October 4, 1886: R. P. Wallace

Today we visit the pages of the Fort Scott Daily Monitor (Fort Scott, Kansas) from the October 6, 1886 edition:

Wallace Lynched.

St. Louis, October 5.—Wallace, the murderer of the Logan family of five persons, father, mother and three children, was taken from the jail at Steelville last night by a mob and lynched. The guilty man had been taken to Steelville from Cuba, Mo., where the horrible crime had been perpetrated, for safe keeping and for fear that he would be summarily dealt with by the enraged citizens of Cuba.Friday morning, Oct. 1 a mob gained entrance to the jail and seizing Wallace dragged him from his cell and strung him up. He was cut down after being allowed to hang for a short time in order that a confession might be forced from him. He resused [sic] to own up to the crime, but before the crowd could hang him up again the sheriff gained possession of him and hurried him back to his cell. The crowd was prevailed upon to disperse and it was supposed that the law would be allowed to take its own course. Last night, however, a second and more successful attempt was made to mete out justice to the murderer. A masked mob of about 100 men quietly gathered around the jail at midnight and demanded an entrance of the jailor. [sic] This was refused, and [the] mob battered down the doors, and a delegation of their members was sent to bring out the prisoner, while others were detailed to guard the roads leading to the scene. Wallace was awakened from a sleep and dragged out [by] the infuriated mob, and was asked if he had anything to say. He responded by strongly protesting his innocence, still adhering to the story that the negro Vaughn was guilty. This angered the mob more than ever, and with a shout they produced a rope, one end of which they placed around the murder's [sic] neck, the other end was thrownd [sic] a limb of a tree standing near the jail. The prisoner still protested his innocence and appealed for mercy, but without avail. Strong hands grasped the rope and Wallace's body swung in the air, and another chance was not given him to confess and in a few minutes his body was a corpse. The mob then dispersed and the jail officers cut him down and took possession of the body. There is no clue to the leaders or participants in the lynching.

It is plain to see that the Fort Scott Daily Monitor did not believe in paragraphs.  One last paper to visit. This time we visit The Advocate (Lakin, Kansas) on the 23rd of October, 1886:

The corpse of Patrick Wallace, lynched at Steelville, Mo., lay all day on a plank in the court house, with the noose still about the neck. His parents refused to receive the body, and it was buried on a desolate hill by the authorities.

Thank you for joining me today and as always, I hope I have given you something to ponder.