The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1878-08-09
THE COURTHOUSE SQUARE TRAGEDY


THE COURTHOUSE SQUARE TRAGEDY
The hanging of the four negroes
Monday night of last week, in the
Courthouse Square, remains, as it was
at the date of our issue of last week,
profound mystery. Nothing has reached
us to indicate, in the least, who the in
dividuals were who did the hanging,
or how many they were in number.
Nor have we heard anything to show
from what direction they came, or
what road they took in leaving. In
fact, it appears that the whole city was
taken by complete surprise, and it is,
perhaps, no wonder, since no unusual
noise or stir was made, and so quiet
was the execution that persons who
were asleep in buildings fronting or
very near the square were not even
aroused from their slumbers. The two
negro women who were confined in the
lower cell of the Jail solemnly assured
us that they heard nothing of the TAX
ing of the men above from their cells.
One says she heard some noise in the
front room, where there is some corn
housed, but thought nothing of it. She
heard no cries or other noise.
Considerable curiosity is witnessed
by us daily to see the particular tree of
the twenty water oaks in the square
upon which the four men were hanged
and as it will become historic, we will
supply an omission in our account of
last week by indicating its location.
The tree is about 80 inches in diameter,
and stands about so feet from the steps
near the walk. About Is feet from the
ground a limb, a foot in diameter, puts
out, pointing nearly due south. 1t is
ON this limb the men were hanged,
and it is the only limb of the twenty
trees suitable for the execution of four
mon together, as heavy as these were.
The men were hung in pairs-when
one was cut down, both fell.
This particular limb, some two years
ago when tho trees in the square were
trimmed, was specially pointed out to
the trimmer by the Sheriff to be cut
off. Old Jim Smith, the freedman who
had tho job, out of perversity, or it
might appear by direction of fate, dis
regarded tho directions of the Sheriff,
and left the limb, after carefully cut
ting away some of its lateral branches.
1t was Tom Ross and Jim Beatty,
two of the hanged men, who made the
strange exit from tho Jail in May last,
noticed by us ut the time. Tom and
Jim were chained together by the
ankles, with a chain five feet in length.
The grating in the coiling, for ventila-
ton, was torn out, and n hole made
not larger than a 1nedium-sized pane
of glass. The ceiling is about ten feet
from the floor. Two other men were
in the cell. Beatty and Ross got out
through the hole chained together, but
tho blanket rope provided for the
descent from tho roof, broke with their
weight, and they fell 25 feet to the
ground. They climbed high fence,
Jim with broken leg and Tom with
bruised face, the results of the fall,
but were unable to make good their
escape. The manner of their exit
while chained together and through
such a small hole in the ceiling ten
feet from the floor, was not understood,
until one of their companions explained
that Beatty passed through the hole
head foremost, while Ross was held on
the shoulders Of the two other inmates
Beatty then caught Ross by the feet
snd drew him through the hole feet
foremost. 1t was n desperate risk, but
they were impelled by indictments for
murder, at the time, and by fear, no
doubt, of the consequences.
The bodies of the four, after the Cor
oner's inquest Qhe proceedings of
which we published last weekly We're
placed in plain pine boxes and We're
buried in tho City Cemetery,