March 31, 1892: John Mullins and Joseph Little

Another Alabama lynching brought to us from The Iola Register (Iola, Kansas) dated April 8, 1892:

ON the night of the 29th ult. Thomas Edwards, a well to do farmer living alone near Madison crossroads, Alabama, was murdered and his house burned over him. Two citizens of that community, Peter Martin and John Mullins, have mysteriously disappeared and are claimed to be the guilty parties.

IT is positively asserted in dispatched from north Alabama that a mob of seventy-five men caught and lynched John Mullins, one of the Madison Cross roads murderers.

The same paper reports another lynching, this time in Ohio:

JOSEPH LITTLE, who brutally crushed the skulls of his wife and two daughters was lynched by a mob at Findlay, O., on the 31st ult.

We learn more about the lynching of Joseph Little from The Parsons Daily Sun (Parsons, Kansas) dated April 1, 1892:

A LYNCHING IN OHIO.

The Victim Had Crushed the Skulls of His Wife and Two Daughters.

FINDLAY, O., March 31.—Joseph Little, a veteran from the soldiers' home at Dayton, crushed the skulls of his wife and two daughters yesterday, and last night was lynched by a mob 1,000 men. The rope was cut by a bullet the first time and the wretch was dragged 200 feet and again hanged.

Little secured leave of absence from the home and returned to his wife and family. Yesterday morning he secured a hatchet and, without warning, struck his daughter Belle with the head of the hatchet, crushing her skull. Then he struck at his daughter Emma, but she dodged and was not badly wounded.

The wretch rushed at his wife and the two engaged in a mad struggle. Blow after blow was aimed and warded off. Six times was her head struck but the blows were lessened by her struggles. One finger of the right hand was cut off. When the woman was exhausted the fiend crushed her skull.

Then the mad man chopped the piano, the pictures and the furniture to pieces and gave himself up.

The victims are still alive, but the death of Mrs. Little and one daughter are hourly expected.

Thank you for joining me and as always, I hope I leave you with something to ponder.