Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1884 — CHARLES HARVEY'S FATE. [ARTICLE]

CHARLES HARVEY'S FATE.

A Mob Takes Him from Jail at Peters* , fair?, Ind. His Body Afterward Found Dangling to a Locust Tree. (Telegram from Vincennes, Ind.] Sunday morning, between the hours of I and 2 o'clock, from fifty to seventydive men surrounded toe jail inPetersburg.Pike county* Ind., in which was confined young Charlie Harvey, the murderer of Henry Custin, Jr. The front door was broken and unfastened, and a guard was stationed near it, but he was quickly overpowered. The jailer was in bed, and the leaders of the mob crowded into his room and demanded the keys to the <ja.il doors. These he gave up at once, seeing that it was useless to attempt resistance. The mob marched with the keys to the cell where Harvey was confined. As soon as he beard the noise he was struck dumb with terror. Grabbing hold of him the mob piaood a rope around his neck, pinioned his arms, and bade hint walk ahead. They hurried the doomed man to the edge of the town, and, arriving at a locust tree, proceeded to bang him up. After hanging him, they placed a card in his hand bearing the words: “More to follow.” It is stated that Harvey made a confession of the murder of Henry Custin, whioh occurred Friday night. Nothing positive is known, as the men who received the confession are mute. The confession is said to implicate one of the most desperate characters of Petersburg. The body hung suspended from the tree from 3 until 10 o’clock Sunday morning, and was covered with sleet and ice and frozen stiff. Three thousand people visited the scene Sunday. The Coroner cut the body down between 9 and 10 o’clock, and rendered a verdict that Charles Harvey came to his death by hanging at the hands of unknown parties. The crime which young Harvey expiated in so horrible a manner was one of the most cold-blooded murders on record. Henry Custin was employed in tho dry-goods store of Ed Montgomery, and it is supposed the murderer thought he carried some of Montgomery’s money or that ho mistook Custin for Mofftgomei y. Custin was returning home about 10 o’o.ock in the evening, and was shot almost at his own floor. A barber who lived near heard two shots, raised a window, and saw one man bending over the prostrate form of another. The murderer fled, and the dead man was borne to his home. Those in pursuit went to Harvey’s home, two miles east or Petersburg, at a village called Alford. Harvey was requested to come forth, and with reluctance put on his clothes. He put on one hoot, and then refused to put on the other. His mother brought his boot from the kitchen, and was noticed rubbing it with her fingers. The boot was snatched out of .her hand and blood was discovered upon it. The boot exactly fitted the tiyck of the man who shot Custin. Harvey was taken to Petersburg. He requested that they should lock him securely in Jail, as he feared the mob.