Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1909 — CAIRO MOB KILLS TWO; TORCH USED [ARTICLE]

CAIRO MOB KILLS TWO; TORCH USED

Rope, Shots and Fire For Negro Slayer. WHITEMAN IS LYNCHED

Strangler of Pelley Girl Sus- - pended From Steel Arch. GOVERNOR CALLS OUT TROOPS Houses of Blacks Burned—Second Victim a Wife Murderer. Cairo, 111., Nov. 12.—Will James, negro and confessed slayer of Anna Pelley, who in the face of death is said to have implicated -Arthur Alexander In his crime, has paid the penalty for his brutality. First he was suspended from a steel arch in the heart of the city of Cairo and tn the full glare of a hundred electric lights and then he was shot to death because the rope which held him in the air broke. The mob then took the negro toward the Mississippi river levee and shot him to death in the middle of a block. Then the frenzied citizens dragged the dead negro to the scene of the crime, a mile from the arch at Twenty-sixth and Elk streets where he was hanged. They made a huge bon fire and, throwing the bullet riddled body on top of the piled up Wood, the torch was applied and the crowd stood by and with cries and pistol shots added their cheers to the crackling of the flames. White Man Lynched, Too.

Later a hundred men dashed to the section of the city occupied by the blacks and burned several houses. At this Juncture' word came from Governor Deneen's office in Springfield to call out the Cairo militia companies. After using the torch the mob went to the jail and, battering down a steel door, seized Henry Saelzner, a white man who murdered his wife, and hanged him. The mob that lynched James went out to the Big Four yards and boarded a freight train. The conductor was powerless and they insisted that he take them to Karnack, thirty miles north of Cairo, where reports indicated that Sheriff Davis was last seen with the prisoner. An immense crowd of people were at the union station. The train was an hour late and when it arrived the negro was taken to the corner of Eighth and Commercial streets. This is in the very center of the city. Stranger Beaten For Asking Mercy. As the crowd approached the arch a hundred pistols volleyed in the air. While arrangements were being made to lynch James, an agile youth climbed on the arch and turned on the electric lights. Time after time the negro was lifted up above the heads of the crowd in order that they might see him. A rope was obtained and a man climbed upon the arch and lowered it so that the noose could be put around the negro’s neck.

The man was swung to a pole and when he was half way up one of the bullets which were fired hit him and he fell to the ground. As he lay on the ground a volley of bullets was fired into his body. Some stranger tried to ask mercy for the murderer and was beaten by members of the mob. In his confession James is said to have made the statement that Alexander had the handbag and necklace belonging to Miss Pelley. Women Hiss the Slayer. As a crowd marched through Belnap, where James had been taken to the station to board the train to Cairo, women hissed at and spat upon the negro. The girl was seized on her way home from a department store where she was employed behind a counter. It was plain that cbe had struggled to the very end to protect herself. Bloodhounds led directly to a house in which James bad been a lodger and his arrest followed. The negro’s victim was an orphan and had the affection of hundreds of friends. J It is charged that Alexander stole the young woman’s belongings after James had left her dead.