Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1877-05-26
LEES FEROCITY.
A SiclScning Incident Of the Mountain
NIendOw Massacre.

Sickcning tNctdcnt Of the M0uhSHsh
AIend0w Massacre.
Lees behavior on the scene of the
massacre and his subsequent demeanor
while lying under sentence of death viv-
idly illustrate two phases in the life Of
an inveterate Mormon. EveythiAg goes
to show that Lee, who led the first as
sault of the Indians upon the immigrants,
acted under the profound belief that he
was serving the church and pleasing its
prophet. Nothing in history is more inn
pressive than the desperate determine
ton of Lee, after he Ind once imbued
his hands in the blood of the immigrants,
to finish them up 50 thoroughly that no
trace of their fate should ever pass out
into the world. His determination to
kill, kill, kill, outran the ferocity OF his
superiors and interiors alike. One ghast-
ly incident of the massacre will illus
trate the cruel pertinacity of the man.
In the midst of the last mclee two beau
tiful young girls escaped together from
the camp of the immigrants and concealed
themselves in neighboring thicket. An
Indian chief discovered their. refuge and
sought them in it. At the same moment
an Indian boy attached to John ID. Lees
person discovered the whereabouts of the
girls and the curiosity of the chief and
ran to Lee and informed him. Lee turn
ed at once and fastened to the thicket.
There he found the trembling fugitives
and confronted the chief, who asked him
what he was going to do with them.
Lee responded "They are too old
to live."
The Indian answered "They are too
pretty to kill.
At this iuncture the eldest of the two
girls threw herself on Lees breast, and
wound her arms about his neck and said
''Oh, sir, for Gods sake, for your moth
er's, for your wife's, for your sisters
sake, please let lis live! Don't kill us
I can't bear to die. Oh, sir, I'm too
young to be put to death so cruelty! If
you will let me live 1 promise to be
your faithful servant to tend upon you,
to see to all your wants, to be everything
you could wish poor girl to be, all your
life long. And poor Ella, sir, she is
younger than I. For the love of the
Savior, don't let the Indian do her harm.
Please, sir, as you hope to rest beyond
the grave, let us have our lives p
Tho Indian, not understanding word
that was said, again asked Lee: "What
shall we do with them ?" According to
the testimony of the Indian boy who
stood near, Lee said, not to the Indian
but to the wretched girl whose arms
were Locked around his neck: cit is
beyond F5y power to save you. I am
acting under ORDERS"
At thi. Che girl who stood apart, named
Ella, drew her sun bonnet down over
her eyes. The Indian chief, overawed |
by Lees authority, took humane and
certain aim, and shot her directly
through the forehead. She dropped to
the ground without moan. At the
same moment Lee, lntwisting from his |
neck the arms of his own victim, drew
her head back across his breast and cut |
her throat from car to ear with his hunt
ing knife. Even the Indian turned in
disgust from this callous butchery-a
butchery, however, which Lee persisted
to his death in regarding as a part of his
duty as Latter Day Saint.