People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1896 — NO COURT EXPENSES. [ARTICLE]

NO COURT EXPENSES.

Judge lynch sits in west VIRGINIA. Mnrderons Negra Meet* His Death at the Handa of a Mob—Sheriff at Jeffcraou, lowa, Afraid of a Lynching—liaU Quiet at Sullivan, HL x- • Huntington, W. Va„ Jan. 29.—Alex Jones, a negro, boarded a train on the Norfolk and Western railroad at Keystone Monday night. He was drunk and shot promiscuously into the crowded car. He killed one man and fatally wounded two others. Yesterday his remains were lowered from a limb of a tree and buried, He had been lynch,ed and his body riddled with bullets. Passengers say that Jones, who had frequently been connected with murders, boarded the north-bound passenger train and entered the smoking car. The negro was intoxicated and flourished revolvers in both hands. Conductor McCullough attempted to quiet the man, but his efforts proved futile. He began firing from bdth pistols and was stopped only when Brakeman Rankin Holmes ran up behind him and felled him to the floor with a heavy poker. Nine shots-in all were fired by Jones. One ball penetrated the abdomen of W. S. Strauther, postmaster at Elkhorn. Another ball entered the left side of Conductor McCullough and but little hope is entertained for his recovery. Peter Rice, colored, is thought to be fatally shot, and the plucky brakeman received a ball in the left shoulder from Jones’ revolver after he struck the blow. A detective of the road, who was in another coach, rushed in and, took charge of the prisoner. The train then pulled into Welch, the end of the division, which was only a few miles north, and the prisoner was placed in jail. A mob began forming, and as a local passenger was soon to leave, the officials hustled the murderer through town in disguise and placed him on this train with a hope of getting him through to this city. The infuriated mob, however, held the train until arrangements were perfected. A rope was placed around Jones’ neck while he was on the train, and he was marched up a steep hillside one-fourth of a mile away. The negro pleaded for mercy, but without avail. The rope was securely fastened, and he was drawn up until his limbs dangled in the air. The mob, before leaving, riddled the dead form of the negro with bullets. The body was left hanging until some colored men cut it down., The remains were buried without ceremony within fifty yards of where the lynching occurred.