March 12, 1895: Stanislaus Vittari, Joe Welsby, Pietro Giacabino, and Antonio Zapetto

Today we learn about a lynching that covers two days and one of the victims is an innocent. We first learn about this lynching in The Scranton Tribune (Scranton, Pennsylvania) dated May 13, 1895:

FOUR ITALIANS LYNCHED.

The Murder of a Colorada [sic] Sheriff Swiftly Avenged—Trouble Ahead.

Walsenburg, Col., March 12.—Deputy Sheriff Hixon was brutally murdered here several days ago by a number of Italian coal miners. His head was crushed in and the body hidden, but yesterday it was found. Dogs were at once put on the track of the assailants and four men were soon captured. An inquiry was held late this afternoon, at which the guilt of four Italians was plainly proven. At the close of the inquest, as the prisoners were being marched to jail, a mob made a rush for them, and before the sheriff and his deputies could raise a hand to protect them the bodies of the four Italians and another man were riddled with bullets.

At the juncture a general riot occurred. On hundred or more Italians, seeing their countrymen lying around dead, became frenzied, swearing that they would have vengeance before morning. Both factions began arming themselves and are expected to come together at any moment.

The Leavenworth Times (Leavenworth, Kansas) dated March 14, 1895:

REVENGE'S LAST DREGS.

Two More Italians Fall Dead at Walsenburg. 

HIXON'S MURDERERS NOW ALL SHOT.

THE MINERS HAVE WREAKED VENGEANCE TO THE FULL.

International Complications Likely to Arise From the Italians Being Lynched.

Five Italians and the Wagon-driver Welsby are the Victims of That Terrible Vengeance—They Entered the Jail, Masked, in the Darkness of the Early Morning—Seized the Keys—Opened the Cell—And Shot the Last Two Down.

DENVER, Colo., March 13.—A special to the Rocky Mountain News from Walsenburg, Col., says:  Four dead bodies are now in the hands of the coroner of Heurfano county, as the result of the vengeance wreaked last night on the Italian miners, who were charged with the killing of Abner Hixon in a most brutal manner at Rouse last Sunday night, by beating him over the head with a club.

Two more Italians have unquestionably been riddled with bullets by friends of  the popular saloon keeper. A few hours will almost certainly bring the discovery of the corpses, and every man against whom there was the slightest suspicion of complicity in the killing has met with summary and frightful punishment. Three of the four bodies are those of Hixon's alleged assailants, the fourth is that of Joe Welsby, who was driving the four Italians to jail in a wagon when he met his death.

THE SLAIN:

Antonio Lorenzo, declared by the coroner's jury to have struck the blow which crushed Hixon's skull, and caused his death; 24 years of age, unmarried, an Italian citizen.

Stanislaus Vittari, 30 years of age, married, wife and children in Italy; intention of becoming a citizen of America declared.

Francesco Ranchetti, 27 years old, unmarried, intention of becoming an American citizen declared.

Joe Welsby, 23 years old, unmarried.

Pietro Giacabino, 34 years of age, young son living here, said to have taken out first papers.

Antonio Zapetto, 24 years old, married, wife and three children in Italy; first papers taken out.

IN THE EARLY MORNING.

Though the mob commenced its work last evening when the sun had been set but a little while, it was not until this morning that they completed their work of revenge. The small but determined mob waited for the excitement to subside and then came to the county jail here and a few minutes before 1 o'clock  this morning, completed the bloody work on which they had commenced six hours before. Ranchetti, who had been wounded in the breast at the Bear Creek trouble, was found asleep in the calaboose with Lorenzo.

A RAP AT THE DOOR.

The guards placed at the jail, William Smith and Henry Farr, were playing high five, when a rap came to the outer door of the jail. They asked who was there and were told that it was Sheriff O'Malley. Without a moment's hesitation, they unbarred the entrance, and instead of seeing O'Malley, they looked down the barrels of two revolvers in the hands of two masked men. Experiences of others earlier in the night taught them to obey the command to throw down their pistols and throw up their hands.

ENTERED THE CELL.

While the first two men covered Farr and Smith with their pistols, another pair with their faces hidden by handkerchiefs and carrying big guns in their hands, stalked in. One of the last arrivals picked up from the table the keys to the cell of the jail and going back into the building unlocked the door, where lay the now trembling Italians who felt sure their time was come.

