Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1887 — INDIANA LYNCH LAW. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA LYNCH LAW.

Amar Graan, Mia® JUkMu’i Morderer, Take* from Jail and Hanged. A Mok of «OO Miukfil Maa the Delphi Jail »i>a Kroake the Leek* With ChUel and SHw*<e—Green Tnken Seven Mile* in the Country and Swnoc fryat a Limb. —T“ • About midnight, Friday night, a mob consisting of nearly two hundred men made an assault on the Carroll county jail, for the purpose of securing Amer Green, who was confined there awaiting trial foil the murder of Luella Babbitt. Green was brought to Delphi, Wednesday, from Michigan City penitentiary, where he had been placed for security against such an attack. There had been Ifttle fear of a mob, from the fact that those who would be most likely to undertake a lynching, lived in the. extreme Eastern part of the county and in Cass county, adjoining, and their prepniations were not known in Delphi. As a consequence, the sheriff - took no extra precautions to guard his prisoner, iind when the assault was made he had no one io assist him but one deputy. The mob first formed a line in the street surrounding the jail to guard against afiy interference from the out side. Then, without any demand upon the sheriff, they hammered in the wooden door leading into the residence part of the jail. About twenty men, with handkerchiefs over their faces and pistols in their hands, rushed in and demanded the keys to the jail proper. This was refused, and a man with sledge hammer and cold chisel began on the locks. Four locks were broken and the doors forced. The opening of the last door, by an automatic arrangement, opened the lock of the cell in which Green was confined, so that when thsy reached the cell they had only to swing open the door. The prisoner, who had. up to the time he heard the mob approaching, maintained the coolest demeanor, now began to cry and to beg. His cries wear piteous. In his desperation he wrenehed off a piece of waterpipe with which to defend himself, but four men made a dash and clutched his arms and throat so quickly that he was unable to do them any injury. He was then bound and hustled off into a covered wagon standingready. The mob, which had, by this time,gained a large number of recruits, then started south across Deer creek. The wagon was driven so fast that those on foot could hardly keep up with it. After crossing the bridge south of town, about seventy-five wagons, which were in waiting there, fell into procession, and all started for Walnut Grove, about seven miles east, and not far from where the murdered girl lived,

When the wagon with its victim arrived at Walnut Grove, two large fires had already been built, and illuminated the woods. There the leader of the mob told Green he must either produce Luella Mabbitt or die. He called for Mr. Mabbitt, and, standing face to face with him, stated that Luella was living with a man named Samuel Paine, at Fort Worth, Tex. He was asked why he had not produced her, and said his attorneys had advised him to the contrary. Convinced that he was lying, a rope was stretched around his neck by the mob and he was drawn under the tree. Green stood up on the seat -as ereet as a statue, his ’hands pinioned and the rope so tightly drawn that he Was almost choked. The crowd was as orderly as a sheriff's posse could have been had Amer Green been going to his death in' accordance with the mandates of the law. The wagon was about to be driven ahead, wh,en a correspondent, who had been a mute spectator, asked the doomed man: “Are you an innocent man?’’ “I am an innocent man.’’ “What is your last request?” continued the newspaper man. “That you inform my mother, send her my body and tell her I desire to be buried by the side of my sister in Ohio.” “At Hebron, Ohio?’’ ~7 “Yes” —but here the horses gave a lurch forward, and A mer Green was suspended between earth and sky. His body was cut down _at • o’clock Saturday morning, after it had been viewed by thousands. When the sheriff found that the mob was on him, his first move was to secure Win. Walker, who was in jail awaiting trial as an accomplice of Green’s. He was in the women’s department,, and was easily and quickly put into the cupola of the building, but the moo made no demand for him. The whole affair was . w-il planned and executed. One man., who used the sledge htmmer, was familiar with every detail of the locks and cells. Members of the mob had been in town ah day, but their purpose was not suspected until they were at work at night. Green’s crime was committed in Aug-u-t, 1886 when he abducted and is supposed to have murdered Luella Mabbitt, i a daughter of a wealthv farmer in the eas'eru part of Can-oil county. He fled t-itte West where he joined his brother, Bill G-een, who was also-a murderer And a fugitive from justice-,■ and both in Texaelast July. The articu *-rs of the cri ne have been pub-li-h<-d very extensively. . r t T T~l T I ’ Ar' V £ ’ a 1 I- r io Sht rijl Vangiwdy, of Carroil county, censuring him for not taking pitcautionary measures to prevent the

