The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-04-04
A Howling Mob Creates Wild
Havoc in Cincinnati from Fri
day Night till Monday.
Indignant at an Unjust Verdict, Ten
Thousand People Attempt to
Lynch a Murderer.
The Courthouse Burned-The Entire
State Militia Called Out-Scenes
Of Great Carnage.
Friday Nights Struggle.
ORIGIN oF 1,HE rRonBI.E.

Berner, on trial for the murder of William
Kirk, eliminated on Friday night in scene
of terror such as has never before been wit
messed in this State.
Some months ago the body Of man was
found floating m Mill Creek. 1t was iden-
tilted as that of William II. Kirk, livery
stable keeper Of this city, The appear
ance of many bruises on the body, in adj
dition to the fact that the skull was crushed
in, gave unmistakable evidence that he
had been murdered, and his body afterward
thrown into the water to conceal the crime
An investigation followed, and circum-
stances were developed which pointed al
most conclusiveIy to William Berner and
Joe Palmer as the perpetrators of the cold
blo0ded Eatfair. They were arrested. and
under pressure brought to bear by the de-
tectives confessed their crime. They said
that Kirk was killed by crushing his skull
with hammer. The object of the murder
was to secure sum of money amounting
to little over four hundred dollars. Barner
was brought to trial, and on Monday even
ing last the jury brought in a verdict of
manslaughter. This verdict so enraged the
people that on leaving the courtroom the
jury were hOoted at and stoned, and since
that time have in many ways been made to
feel the indignation of the public.
A mass-IEeeting was called to assemble in
the Music Hall Friday night to publicly
condemn the verdict. Ten thousand people
gathered there, and many who came were
unable to obtain an entrance, thereby form
ipg another crowd almost as large ON the
outside. Everybody appeared to be IN
good-humor when adjournment was an
nounced, and moved out of the hall quietly
and orderly There was more OF less talk
about ''going over to the JAIL" but not
many who spoke that way appeared to be
in earnest. When the advance guard of
the adjourned audience reached Twelfth
and Elm streets somebody shouted File
left, y and with cries of "Come this way"
crowd of several hundred moved east on
Twelfth, but hundreds, indeed thousands,
followed and swelled the throng until it
was formidable looking procession.
The news that lynching party was as
saulting the Jail spread like wild-fire, and
soon the entire neighborhood swarmed with
thousands. The advance guard of the
would-be lynehers arrived with a piece of
joist and rushed down the steps leading to
These were backed up by the crushing
crowd behind First a window was smashed
and wild yell went up from the crowd.
Another shattered window and a wilder
YELL Then the thump, thump of the inn
provised battering ram, pounding against
the office-door began, and every thump
awOke responsive yell. Bricks and stones
were hurled at the Jail windows, and the
shouting mob grew wilder as success
seemed nearer. The door at last gave
way and the crowd poured into the
Jail office.
Wild with excitement in finding them
selves in possession of the jaiI-office, it was
short work to force the door to the cell
door. Soon the stairs and corridors, indeed
the entire interior Of the jail, was alive with
the mob yelling and hunting for the MUIR
dereIS they came to hang.
AL :55 the fire bells struck the ominous
621, the riot alarm, and followed by a eegu-
lar alarm, as for fire, giving the number of
the box located at the Court House corner,
just back OF the county Jail. The alarm
started thousands of people all over the city,
and from all directions they focked by
scores, by hundred, towards the County
Jail. Police, too, to the number of thirty
or forty were hurried to the scene in patrol
wagons Nos. / and 2, but by
the time the second load had ar
rived the crowd closed around the wagons
In an impenetrable mass and the handful of
police and two wagons were locked in that
sea of humanity as securely as ship frozen
in the Arctic Ocean.
AT 1880 o'clock the sound of axes at the
Court street entrance announced that a
fresh attack was being made from another
direction, and cheer after cheer rent the
air. 1t must have been horrible sound of
approaching doom for the prisoners behind
the bars. Officer John Mechley, driver of
patrol-wagon No. 8, was hit in the head by
brick thrown from one of the mob and
seriously hurt The mob, after Mechley
was injured, grew desperate and threat
ened any officer or private citizen who
would either in action Or word antag0nize
their purpose.
At just about midnight the mob on Syca-
more street succeeded in battering open the
entrance second time, and swelled into
the jail-office. Here they were stopped by
the heavy iron gate shutting off the office
from the jail proper. Behind this were the
policeman awaiting the attack, which was
not long in being made. The mob had a
heavy piece of timber, foot square and
eighteen feet long. Fifty men swung this
back and forth against the iron gate, and in
very little time they broke it squareIy in two
in the middle. Then followed hand-to-
hand fight between the police under the lead
ership of Colonel Reilly, the Chief of Police,
and the mob.
The first man to enter through the breach
was negro, who was instantly seized by
half dozen policemen, who hustled him
70 j.; ~
to the number in all of twenty-five, were
similarly treated, and were all locked up in
upper cells The charge of aiding riot
constitutes penitentiary offense, but trial
must be by jury. Under strict orders from
Chief Reilly not shot was fred during all
this melee, although several of the fighters
down and more or less injured.
The mob was too much for the officers,
however, and while few hundred were left
down stairs to fight the policemen hundreds.
of Others carried the heavy battering-ram
upstairs to where the murderers' cells were.
The mob continued determined. Atexactly
twelve o'clock heavy beam borne by strong
men was applied to the south Sycamore
entrance, and after three or four Wig
orous blows the door gave way and the
crowd poured in. Almost Immediately aft
erwaTd an entrance was forced through the
north door. By these two ways the crowd
gained access to the kitchen. This was sep
krated from the corridor, opening to the
cells by heavy sheet-iron door and another
of bars. A blow from a sledge- hammer
broke down the upper part of the door
and another demolished the lower
part. A few well directed blows would
have forced the CRATE door, but detach-
ment confronted the crowd on the other
side of the bars, and word of warning and
display of weapons caused a retreat
Only the lack of a leader at lis iuncture
prevented the mob from successful ending
Of tneir undertaking. The mob retreated
and made their way into the Office. They
Immediately began their assault upon the
heavy bars that stand between the Office
and the corridor to the cells.
At this time the militia began firing from
above, and the mob were at once arrested in
their mad career, and forced to retreat,