BEGGED FOR MERCY.

In their broken English they begged for mercy. The avengers had some mercy, but not for the doomed Italians. In the cell with them was Frank Olk, who is charged with a brutal rape. He was gruffly told to stand aside and slunk into a corner of the cell. The masked men then turned their pistols loose on the Italians, who shrieked in agony as bullet after bullet was sent tearing into their defenseless bodies.

One of the first shots must have brought relief to Lorenzo, whom the men seemed to regard with especial hatred as the officially declared murderer, for their leaden balls were sent into his brain. Ranchetti was not so fortunate, one bullet passed through his head and two tore great holes in the thoracic cavity. But instant death was not to be his good fortune, for he writhed and groaned in intense agony for as much as twenty minutes.

WHEN THE DEED WAS DONE.

When the vigilantes felt that their work was sure, they turned away, leaving their victims writhing in their own and in one another's blood, while the cowering brute who had seen it all, was terrified to the utmost bound. The men who had done the last piece of killing walked out of the jail and into the dark night. A moment or two later, the keepers of the two guards backed out through the door and closed it behind them.

PLUCKED UP COURAGE.

Farr and Smith now picked up their own revolvers and fired five shots through the heavy wooden door after the retreating men. Summoning up courage they peered out themselves in a few seconds, and seeing six or eight men making off on foot across the railroad tracks, they shot at them until their pistols were empty, but without effect. They gave the alarm, but before sufficient men for pursuit had gathered, the men who had done the latest deed, were safely away and Farr and Smith could give no description in detail.

A physician was summoned and for fifteen minutes the good sized crowd was compelled to watch and hear the evidence of Ranchetti's death throes.

The work so vigorously begun early in the evening was now complete, and every one was sure that the three Italians captured at the bridge had long since met death.

THE STORY OF THE FIRST LYNCHINGS.

At 6 o'clock last night Ranchetti, Giacabino, Viattari and Zapetto were loaded into a wagon at Rouse, six miles from Walsenburg, where they had been to testify at the Hixon inquest, and were starting for the jail here. The prisoners were in charge of Under Sheriff Earl Danford and Charles Herriman, assistant town marshal at this place. Herriman was mounted on a horse and rode a few paces behind the wagon as rear guard. Danford sat on the driver's seat beside young Joe Welsby, who handled the horses. Five miles of driving brought the wagon to the bridge over Bear Creek which lies at the bottom of the hills, Herriman heard horsemen cantering behind him and as they drew near turned his head to see who was coming. By this time a masked man was at either side and though it was almost pitchy black, he could see that, when they told him to dismount, they had something very persuasive poked into his face. He jumped from his horse and was told to get out. He did not develop sufficient speed as a sprinter but some shots fired into the earth at his heels made him set out at a good rate for town and he did not stop.

MORE ARMED MEN.

Meanwhile some others of the masked men, of whom there were six or eight, rode up beside the wagon, then commanded it to stop, was obeyed, and they told the four prisoners to jump out and began firing their pistols. The shooting frightened the horses and they started off. Welsby meanwhile had jumped to the ground and was tugging at the reins. Danford also got off and went to the side of the road, more shots being fired in a moment, and Welsby fell to the ground dead, with two bullet holes through his body, one in the neck and one through the chest. Ranchetti received a slight flesh wound in the breast. His death was not to be so soon, or so easy. Danford and Herriman soon arrived here and sheriff and other officers started to the scene. They came upon Welsby's dead body and also found Ranchetti crouching by the roadside. He was again taken into custody and when he had recovered himself said the horseman had taken his comrades to a neighboring field. Diligent search failed to find them, however, and though many searchers have been out all day, no trace of the bodies of Zapetto and Giacabino has been found. Vittari's corpse was found at 2 o'clock this afternoon on the bank of the Bear Creek, one-fourth of a mile east of where the wagon was attacked. It was riddled with bullets. 

