People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1894 — AVENGED. [ARTICLE]

AVENGED.

The Murderer of Marshal Whitney, of Missouri Valley, la., Lynched. Council Bluffs, la., May 2.—-The murder of Marshal Williams at Missouri Valley was avenged on Tuesday when a mob lynched Wilson, the burglar who killed him. The mob, numbering about 500 men, began gathering at the schoolhouse at midnight A leader was appointed and parties sent out to look up a rope and sledge hammers. The crowd turned off the electric lights on the streets and marched to the jail, where they found Officer Linn Deal and Lou Morris on guard. The officers drew their guns when the mob arrived and made a show of resistance, but were ordered to throw up their hands and deliver the keys or it would be worse for them. They complied with the demand, and within a few minutes the prisoner was in the hands of the mob. The prisoner was too horrified to cry out or protest, and was hauled tremblingly from his bunk and carried, rather than led, to the courthouse steps, when the rope had been swung from a beam overhead. The culprit pleaded piteously for mercy, but his supplications fell on deaf ears. He asked to be permitted to make a statement, and got so far as to say that he had acted in self-defense when the crowd tired of the recital and the leader said: “Lift him up, boys.” Strong and willing hands were on the rope and instantly Wilson was swinging in midair, where he slowly strangled to death.