Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1881-07-14
AWFUL VENGEANCE.
Dealt Out to a Rapist and Murderer.
The Horrible Ponaity Eumau yiend Paid
for pamning Crime.
Especial Dispstch to the Enquirer. !

Especial Dispsteh to the Enquirer.
ATLANTA, Ga, July s.-Last night, in
Heard county, near Alabama. occurred
one Of the most horrible instances of
popular Indignation on record. Jesse
Waldrop was burned to ashes for crime
so horrid that the laws delays could not
stand between him and vengeance.
Three months ago, in Randolph county,
Alabama. DR.. John Mitchell, a prominent
young physician, married Carrie Knight,
famed for her beauty and accomplish
ments. On the Goth of June, in the Joy
Of their honeymoon, DR.. Mitchell was
walking up the road near his country
home, when he beheId what almost para
lyzed him with horror. HIS lovely wife
lay before him ghastly corpse. Her
throat was cut from ear to ear, and her
body wrs torn with the fearful clutches
of her murderer. 1t was discovered that
she had been raped and murdered. The
neighborhood was at once aflame with
excitement, and search for the guilty
wretch was begun. Jesse Waldrop had
not long been in the county, but there
had followed him rumors of his bad
character. He was seen on the road near
where the corpse was found on the day
of the murder. In the death h-struggle the
murderer had bitten his victim severely
on the cheek and left signs that one of
his front teeth was out. Waldrop had
this popularity. With these evidences
search for him was begun at once, and it
was found that he had fled. Trained
bloodhounds were obtained, and from
the scene of the murder they tracked him
several miles into Georgia. Here the
pursuing party heard that Waldrop had
passed. Gradually tracing him, they ar
rived at Newman, thirty miles from At
lanta, where ferryman described man
who had crossed the night before, and
the pursuers knew that Waldrop could
not be far away. At midnight on the Sd
the party reached house where they
learned man calling himself Owen had
stopped. They demanded to be'shown
to his room, and, rapping on it, Waldrop
came out. He was seized, and after a
desperate resistance bound. He denied
all knowledge of the crime, and was
taken to Jail, though the fury of some of
the crowd demanded his instant death.
Next day circumstances were collected
| so strongly and presented to HIM that,
trembling with fear, he confessed all;
told how he had a passion for the beauti-
full young woman, and, meeting her,
threatened her life if she weuld not yield
to his desires. She Indignantly repelled
| him, and tried to escape. In his struggle
to accomplish his hellish design he had
bitten and torn her horribly. She strug-
gled so fiercely that the wretch was about
to lose his hold, when he cut her throat,
and as she was dying accomplished his
black crime. After detailing this damn
ing story, Waldrop told of life of crime
which few police annals can equal. He
| confesses to having five living wives,
and gave list of aliases, saying he has
| always had an uncomfortable passion for
women. When he confessed, passion
rose so high that he was about to be
swung, when some one suggested that he
ought to die on the scene of his crime,
and that hanging was too good for him.
Accordingly he was left in Jail until
night before last, when fifty men armed,
but not disguised, went there and de.
manded him. The Jailer gave him up,
and the procession started. All along
the route people came out to look at the
prisoner and demand that he should die.
Several times the excitement grew SO
great that it seemed it would wreak ven-
geance on the wretch at once, but riding
by his side were relatives of the murder
ed woman, who guarded him and declared
they had reserved him for a special fate.
Late yesterday afternoon the scene of
the murder was reached. Nothing was
done rashlv, but preparations were made
for the execution with CHASTITY GOODNESS.
Waldrop was firmly tied and bound with
wire to stake driven on the spot where
his victim was found, when for the first
time his dogged courage failed. He
pleaded piteously, not for life, but only
to be allowed to die by the gallows or
bullet; but he cried to men of stone and
at midnight one of the relatives of the
unfortunate woman applied the torch to
the pine which saturated with oil had
been piled around him. His screams
rang out on the quiet country air, and
the flames lit up the scene with lurid
glare. The death struggles were horrid,
but not O man stirred Standing in o
circle around the human sacrifice, they
looked with stolid indifference on the
horrid expiation of the crime. From first
to last the officers made no effort to save
the prisoner for a legal doom. II they
had it would have been futile, for popular
passion was fairly frenzied. Waldrop
was twenty-three years old, and man of
good address.
Guiteau'S COWardice.