The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-07-11
LYNCHING A MURDERER.
The Hanging Of Deios Heffren at salem,
Ind, by acknowledgements Resist
ance OF the Victim-A Weird Scene I'm
Front Of the Jail.


Front Of the jail.
GFrom the Louisville Courier-Journal.l
The work of demolishing the doors
consumed over an hour The heavy
blows of the ponderous sledge-hammer,
welded by the powerful arms of the
regulators, resounded through the town,
and doubtless each blow fell as if upon
the heart of the doomed man, who wait
ed in his cell like Gagged tiger for the
avengers of blood. At last the bolts
that held the last door were beaten off,
and Delos Heflren stood before the
mob.
He was standing by the side of his
cell door with piece of his bedstead
grasped in his hands, and his eyes
glared like n tiger upon his assailants.
The desperation and bravery of the man
were too well known by the vigilants for
them to advance upon him recklessly,
for they knew that he would deal blows
of death all around him.
AT this juncture the mob hit upon the
plan of lighting up his cell with fire.
brands, giving them an opportunity of
fully seeing their man, and, if necessa-
ry, shooting him down where he stood.
This was done; balls were prepared and
saturated with turpentine and oil, and
were placed on sticks and held up on
poles i'll front of the cell windows. The
lurid glare cast upon the desperate man
who stood at bay before the excited
crowd lit up scene that will never be
forgotten. AS soon as the light APP
peared the prisoner was fired upon
dozen times. Several shots took effect,
- Il f..n H.. La
arm, the arm being broken by the bull
let and rendered useless, the piece of
bedstead falling from his hand. A
stone was thrown which struck him on
the head He staggered from the blow,
but did not fall. The mob pressed closer
upon him, and the desperation of the
doomed man grew greater, and it was
evident that he would fight until the
last moment, and sell his life as dearly
as possible. He knew that it was death
before him either way, and preferred to
die in the Jail while defending himself
rather than die by the rope. Another
blow from missile struck him on the
temple and stunned him. Several of
the mob here sprang forward and Crap
pied with him. He struggled with des-
perate and superhuhan strength, once
or twice freeing himself from the hands
of the vigilants. He was finally over
powered, and, still struggling, was
bound hand and foot. He was then
dragged from his cell out into the Jail,
and from thence out on the street
About two squares from the Jail stands
The bridge is perhaps twenty-five feet
a. L.. Gao
above the track. He was taken to this
bridge, and while on the way there
asked:
"What are you going to do with
me ?"
The mob replied: eve are going to
hang you!"
Heffren answered quietly, as if it was
matter of no great moment to him:
81 will go along with you.
When they arrived at the bridge a
rope was placed around his neck He
then seemed to realize his fearful posi-
ton, and begged for time to pray. All
of his courage here left him, and with
tears in his eyes he pleaded for tire to
offer up a prayer to Him whose laws he
had so often violated. He did not then
remember that he gave his two victims,
Johnson and De Halstead, no time to
pray, but sent them before their Maker
with all their crimes upon their souls.
Men like Heffren never think of these
things until they are themselves placed
in such terrible positions. The mob
answered his appeals for time to pray
by telling him that "he should have
thought of that before, that they had no
time to wait, and he had to go"
All then was made ready for the hang
ing. His hands and feet were securely
bound, and the moose properly adinsted.
He begged and pleaded hard for mercy;
but there was no mercy in the hearts of
those who surrounded him. They had
done the same awful work before at the
tall tree near Seymour, in Jackson coun-
ty in New Albany, and near Charles
ton, Ind The self-constituted regula-
tors of law, the Vigilance Committee of
Southern Indiana, here held him in
their grasp, and he might as well have
been in the power of the most savage
beasts that roam the forest as of those
bold and determined men. The end of
the rope was securely fixed to one of the
outside timbcrs of the bridge. Delos
Heffren, man who at one time had
every fair prospect in life, man of fine
talents, and who had held positions of
honor and credit in his State, was then
lifted up in the stalwart arms of the
avengers and thrown from the bridge,
and his body left dangling between
heaven aud earth