Thursday, May 19, 2016

July 16, 1907: Frank Bailey

Today we learn about a lynching in Oklahoma through the pages of The Charlotte News (Charlotte, N. C.) dated July 17, 1907:


Oklahoma Mob of 150 Men Lynched Negro Who Shot Brakeman

An Hour After Bailey Shot And Mortally Wounded Brakeman Kelly he was Swinging to Telegraph Pole.

The Negro Waited for Kelly and Shot Him Where he Was at Work on Top of Train. Full Story.

By Associated Press.

Osage, Okla., July 17.—Frank Bailey, a negro, was lynched by a mob consisting of 150 men and boys last night after he had shot and mortally wounded Frank Kelly, a brakeman on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas.

Kelly had ejected the negro from the train in the afternoon.

The negro hid in the yards and as the train, upon the top of which Kelly was standing, passed the negro shot him.

The negro was caught an hour later.

A mob formed an doverpowered [sic] the two officers who had Bailey in custody.

It's members took the negro to the scene o fhis [sic] crime and hanged him to a telegraph pole.


The Daily Republican (Cherryvale, Kansas) dated July 18, 1907:


BANDITS NOT CAUGHT 

SLAYERS OF BROWN AND TAYLOR STILL AT LARGE.

Mulatto Lynched Last Night at Osage Junction Believed to Be One of Same Men.

A telephone message to The Republican from the Labette County Sheriff's office at Oswego this afternoon states that the bandits who so foully murdered R. O. Brown and Otis Taylor on a Frisco freight train five miles east of Cherryvale Tuesday morning are still at large. No clue as to their whereabouts has come to the officers the past twenty-four hours and it seems doubtful if the criminals will ever be apprehended.

If they were caught it would be no easy matter to convict them as there is no one living who witnessed the crime. True, there are several who could identify the men who it is reasonably certain committed the crime but if any conviction is now made it would have to be largely on circumstantial evidence.

The search for these men have not been abandoned. A number of officers and representatives of the Anti-Horse Thief Association are in the Big Hill neighborhood and officers of the adjacent towns are on the lookout. The two negroes, who were held at Valeda, were released as fore casted by yesterday's Republican as they did not answer the descriptions of the criminals.

This May Be One.

A mulatto was lynched near Osage Junction, I. T., last night for shooting a brakeman and it is thought by the officials at Osage Junction that he was one of the men wanted for the Big Hill crime. His description is almost identical with that of one of the bandits in the Big Hill double murder and an investigation has been started.

One of the officers at Osage called Assistant Marshal Watson last night and told him of the affair and Mr. Watson thinks the man lynched is one of the fugitives that figured in the Big Hill tragedy. It is stated that he was lynched by the train crew. One of the brakemen of the train put the negro off and he drew his revolver, shot and instantly killed the brakeman. The other members of the crew caught the negro and strung him up right there.

Shipped Home fore [sic] Burial.


C. E. Taylor, father of the late Otis Taylor, arrived in Independence today and has arranged to ship the remains of his son to the family home at Posey, Illinois. Mr. Taylor will pass through here with the corpse tonight.


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

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