hanging of Amer Green by a mob. Mr. Vangundy has written a vigorous answer in hie own defense- He says that be had no apprehensions of a mob, and, that he did not think it necessary to take precautionary measures to prevent it. If the Governor knew there was danger of an outbreak, it was his duty to have communicated such information to him (the sheriff), or to call out the military to help the civil authorities preserve the peace. The letter continues, that from the best informati on obtainable, the mob wa’ made up of men living on the borders of Cass, Carroll and Howard counties, a neighborhood that had been infested with a gang of robbers and thieves known as the “Jap Choen Gang,” which some time ago was broken up. On this subject the sheriff says: '■The leader* and other members of the ga«g were convicted, after much expeura, and .'•ent to the state prison? and those who were uneonvicted seeing the fate of their Je> der, lied the Slate. Outrages Spon peaceaAle citizens ceased, and mill, women and children slept in conseioas security Bat on an *lll day,without thoreenmme’datiou oi ilitfjndge.the prosecuting attorney, or the jury time Hied him. and in, violation, i ani told, of the rules 01. yout predecessors, you pardoned rite leader ot ibis lawless band. Upon hit return a,so eame the.other outlaws who had lied, an.l agaia there was the former insecurity for life and property. Then it was that a vigi lance committee was formed among the best citizens for self-protection. But whether any of the members of this committee were engaged in the lynching ef'Greeu I am unable to say. People draw their own inferences. "Now. 1 am a plain man. but as you see fit to give mealecture eoneerulug my duties, perhaps it would not lie inappropriate for me to ask yen; with due respect if you consider your own otii cial ssiris entirely clear? Courts and juries discharge their duties, convict notorious criminals, giving security to the humble firesides of the land, and all their labor and expense go for naught when the Governor of this uobie State, with one stroke of the same pen wi h which ne presumes to lecture others concerning their duties, undoes the good wont.” . , This letter has caused considerable comment. Regarding its contents, Governor Gray Tuesday morning, in answer' to an inquiry, said:

It is not my intention to have any controversy with the sheriff in regard to his failure to take steps to protect the prisoner Green while in his custody. 1 did no, intend to enarge in my letter any intentional wrong on the part of the sheriff, but simply lack of vigilance, aud I think 1 was jitstified under the ilredm.stanees. The sheriff knew that the prisoner was guarded against mob violence while in the txigausport jail (not by the mililary, but by the sheriff aud his posse), and he also anew that the prisoner was sent to the State prison for protection against mob violence, and he further knew t at he was brought from the State prison to the jail at Delphi aud dilivered into bis custody. I was not aware that the prisoner bad been brought to Delphi until Tread an account of his being lynched by the mob The sheriff asks the question: That if I knew the facts as stated in my letter, why I did not call out the military?’ I am surmised that one occupying the position of sheriff does not snow that the Governor has no right to interfere with the administration of the civil law, except in cases where the law is over powered and the civil authorities call upon the Governor for assistance to enforce the same, and I am equally astonistjed that he does not know that unde, the law he is authorized to call out the militia himself for assistance, if such assistance is necessary. The facts-are, as I am informed, he did not have the jail guarded at all. I infer from his letter that he expected the mob to iiotify_him of its coming. He says that the borders of Carroll aud Cass counties are infested with agaugof robbers and thieves, and from that locality -he thinks the mob came, and it is reasonable to inler from his letter that Green was eotine- ted with the lawless gang. This js something 1 never heard of before, and, if true, is in ad'iiiioual reason why he should have been on his guard. He refers in his defense to my having pardoned one JapChoen. That pardon was granted w hen I was serving, out the unex pired term of Governor Williams." nearly eight vein s ago, and the p -rdon was recommended by some two bundr. d and. fifty of she best citizen’s of-Cass coiiniy and vieunty If I nimie a mistake in granting that pardon.: I am free to say that I d d not have th ■ experience then that I have nowiti the exercise of executive clemency, yet, if it was a mistake, I ean not see how the sheriff’can plead that as a ju tificatibpof his own dereliction of duty in his failure to protect the prisoner and uphold the law, as it was his swoah duty to do.”

