The true northerner., 1875-09-03
ILLINOIS KU.KLUX.
The BuIIiner- Henderson Vendetta In Will
hanson County.
From the Chicago Times.l

The deadly, far-reachnB VENDETTA III
the South is not worse than that IL WI
Hanson county, in the southern part OF
this State and when il is supplemented
bv the Ku-Klux outrages i'll Franklin and
adjoining counties it may well be asked
if Illinois is indeed. as she claims, the
fourth State of the Union in material
and Christian civilization. In less than
two wears in Williamson county six
people have been killed, four have been
seriously injured, and three have been
shot at without being hit. About twenty
persons, among the number newspaper
editor, States Attorney, and several
prominent business men have been com
PEELED to flee for their lives out of the
county, either owing to actual attacks OF
letters of warning received by them.
Some of the victims have been shot be-
cause they were supposed to know too
much, and others because they COM
mented upon the outrages. All the as
sassinations were conducted i'll the most
cowardly manner, some of the victims
having been shot from ambuscades along
public roads and through windows
others, having suddenly been called from
their beds in darkness, were shot before
they could defend themselves. The ofil-
GERS of the law are so afraid of the assas-
sins that they dare not execute the laws
or even call for assistance, and the people
of two counties, Williamson and Jack
son. are so intimidated that they dare
not even denounce murderOus outrages
or form themselves into vigilance COM
mittees to suppress them. Pending the
existence of this reign of terror, none of
the villains have been hanged, impris-
oned or punished in any manner. For
two years this infamy has been allowed
to disgrace the State without protest, eX-
cept from the newspaper press, and with
out any steps having been taken by the
County or State authorities TO stop it..
The prominent families engaged III this
game of death are the Bulliners and
Hendersons, and mixed with them
through relationship and other causes are
various other large families, notably
Cairns. Russells and Sissons. The Bull
iners and Hendersons were both loyal
refugees from Tennessee and were well
to do. Itwould require pages to narrate
the chickering's, lawsuits, seductions and
brawls which have led to the present ter
rible condition of things III Jackson and
Williamson counties. | can only give
you the net results of the boiling over of
bad blood between them.
THE DEATH ROLL.
Old George Bulliner-Waylaid on the
road from his farm to Carbondale and
shot. Dec. %, 1873 died that night.
David Bulliner, while riding home from
church, on the night of March %, 1874,
in company with his brother Monroe,
his cousin Miss Stancil, and several
other young men and women, was fired
upon from behiud fence at the road
side, receiving two charges of buckshot
III his breast; died two days after. Old
Jim Henderson, while ut work in field,
May, 1874, shot died few days after
DIR. Vincent Hinchcliffe, waylaid while
returning from visiting patients, shot
within 200 yards of his own house in
stantly killed. George w. Sidney,who,
after several attempts had been made
upon his life, moved to Carbondale,
TO find safety in the town, took
house in the most thicBly built portion
of it. On the night of the 2Sth, between
9 and 10 o'clock, he was called up to see
q man, and shot from outside through
the window of his sitting room and in
stantly killed. William Spence, on the
night of the 31st, after having retired for
the night 10 sleeping room over the
store at Crainsville, was called up to see
a man, and went with lamp III his hand
to the stOreroom below, and, while un-
locking the door to admit the visitor,
was fired ut through the show window,
receiving n charge of buckshot in his
breast. Failing to kill him with the
charge, the assassin entered the store
and fired two pistol balls, one into his
head and the other into his heart Jason
Detmore, working in field near Hen
dersons place, was, a few days after the
murder of old John Henderson, shot, it
is supposed, by mistake, his assailant
supposing him TO be one of the Hender-
sons, whom Detmore resembled in APP
pearance. Detmore WAS but slightly
wounded and soon recovered. Blank
Robb, a workman on HendersOn's place,
within few days of the shooting of Det-
more, was at W ork in q tie ld on the Hen
derson farm, when he saw n man with q
blanket over his shoulders approaching
from a few rods distant. Suddenly the
man fell. Robb, supposing that he was
in a fit, ran toward him. RObb had
proceeded but few steps when he was
shot. The wound, however, was not
serious, and he soon recovered Next,
one Leadbetter, workman on the Hen
derson place, was shot mt while working
in a field. These shootings, it is sup
posed, were committed by men who were
out cunning after the Hendersons, but
who, being discovered, or fancying they
were discovered by the men shot, pep
pered away with intent to kill the mer
fred at, SO that the fact of their (the
shooters) lying in wait for the Hender
sons might not be divulged. On July
90, this year, Allan Baker, workman al
Purdy's sawmill, two miles east of Car
bondale, who some time previoEs had &
fight with one of the Bulliner boys, was
III his room, about to go TO bed, wheI
he was shot at through the window
Many of these persons were shot al
many lines before they were killed
There was little or no attempt to punisl
the outlaws. The families are all lpower
ful in the county, and woe to the MAJ
who would hunt any of them down III {
legal way.