INQUEST ON WELSBY 

A coroner's jury this morning investigated the killing of Welsby and rendered a verdict that he met his death at the hands of persons unknown. An inquest over Lorenzo and Ranchetti is now in progress and the testimony thus far adduced warranted the belief in a similar finding in their case. The trouble is believed to be over and the excitement is fast subsiding except among the Italian miners, of whom there is about 100 in the district who are congregating, terror stricken at Brunnelli's saloon. 

It is doubtful whether complications with Italy will arise, since three and possibly four of the dead men have renounced their allegiance. No satisfactory motive for the wholesale killing can be learned except it be that the Italians are always hated in Western Coal and metaliferos mining districts, added to the ill-feeling they incurred during the strike a year ago by killing a very popular man without apparent reason or cause. Never before in the history of Walsenburg has there been such intense excitement as commenced last night and is gradually dying out. 

Since the lynching covers two day, I will finish covering it tomorrow. Than you for joining me and as always, I hope I leave you with something to ponder.

March 11, 1891: Henry Sanders

The Harrisburg Daily Independent (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) dated March 13, 1891:

LYNCHING A YOUNG MAN.

Fiercely Dragged from a Sick Room and Hanged for a Vile Assault.

MILAN, Tenn., March 13.—Henry Sanders, a youth of 20 years, was lynched Wednesday night.

Christmas evening was moonlight, and Miss Angie Belton, a 16-year-old girl started to ride alone to a neighbors, where a party was being given, Sanders dragged the girl from her horse and assaulted her. She at once gave the alarm and a posse was organized. The mob, led by old Mr. Belton, rode up to Sander's house. Anticipating what would happen, the young man had fled.

Sanders went to Texas, but a short time ago, being taken ill, he quietly returned to his home. The Belton family learned this, and Wednesday night the mob again organized. It was midnight when Sanders' home, four miles North of Lavinia, was reached. The youth was dragged from his sick bed and hanged to the limb of a blackjack within 200 yards of his own home.

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

March 10, 1901: Unknown Negro

It took a while to find an article on the lynching of an unknown negro in Florida but I eventually found it in The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) dated March 12, 1901:

Mob Fires on Negroes.

Branford, Fla., March 11.—A mob of unknown men fired several loads into a negro camp at the turpentine works of H. F. Sears & Co., at Call, Lafayette county, and killed one and seriously wounded three others. Feelings against negroes on account of the recent murder of Sheriff Matthis is supposed to have been the cause.

Our article of interest comes to us from the day before in the same paper:

DONE TO DEATH BY WHITECAPS

Scene of Latest Northern Outrage Is Laid in New Jersey.

Bordentown, N. J., March 10.—Thomas Applegate, a well known farmer of Extonville, a few miles from here, was found dead in a pool of blood in the stable of his farm early this morning by Franklin Shinn. There is every evidence that Applegate was murdered. His head was badly battered. The condition of the stable indicated a fierce struggle. There are no clews.

It is said that Applegate received a communication last December from the president of the Burlington county whitecaps that if he did not stop beating his wife he would be tarred and feathered, and that on January 5th a dozen masked men desisted from executing the threat only on the pleading of Applegate's wife.

I'm not sure why it is not referred to as a lynching if it is believed it was committed by whitecaps. Thank you for joining me and as always, I hope I leave you with something to ponder.

March 9, 1900: Thomas Clayton

We learn of a lynching in Mississippi from the pages of The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana) dated March 11, 1900:

 HERNANDO.

Negro Lynched by a Black Mob.

Hernando, Miss., March 10.—Thomas Clayton, a negro, was shot to death in this county by members of his own race, because a criminal assault on a 10-year-old girl. He was called to his cabin door, and bullets from a dozen Winchesters were fired into his body. The blacks will not even bury the corpse, and it remains on the ground, and in all probability will be devoured by hogs. There is little or no excitement among the plantation hands.

The Eagle (Bryan, Texas) dated March 11, 1900:

Negro Lynched by Negroes.

Memphis, March 10.—Thomas Clayton, a negro of bad repute, was lynched by negroes near Hernando, Miss., for ravishing his 10-year-old stepdaughter. The body was riddled with bullets and left in a cabin where it was devoured by hogs.

