The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1875-01-08
LYNCH LAW.
F3arxfeuIars of the Hanging of Charles
Howard by a Mob at Des Mofness

Particulars of the Hanging of Charles
Howard by a Mob at Des Moines,
Iowa.
[From the Des Moines Re zister.]
Mr.. Wise says that at half-past two
o'clock he was awakened by knock at
the door of his bedroom, in the base
ment of the Jail. He answered the
knock, supposing it was policeman
with a prisoner. AS he opened the
door. large man, masked, drew a
hatcbetupon him. Mr.. Wise caught
him by the throat, but back of the
vigilant was large crowd of ten or
| fifteen confederates, who bore down
upon him, pressing him back into the
room, when he was thrown upon the
floor, and tied hand and foot. A large
man was left to guard him, which he did
with his knee on Wise's breast and a
cooked revolver at his head.
They took his keys from him. Not a
word was said by any of them during
their encounter with him.
They took the keys, and went directly
| to the cell where Howard was and where
| he was in bed with his wife. They
knew all too well what was coming, for
| the mob has It's awful forewarning in
its mere murmur, as the earthquake has
it's awful, terrifying warming in its
faintest rumble. Breaking into the
room they surged up to the bed amid
the frantic and agonizing yells of his
wife. As they laid hands upon their
victim, his wife threw her body directly
across his breast and neck, evidently
thinking they meant to kill him there
with powder or blade. She clung to
| him so desperately, INTERVIEWING her.
self about him with such superhuman
strength that the vigilants could hard
ly unloosen her grip and reach the man.
And it was not till Howard himself
irOn-nerved and dauntless to the terri
BILE last-took hold of her arms and
with his gigantic strength pushed her
back that she released her frenzied
grip. He did this with the ejaculation,
Let me loose, and I will &C with
them, If must" The rope was then
put about his neck, and he was dragged
out of the bed and across the floor out
of the door-his wife following him
| with ths most agonizing screams of
which the human voice, in its direst
agony, is capable-screams which, Sco-
field and Walker and the guards say,
will never die from their memories, so
full of terror and supplication were
they. The door was slammed to as
they went, and the woman was left
alone in the palpable darkness, with no
companion but the grisly horror which
is worse than death.
AS he came out of the outer Jail door
five or six men had hold of the rope,
and he trotted along after them, clad
only in a short undershirt, holding his
two hands in front, grasped upon the
rope. He trotted up the middle stairs,
the route taken, and when at the
head of the steps more men grabbed
hold of the rope, which jerked him
down upon the floor. He was not given
time to rise up, hst was dragged along
through the hall, down the front steps,
and along the serpentine walk, as rap
pidly as twenty strong men could draw
him. Mr.. Gurney says he saw him as
he was going up the middle stairs, and
that he had not up to that time spoken
word that he or any of the rest had
heard, and he was then turning black
or purple in the face. The guards also
say they heard nothing from him after
he left the courtroom, but the boys in
the postofice, who were awakened by
the firing which was commenced all
around the courthouse about this time,
say they never heard such awful, terri
BILE. startling. agonized yells,-nearly
screams in quick succession.
Oh the rest of the work little is
known. All that was known that we
could print, In the short time we had,
was the dangling body of Howard,
swinging with his face next the re-
morseless iron of the lamp-post, his
form nearly naked, his legs all drag
gled, and begrimed, and bruised, and
bleeding, and apparently six or eight
b1llet-ho1es in his feet and the lower
part of his legs. He was hung with
half-inch hemp rope, thrown up over
the two iron arms just below the gas
lamp, put around his neck double, with
the knot under his right ear, and the
two ends of the rope tied, one to the
front of the hitching- frame, back of
him, ths ether to the top of the iron
fence.