The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1873-09-13
Crimes and Casualties.

Crimes and Casualties.
At Fulton, No., August Is, an old man
named Peter Kessler was on trial for mule
stealing; he pleaded guilty, and was SEN
fenced by the Court to six years in the
penitentiary. There had been.threats of
lynching Kessler during the day, and af-
ter the trial close carriage was pro-
cured, and the prisoner placed therein,
guarded by the sheriff. prosecuting at
torney, and constable; the city marshal
was also near with force of six or seven
men mounted and armed to act as escort.
As the driver was about to mount his seat,
8 man stepped up with drawn revolver.
took the reins, and jumping on the seat,
started the horses on a run. He then turned
and pointed his revolver at Kessler, when
the sheriff, George Law, caught the pistol
in bis only hand (ene of them having been
shot off in the war;, and turned it out
ward, just as it was dischal ged. About
twenty-five men then mounted their
horses and went in pursuit of the carriage,
and commenced firing into it. Col. Law
was shot in the spine, and constable
Dundon was shot in the neck. The
former vas fatally, and the latter Sc
riously wounded. John G.. provinces, the
prosecuting attorney, was shot through
the wrist. The mob then got possession
of the carriage, and drove to grove
about mile from the court house, and
there hung Kessler until he was dead.
He made no statements, but offered up
very earnest prayer. The fury of the
mob was intense, and was doubtless
caused by the escape of Kessler's son
from the cars while the two prisoners
were being brought from Jefferson City for
trial.
A one-armed soldier named Weston, q
peddler of prize packages, was murdered
near Albany, n. Y, recently, and his
wife and two other women have been ar
rested as accomplices in the deed. A
German barber named Lowenstein is be-
lieved to have committed the murder, and
he has escaped. His wife is one of the
three women arrested. They all lived to-
gether in Brooklyn.
At CRANKY, Mo-, August Is, during
the performance of an itinerant show, a
pistol combat took place between two
white men and negro, in which several
shots were exchanged. The negro, Thom-
as, was badly wounded, and Mr..
Schmidt, a prominent merchant of the
town, was instantly killed by chance
shot. Two other quiet citizens-one a
lady-were wounded. The white men
were the aggressors in the row, and We're
subsequently arrested.
William Jackson, eolored, was hanged
at Alexandria, Va, August Is, for the
murder of his wife in February last.
Mrs. Ellen Mckinney, of Chicago,
poured kerosene on the fire and burt her
self and four year old child to death.
BY an accident on the Chicago and AL
ton Railroad, near Lemont, twenty
miles south of Chicago, on the eve
ming of August 16, caused by the collision
of coal and passenger train, eleven per-
sons were killed outright or died short
ly afterward, and some thirty-five others
injured, some fatally. Most of the
deaths were caused by the passen-
gers in the smoking-c car being scald-
ed by steam from the boiler of the
freight locomotive, which ran into that
car, crushing it in pieces and cutting OF
all means of escape. The passenger
train was the St. Louis express, and the
coal train should have remained on the
siding at Lemont until the express
passed. The firemen of both trains were
killed. The engineer of the coal train, to
whose carelessness the accident is said to
have been due, was not seen after the ac-
cident, and twas thought that he escaped
injury and had fed. Among the killed
were Il. j. Brass, of the firm of J. v
Farwell & Co, Chicago; ex-Mayor Smith
of Springfield, Warden of the Illinois
State Penitentiary; j. W. Fleury, Stew
ard. and Noah Divelbiss, Jr., clerk in the
same institution; VIM. Little, Spring
field; and Thomas Morton, porter in An
derson's Hotel, Chicago.
A San Francisco dispatch, August 18
says that the mail stage between Makul
umne Hill and the station was stopped
by two highwaymen two miles from th'
city, who robbed the passengers of $4 600
Wells, Fargo & Co.'s treasurer's box wa
destroyed, with mails, papers and all val
uaoles. officers were in pursuit of tn
robbers. who are known.
Emil Lowenstein, the alleged murder
Ier Of John d. Weston, at Brooklyn, ha
been arrested at st. Catharines, Canada
Mrs. Weston strongly. declares her limo
cence of any knowledge of the murder
| her husband, and presents conclusive evi
dence, it's said, to prove her statements