The News and Observer of Raleigh, N. C. on March 11, 1883 is where we find the following article of interest:

—Better late than never! Twenty years ago an old man named Kerce and his son were lynched in Worth county, Ga., for cattle stealing. There has never been a trial for the murderers, because as each term of the court rolled around for an investigation of the case the court house of that county with all its records have been burnt. At this term of the Superior Court of that county seventeen men of good standing are to be tried for the lynching.

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

March 8, 1905: Ronce Gwynne

The Daily News-Democrat (Huntington, Indiana) dated March 9, 1905:

Tennessee Negro Lynched.

Tullahoma, Tenn., March 9.—Ronce Gwynn, a negro, was lynched here Wednesday by unknown parties. He was taken from the calaboose, where he was held on a charge of larceny, and hanged to a tree near the center of the town. The colored population is greatly excited over the lynching.

Today through the pages of The Evening Bulletin from Maysville, Kentucky we have an article of interest. The following article was printed in the May 4, 1883 edition:

A Ghastly Witness

A Lynched Man's Hand Indelibly Imprinted

On the Back of the Tree to Which It Was Nailed—Atrocities for Which All the Perpetrators Have Suffered Retribution.

Denton, Md., telegram, May 3.

The correspondent of the Philadelphia Press telegraphs his paper the following account of the lynching of Jim Wilson for the murder of Ellen Plummer, and the ghastly reminder of the tragic event, which was one of the most atrocious affairs of which even a frenzied mob could be guilty, is described as actually existing in the shape of an indelible impression of the lynched man's hand on the tree to which it was nailed. The correspondent says:

I drove out yesterday to a tree, four miles from the village, which still bears the imprint of the hand of a negro, which was nailed there by one of the mob which hanged, quartered, mutilated and burned him nearly twenty years ago. This singular freak of nature or sign manual of divine displeasure, as many residents of the county esteem it, is generally treated with such contemptuous disbelief by strangers visiting Caroline County, that it is difficult now to find one who has seen it willing to talk about it, but an official of the county, who did his full duty in an endeavor to stay the fury of the mob, consented to show me the remarkable tree. It is a giant swamp poplar, quite three feet in diameter, standing close by the road which opens up Tuckahoe Neck, the garden spot of the country. About twelve feet from the ground, on the road face of the tree, is a seeming scar, which might attract a casual glance on account of its marked difference in color from the other bark. Probably a stranger would not notice the singular tracing  of what it is in the frame, but to one looking for it the outline of a human hand, somewhat elongated by the growth of the tree, grows as one looks until it takes almost the very similitude of the withering hand which was nailed there two decades ago. Even the nail is still visible, even though the bark has grown beyond so that it is half an inch below the surface. The tracing of the hand appears in much smoother as well as lighter-colored bark—the palm through which the nail was driven being clearest in shape, with the thumb and spread index and little finger scarcely less perceptible. My guide said that the appearance grows more and more noticeable with each year, and it would be difficult to persuade him that it is due to other than providential design.

THE STORY OF THE CRIME.  

The story of the crime, criminal and mob fury, of which he was the victim, is remarkable and worth recalling. Ellen Plummer, the twelve-year-old daughter of Edgar Plummer, did not return from school one Monday evening in the Fall of 1863. Her way home led past a dense wood, just entering which she was last seen alive. A searching party next morning found her corpse under a heavy log deep in the forest. It was evident that Jim Wilson, a bright mulatto of twenty-three years, who was known to have been in the woods about the hour the girl was last seen, was connected with her disappearance. Wilson had been held in extraordinarily high esteem for politeness, industry and fidelity. He was the foreman and trusted protector of two maiden ladies who lived on a small farm in the neighborhood. No suspicion attached to him, when the persons investigating the crime questioned him, merely hoping that he might have observed something that would throw light upon the tragedy. When the subject was mentioned, the man turned pale, trembled violently and seemed on the verge of fainting. He could scarcely articulate his protests that he had not been near the wood and knew nothing of the crime. He protested too much, and suspicion fastened at once upon him as the murderer. He was arrested, and, after a brief examination, hurried off toward the county jail. On the road thither many wildly excited farmers joined in the procession, and even then lynching the prisoner was discussed. It was urged, however, that the proof of his guilt was not yet certain. As a speedy way of obtaining this he was swung up by the thumbs to a tree limb, and after an hour's suspension, confessed that, prompted by the devil, he had done the deed. His confession cooled, rather than increased the fury of the mob, who, listening to calmer counsels, carried him away to jail to answer in the due form of law. Many persons even yet believed that the confession, although repeated afterward in the jail, was only the expression of a man too terrified to know what he was saying. Each day after his incarceration, a few young fellows, who were regarded almost with terror by law-abiding citizens, became more open in their threats that Wilson should not live to grace a legal gallows. Just at dark on the Saturday following the crime, twelve men, without masks or other concealment, and accompanied by, perhaps, fifty men and boys who took no part in the proceedings, attacked the jail. They made no formal demand for the prisoner, but Thomas Lockerman, with wedge, ax and sledge, broke the outer door down in a very few minutes. Wilson was in a cell on the upper floor. Between the beating of the axes and sledges on the cell door the negro's voice  could be heard in terrified prayers to God and man for mercy. The mob found him on his knees, too overcome with fear to make resistance.

