The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-07-31
The Lynching OF the Adams Express
Rnhhers -

The Cincinnati Gazette of Monday con-
tains the following detailed account of the
lynching Of the six robbers of Adams =
Co.'s Express in Indiana, already mem
toned in our. telegraph columns: -
The final scene of the tragedy at Sey-
mour, Indiana, has been enacted. The last
Of the express robbers have fallen into the
hands Of vigilance committee more vigi-
liant than even the San Franciscan, have
pleaded in vain for life, have been allowed
only short shrift, have been hung in the
dead of night from limbs which sustained
only six days before the weight of their
guilty comrades. 81
The story of the last attempted robbery
il still fresh in the memories of our read
ers. and the terrible Judgment melted out to
Ellets, Roseberry, and Clifton will not have
been forgotten. They were hung on Mon
day last-onlys week ago to-day. Two
DAYS before, Ellets was writing letters to
friends in Seymour from the Ninth-street
station-house in this city, telling them to
be in no fear, for he was well, and would
soon reioin them, asking them to smoke
their best cigars on his account" and "to
believe no news which they might hear"
The three were taken on Monday from
this city, conveyed to Seymour, arriving
there about 10 o'clock on Monday night.
All was silent at the depot when the train
halted much more silent than usual.
There was no hint of the tragedy soon to be
enacted-no omen to give warning to the
doomed men of their approaching fate.
After the transfer of its freight, the train
sped on toward Brownstown but it had not
proceeded far before it was signalled by q
red light, and in obedience to the summons
the train stopped. At once it was sur
rounded by body of some two hundred
men, and q detachment went Immediately
to the express car, where the three outlaws
we're sitting. There were only two pairs OF
handouts, Roseberry being bound with one
pair, and Ellets and Clifton fastened to-
gether with the other. In silence, without
words or noise, the stern, self-appolnted
executors of the law seized first Roseberry,
who, bound as he was, could make no resist
ance, threw him from the car, and gave
him in charge of the members of the COM
mittee outside. With Ellets and Clifton the
work was somewhat more difficult, for each
with his feet and his unfettered hand made
most fearful resistance, fighting, as one ex-
presses it, "like tigers" But what could
two men, though moved to desperation, do
against two hundred
In few minutes the train was again on
it's way. So quickly, so noiselessly had the
work been accomplished that sleeping pas
sengers were not even aroused from their
slumbers; and others could only tell of the
transaction that they heard the whistle sig
nal to put on the brakes, saw before them
the red lights, and shortly after they moved
on, none knowing the cause of the delay.
Ellets and Roseberry and Clifton were
hurried away. Only few moments later
their bodies were dangling, In the black
darkness of the night, from limbs in the
midst of the forest. No one was near to
witness their last strugglings; no one to
offer even the shortest prayer for the dying
men.
But the end was not yet. The work of
the committee was still not accomplished.
Three of the party engaged in the outrage
| were yet at large, and until the same wild
Justice was melted out to them as to Ellets,
Roseberry, and Clifton, the committee coald
not cease its labors. A description OF
Moore, Sparks, and Terrell had been sent
out in all directions by the detective who
was working up the case. Two of these
men were young, Moore being only twenty
| three years old, and Sparks about thirty.
The age of Terrell is unknown. All were
single men, and residents, for many years,
of Seymour.
Friday afternoon these three men were
found in Nation, Illinois, whittier they had
fled Immediately after the attempted rob-
berry. All were at work on farm, and
were arrested by the sheriff Of the place.
They were placed in charge of Especial Off
Ger from Seymour, and on Saturday put on
the train bound for Indianapolis. On
reaching that city they were transferred to
che Seymour train, to be taken, it was de-
cided, to Brownstown, to await their trial.
But on engineer sent in advance dispatch
"Shall run over no red lights"
Again as the train reached Seymour al
was quiet. No confusion, no noise, nc
armed committee, no threats of lynch law
on any side. It was thought best that the
prisoners should be taken to Brownstown
in wagon, and accordingly about midnight
the three prisoners and their guard started
off. But there was to be for them no trial
by slow forms; no long-delayed punish
ment. An outraged community, tired OF
the thraldom in which it had been held for
years by villains and outlaws, had deter
mined to take vegeance swift, terrible,
awful. Their only law for this was the
law of self-defence; their only justification
the necessity Of the case.
About o'clock yesterday morning the
wagon was stopped in the midst of the great
dreary forest by men whose only disguise
we're handkerchiefs bound about the brow
The three were taken from the custody OF
the officers in whose charge they were
and without the forms of law were hidden
to prepare for death. Questions were ask,
ed about different outrages which had been
committed in the vicinity, but no answers
were returned. Then the woods witnessed
once more the terrible retribution extended
to guilty men by men who had for years
been heldin bondage of abject fear. Again
the morning light revealed these ghastly
corpses hanging from the limbs, the faces Of
horrid blackness, the eyes starting from
their sockets, and the bodies swaying tc
and fro in the breczes.
In this connection it is well to state thai
the Reno family, which has been at the
head Of these outrages, is now in fair way
to be broken up. Simeon and William
are now in the Jail at New Albany on the
charge of being connected with the Marsh
field robbery, and Frank (the eldest and the
ringleader, telegram from Windsor in,
forms us) has been arrested at that place
and will, without doubt, be shortly trans
ferred to the State of Indiana to receive the
punishment which he deserves.
Thus at length, after years endurance Of
most outrageous violence, after having lived