Friday, February 5, 2016

October 9, 1924: William Bell

Today we learn about a lynching in Chicago through the pages of the Joplin Globe (Joplin, Missouri) dated October 10, 1924:


LYNCHED NEGRO INNOCENT?

Chicago Police Believe mob Victim Was Wrong Man.

Chicago, Oct. 9.—Belief that the mob that beat to death William Bell, a negro, early today, killed an innocent man, was expressed by the police tonight who are working on the case.

The dead man was suspected of having attempted to attack one of two white girls, but neither girl could identify Bell as the assailant.

Bell was beaten with a baseball bat, kicked and trampled when the screams of Betty Greenblatt and Bertha Deutsch brought a crowd of youths from a nearby wine shop. The killing occurred in front of the Deutsch girl's home, where the negro was alleged to have accosted the girls.

Two other negroes, Thomas Clark and Albert Harper, said that Bell had been talking with them and was taking his leave when the mob appeared. They ran, their story continued, but Bell hesitated and was overtaken.


William Bell was 29 years old. Thank you for joining me and as always, I hope I leave you with something to ponder.

4 comments:

  1. I am working with EJI to bring the pillar to Cook County and am hoping to uncover any info on this horrible event. ANy info you can point me to?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm sorry to have taken so long to reply. What a wonderful endeavor. The pillars are quite a sight when you go to the memorial. it breaks my heart to look at them all hanging there. Unfortunately, I only have newspapers to research with, but if you are in the county, I would suspect the archives may be helpful. Thank you for reading our blog and for doing your part in trying to bring to light such awful occurrences.

    ReplyDelete
  3. blurb from the chicago tribune starting at the bottom of page 172 in this book:
    https://books.google.com/books?id=0km_frJZALIC&pg=PA173&lpg=PA173&dq=otto+epstein+wine+shop&source=bl&ots=IiYaoX-LAU&sig=ACfU3U0CUreuIHK-SdSyvcZJhtQD5cCI8A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiW1fG3j_TgAhWnna0KHfkkDmkQ6AEwDHoECAMQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. this is from a book called "100 years of lynchings" by ralph Ginzburg

      Delete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.