A MOB OF SAVAGES.

They brought a rope fifty feet long, and one end of trailed far out into the jail yard. The noose end was fastened around the victim's neck. He was carried, praying for mercy, not struggling, to the stair landing, and, at a signal, the rope tightened with the jerk of ten powerful arms and it is more than likely that Wilson was dead before his body reached the foot of the stairs. Through the jail portal and yard into the street, and thence through the court-house yard he was trailed at the rope's end, his murderers yelling so like savages that timid citizens shuddered behind the barred doors. A large sycamore tree stands at the foot of the court-house yard. The rope was run over a convenient limb and the corpse swung off the ground. The mob had brought shotguns and pistols, and for a brief time amused themselves with riddling the body with bullets and small shot. One load from a shotgun severed the rope and the body fell. The fury of the mob intensified. Another noose was closed around the neck, and their victim was dragged another hundred yards to a tree in front of the negro church, where it was to be suspended as a warning to the race. The tree, however, was in full view of the mob's favorite saloon, the proprietor of which bribed them with four gallons of whisky to forego this purpose and take it elsewhere.

A Delaware butcher, named Greenwell, arrived about this time, and, at his suggestion, the most atrocious manifestations of the mob's malignity were enacted.

The body was taken to a valley on the outskirts of the village. Greenwell had brought with him the tools of his trade, and, to the accompaniments of frequent drinks, ribald songs and horrid imprecations, the butcher chopped up the body into small pieces, which were heaped in a funeral pile of brush and logs and burned. The orgies enacted around the blazing fagots would have been deemed disgraceful by savages.

One of the foremost of the mob was George W. Vincent, who lived close by the poplar tree before mentioned. He had saved from the burning the two hands of the negro, and after the embers had died out proceeded homeward with his trophies. The notion of nailing the hand to the tree seems to have been a sudden impulse. He had carried a hatchet for use in breaking into the jail. It served to "skelp," as woodmen say, a place on the tree, in the middle of which he nailed the hand. His wife receiving him in shrewish humor, he threw the other hand into her lap. She tossed the gruesome object into the fire, where it was burned.

Now follows one of the most singular features of the story, and one which many youths of Caroline county have learned as a pointed lesson of the certainty of retributive sufferers.  First in line of sufferers the wife of George W. Vincent suffered paralysis of her right arm the next day. Vincent, himself, a few months afterwards, while endeavoring to rob a negro near this village, was shot through the lungs and died of pneumonia.

Greenwell, the Delaware butcher, was deserted by all his customers. "He may butcher his meat  with the same knife with which he carved Jim Wilson," they said, and he sold no more meat in Caroline county. Taking to drink, he fell one day under a train at Seaford and lost his right arm. During another spree he fell into the creek at Seaford, and, although help was near and the man never sank below the surface, they took him out dead.

Marcy Fountain, uncle of the outraged girl, a man who had made a fortune as a slave trader, saw his fortune disappear, and died almost in penury. James H. Barrick and Thomas Lockerman died in the agony of delirium tremens. Everyone known to be an actor in the lynching died in agony or penury excepting Jim Long, who lives yet, the object of the pity and scorn of all who know him.

