of the mob cut his throat and ended his sufferings. A large number of negro men and women from the various mining camps in the vicinity, among them Mont and Joe Godley, brothers, were drinking and carousing at a ball. Hinkle requested them to be quiet. The Godley brothers answered him in an insulting manner and he tried to arrest them. They resisted and Hinkle began his whistle for help. Then he began to use his club in order to protect himself from the onslaught of the crowd. He was holding his own against three of them when Mont Godley grabbed the revolver from the policeman’s scabbard, and, placing the muzzle behind the ear of his victim, pulled the trigger. Other policemen pursued the negroes, all of whom started to run. The Godley brothers were captured, and locked up in the city jail. The news of the murder spread and a crowd gathered at the jail. Leaders were not slow In coming forward and cries of "Hang him!” “Burn him!” were heard on every aide. The mob surged into the corridors and against the jail doors. An attempt was made to rob City Marshal Higgins negro fell to the ground, where one of the mob that they were not in his possession. A crowbar and hammer were giro cured and the jail doors battered and broken open. Godley cursed the mob when its leaders entered the jail, but his nerve left him when he realized death was near. He began to supplicate and beg the officers to protect him, but they were overpowered and guarded by a portion of the mob.

Godley was dragged from the jail into the yard and given a few moments to talk. He told so many conflicting stories about the affair that the mob became Impatient and Lurried him three blocks away from the jail. Procuring a rope the mob banged him to a telephone pole. The rope broke and Godley fell to the ground. Some one in tile crowd cut his* throat, severing the jugular vein. lie was then hanged ngairi. Godley came from Pierce City. Mo., at the time the citizens of that town drove the negroes out of the city, about two years ago. The body was lefi hanging for several hours before it was cut down.