December 31, 1904: Louis Allwhite

Here is a lynching to end our year. It is brought to us through the pages of The Galveston Daily News (Galveston, Texas) dated January 1, 1905:

ILLEGAL EXECUTION

ARKANSAS JAIL STORMERS LYNCH LOUIS ALLWHITE AT SCENE OF CRIME.

END WAS STOICAL

STEADFASTLY AND PERSISTENTLY PROTESTED HIS INNOCENCE TO THE LAST.

LITTLE SON THE INFORMER

Said His Father Threw One Corpse Into the River—Was Then Frightened.

Memphis, Tenn., Dec. 31.—A special to the Commercial Appeal from Newport, Ark., says that Louis Allwhite, the alleged criminal assailant and murderer of Mrs. Rachael Kinkannon and daughter, was today lynched at the scene of the crime by a mob of 700 men. The mob formed shortly after noon, advanced upon the jail, overpowered the Sheriff and guards and took Allwhite from his cell.

Newton,the 19-year-old son of Allwhite, who is a self-confessed accessory to his father's alleged crime, was not molested by the jail stormers.

Having secured their victim, the mob marched the elder Allwhite along the railroad for two miles, and close by the Kinkannon home, on the Jacksonport road, hanged him from a tree.

To the last Allwhite maintained a stoical demeanor, betraying not the slightest emotion. He steadfastly and persistently asserted his innocence of the murder of the two women. His last words were:

"You will later hang another man for the crime for which you are now killing me."

The infirm and aged father and husband of the murdered women was carried to the scene of the hanging and witnessed the swift extinction of Allwhite's life.

Mrs. Rachel Kinkannon and her daughter, Mrs. Amelia Mauldin, were waylaid, assaulted and murdered on Christmas morning. The mother and daughter were hurrying in the bedside of the latter's sick husband, when Allwhite and his son according to the confession of the boy, met them, dragged the women to a nearby ravine and murdered both.The younger Allwhite further testified that he  and his father took the body of Mrs. Kinkannon and threw it into the river, and would have made the same disposition of the daughter's corpse but were frightened away by the sight of several persons coming down the road.

When the elder Allwhite was arrested on suspicion blood was found on his coat, and his son's confession, it is said, was corroborated in many ways. When the Coroner's jury found evidence that appeared to fasten the crime upon the Allwhites the mob spirit, which had been rapidly growing in the community became dominant. The confession of the younger Allwhite had the effect of severing all restraint, and, despite the urgent appeals of many prominent citizens of Newport, the mob overrode the counsels of the town's officials and took the case into their own hands.

Allwhite's body was cut down shortly after death and brought to the establishment of a local undertaker. The dead man was an old resident of the community. He was suspected of the murder of a citizen named Pink Bateman several years ago, but this he denied on the scaffold.

The body of Mrs. Kinkannon has not yet been found. 

Thank you for joining me and as always, I hope I leave you with something to ponder. I hope the new year is good to everyone.