Vehemently as good citizens denounced the atrocities, not one of the actors felt the hand of human justice. Grand juries were willing enough to indict, but witnesses could not be prevailed upon to tell what they knew.

It is worthy of remark, lest the imprint in the tree be attributed to some action of decomposing animal tissue, the lumbermen working in the vicinity made up a purse, and hired a man to take the hand down within a week of the time it was placed there.

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

March 7, 1909: Anderson Ellis and Will Clark

Today we begin with the earliest article found. It comes to us from The Abilene Daily Reporter (Abilene, Texas) dated March 6, 1909:

STILL HUNTING FOR NEGRO WHO ASSAULTED WHITE WOMAN

ROCKWALL, March 6.—Posses are this morning still hunting for the negro named Anderson Ellis who attempted to assault a white woman last night. Mrs. Arthur McKinney was the victim of the negro's attack. Whites threat openly that if caught the black will be lynched. It is believed that he is now surrounded in the woods and is in hiding in them.

Most of the articles read like the one below. This particular article comes from The Reading Times (Reading, Pennsylvania) dated March 8, 1909:

TWO NEGROES LYNCHED.

[By Associated Press.]

Dallas, Texas, March 7.—A special to The News from Rockwall, Texas, says a negro, Anderson Ellis, charged with assault, is now being burned in the public square. A negro, name as yet unknown, was lynched early in the evening, for harboring Ellis.

Now an article to flesh out the tale and the one of the very few to give a name to the other victim. Pittston Gazette (Pittston, Pennsylvania) dated March 8, 1909:

NEGRO BURNED AT STAKE.

Dragged From Jail After His Attack Upon a Woman.

Rockwall, Tex., March 8.—After a brutal attack upon Mrs. Arthur McKinney, Anderson Ellis, a negro, was dragged from the county jail and secured to an iron stake driven into the earth and burned to death in the presence of about 1,000 persons.

Ellis, who admitted his guilt, did not utter a cry as the pile of cordwood, which had been saturated with kerosene, was set afire or when the flames cooked his flesh. He lived nine minutes after the torch was applied.

The crowd also lynched Will Clark, a negro, who tried to conceal Ellis in his house.

Finally, we end with the aftermath which comes to us through the pages of the Daily Capital Journal (Salem, Oregon) dated March 8, 1909:

Negro Lynched in Peace.

Dallas, Tex., March 8.—Despite the lynching of Anderson Ellis, who was burned at the stake at Rockwell last night, after being identified as the assailant of Mrs. Arthur McKinney, and the shooting to death of a negro who endeavored to shelter him, the town is quiet today according to reports received here. The reports say that there is no fear of an outbreak.

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

March 6, 1882: Bob Sarver

The New York Times (New York, N. Y.) dated March 8, 1882:

HANGED BY A MOB

A NEGRO LYNCHED IN TENNESSEE FOR AN ATTEMPTED OUTRAGE.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., March 7.—Bob Sarver, who attempted to outrage the person of Miss Tennie Ruby, near Franklin, Ky., last Friday, was taken from his guards while they were endeavoring to take him to Bowling Green for safety Monday night by a mob of about 75 armed and mounted men. They carried the negro to the spot where the attempt was made to commit the crime, about 10 miles from Franklin, and hanged him to a small tree immediately on the side of the road. The Coroner was given notice to-day , at 1 o'clock, and, with a jury, went to the scene of the tragedy. The body was cut down, and the jury returned a verdict of death at the hands of an unknown mob. The negro was hanged with a small rope, and a hangman's knot was tied as if done by an expert. His feet almost touched the ground while suspended from the tree. He was about 18 years old, and had a fair reputation in the neighborhood. The young lady is an orphan, the child of very respectable parents, beautiful, and pure, with an untarnished name. She was attending the district school, being only 16 years old. She was greatly admired by the whole community and an especial favorite of the social circles in which she moved. Not a word of regret is heard by any one as to the tragical result of the attempted outrage, which was one of the boldest on record, being in sight of three houses and on one of the most public and frequented roads in the county.

It is easy to be mistaken as to who died in this article, they seemed to think it was Miss Ruby. It is confusing when past tense is continually used for someone still living.  Thank you for joining me and as always, I hope I leave you with something to ponder.