Mr. Mabbitt, father of the murdered girl, testified Tuesday that he was not present at the hanging, and had not seen Amer Green since last Thursday—this in the face of the statement of a hundred people who saw him there, to the contrary; and thus it is impossible to get any testimony to implicate any one. Amor Gretn’i lulamuim Record. Delphi Letter. Green’s entire life was one of infamy. Scarcelv. a man or a family witbin a distance of five miles of his former home but had some personal grievance against him. He would cheat, lie and steal and was familiar with the entire calendar ot crime. He was feared bv every man in his neighborhood, and on numerous occasions, when arrested for some depredation, he forced men, through fear, to perjure themselves to acquit him. He would cail people up at all hours of the night to make some tyrannical demand of them, such as to go into the cellar and get him a glass of milk or other equally ridiculous thing. But no one ever dared to complain. He robbed nearly every man in theneighborhood, but to prosecute him or testify against him possibly meant to be flogged or have a barn burned or a horse poisoned. He was a member of what was once known as the Jap Choengangof thieves, which was broken up a few years ago when Choen was sent to the penitentiary. Prior to the Mabbitt sensation Amer Green’ had the reputation of being a shameless libertine. He had blighted the life ot a young eirl and taken refuge in cowardly flight" His victim afterward died, and the child never received any assistance from its fa’her. He hid also taken another young girl from the neighborhood and kept her imprisoned from hey parents for weeks before he allowed h<-r io return home, ruined. Bntlhe, latest and most ima nous dinclosure concerning his character is a record written by his own hand. But for this n<> one would havq. been able to form even a fair conception of his iniamv. It is a diary found in his trunk at Young Ameri a some time ago. which ;is now in • ossession of a man at that i place. In this diary he had kept a care- ; Hit record of his licentious conquests, l it covers a period of fifteen years, and I shows, according to his own computation that he has accomplished or aided in the rum of sixty three girls and marijied wonn-r . -"Hrthis--rimwts e had lived .m.-Careludw he npiedthe naoitfe of his victims, the cirenmstauees attending his conques s, and other incidents intended to recall to his polluted mind the days when he was

permitted to ream at will and blacken and poison all he touched. A reporter has talked With three men who have seen this list. It contains a large number of girls and women in the vicinity of Young America and Burlington., Some are from Watseka, 111. Many of them are now, and props’dy were at the time of their association with Green, recognized as loose characters, but many of them are women who never before have been suspected. „ Tears ago a new church was built near Green’s home, and pine shingles hauled fiom Logansport to roof it. At the same time Amer was building a new stable. The next morning Amer was shingling his stable and shingles at the church weremiseing.'The wagon tracks told the story, but the church people were afraid to move on him.lest he burn their building and otherwise injure the members of the church. Several years ago he was arrested for stealing two valuable lap-robes from a sleigh at the church, an officer searching Green’s house and finding them both in the garret. When the case came to trial he produced’witnesses who swore that, they were with him when he found the robes in a fence corner. . While riding home from a dance with a companion he said he would relish a glass of milk. He rode up to a farm house and aroused the farmer, who asked what was wanted: “I want a glans of milk,” said Green. The farmer protested, and was on the point of retiring when the fellow said: “I’m Amer Green, and, by , if you don’t get up and serve me with milk I’ll remember you.” The farmer served him with milk. He had a number of horses on his place and always had a surplus of harness, yet no harness maker in that section of the country ever made him a set of harness. He stole a kit of carpenter’s tools from a man in Logansport and they were found in his possession. brought witnesses who swore they were with him when he bought them in Kokomo. The night he murdered Luella Mabbitt the buggy in his possession belonged to on® man, the horse to another and the harness to a third.

With all his villainy and scoundrelism he could pose as a polished gentleman, and his influence over women was most remarkable. About four years ago Green made the acquaintance of Luella Mabbitt. After that they were in each other’s company frequently and were soon engaged to be married. Time and again they quarreled and made up again. At length Green was arrested for chicken-stealing and put in jail at Logansport, and Luella broke theengagement Time and again he attempted to renew it and failed. The afternoon of the night he went away with her he announced to an acquaintance that he.would either renew the engagement or kill her. That night he called at her house, and called her from her bed. Her sister and William Walker left them alone and strolled up the road. When they returned Green and Luella had gone, and the girl was never seen alive again. The finding of her bloody clothing. Green’s flight, and the discovery and identification of the body in the river at Lafayette told the story of her cruel murder. The wonder is that years ago Green did not fall before the anger of the scores of people he had outraged.