Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1908 — MOB SPIRIT NOT DEAD [ARTICLE]

MOB SPIRIT NOT DEAD

Lie Told by Three Boys by Agreement Perilously Excites the Illinois Capital. ONE BOY IS ACCIDENTALLY SHOT ‘ ~~ fc*> Deed Immediately Ascribed to Negro Friends of Richardson. Excitement Subsides When the Truth Is Known—Two Alleged Rioters Are Indicted, a Man and a Woman. Springfield. lit . Aug. 21. —Springfield was inflamed again by a report that Rolla Keys, a seventeen-yenr-dld b’oy who testified before the special grand Jury when that body indicted George Richardson for an alleged assault upon Mrs. Mabel Hallam, had been shot by friends of the accused negro. Before the rumor luid time to spread far, however, it was learned that the shooting was accidental, the wound having been Inflicted by a bullet from a revolver belonging to a companion of Keys, The boy is so seriously injured that he may not recover. Boys’ Lie Creates Excitement.. According to the story first told by Keys’ companions. Harold McLaughlin. fourteen years old. and Chester Brown, sixteen years old, the bullet struck Keys while he was fishing in the Sangamon river near the city water works, three miles northeast of here. They asserted that they had left him for a few moments and that when they returned they found him wounded.' This was the version which was posted on the newspaper bulletin boards about the city. Instantly crowds began to collect and the excitement was increased when the police ordered the removal of the notices. When the fresh bulletins appeared, however, and the true story of the affair became known, the excitement gradually subsided. Story Had Been Concocted. McLaughlin’s father found the pistol with the only loaded chamber discharged in the buggy in which the boys had driven to the water works. When confront 'd with this evidence the son admitted that he was.holding the revolver when it was discharged. He said that the boys concocted the first story because they were frightened b.v the accident. Keys stood by his companions after they had brought him to the hospital here and told Dr. Munson, who attended him. the version agreed upon during the drive back to town.

TWO ON THE RIOT DIST The Grand Jury Returns Indictments Against a Man and Woman. Ten indictments against two of rhe alleged mob leaders here have been returned by the special grand jury of Sangamon county. Six of these arc against Abraham Raymor and four are against Kate Howard. Raymor is charged with murder, four cases of malicious mischief and one of riot. The charges against the Howard woman arc for malicious mischief, and are identical with those against Raymor on these counts. The murder charge against Raymor is based on his alleged participation in the lynching of William Donnigan, the eighty-year-old negro who fell a victim do the mob’s fury on Saturday night. Considerable of the evidence upon which this was voted was secured by a military court of inquiry which has been sitting under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Chipperfield, of the First cavalry, and which turned over to the state’s attorney the result of its Investigations. “We secured enough evidence tn indict forty o<- fifty participants in last week’s rioting.” said Colonel Chipperfield. “We have practically a complete confession from Raymor. and we have also discovered convincing evidence of arson on the part of a former police officer of Springfield. The evidence is not only available for grand jury work, but it is also of such a character that conviction is almost bound to follow.” The first five indictments against Raymor charge ]»enal offenses with penalties upon conviction ranging from one year, to life imprisonment. The Howard woman Is charged with participation in the looting of the Loper restaurant and also with aiding the wrecking of the building, dlie was at liberty on $4,000 ball. but Judge Creighton issued a bench warrant for her and set the new bonds at $lO 000. Private Klein was taken to Kankakee yesterday, but is still under the protection of the military authorities. Arrangements have been made for his surrender to the civil authorities and Immediate release under SIO,OOO bond, but a satisfactory bond could not be pegotiated up to this writing. Harry T. Loper, whose restaurant was demolished last Friday night, testified at the coroner’s inquest over the body of Louts Johnson, the youth who was killed in that portion of the riot Loper was unable to remember the Identity of any of the persons who attacked his place. / EVEN IN MASSACHUSETTS It Is “Lynch Him!’’ “Lynch Hirn!” When aNegro Commits Crime. Lynn. Mass., Aug. 21.—-A mob of 1,500 people with shouts of “Lynch him! Lynch him!” tried to take away Henry Tyler, a negro aged thirty years, from a reserve officer, and had severely pounded the colored man

When seven police officers succeeded |n getting the prisoner to the station before he was seriously hurt Tyler, who was but recently released from state prison, was detected, It is alleged, in the act of 'breaking Into a store. Officer Crawley, who attempted! to arrest Tyler, was struck over theshftad with a heavy chisel and although dazed, grappled with the negrp. Tyler broke away and pin down the street with Crawley In pursuit and discharging his revolver for assistance.