The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1884-04-03
CINCINNATI'S HORROR.
Three Days of Terrible Aor
Violence.
Repeated Assaults Upon the
City Jail.
Burning Of the Court House-Scores
of Men Killed.

spected citizen OF Cincinnati, was killed In
his stable by the blow of a hammer and
robbed of 500 in money, put into wagon
hauled of toward Cumminsyille, and dumped
into Mill Creek, where his body was found
two days later. Joe Palmer and William Ber-
ner confessed that they did the murder and
robbery. On trial. a few days ago, Berner
testified that Palmer did the actual killing
while he only looked on and got his share or
the money Much to the surprise and indig-
nation of the community, the jury rendered
| verdict of mansaughter against Berner'
| and assessed his punishment at twenty
years in the penitentiary. The verdict was
+, declared privately, by the Judge who tried
| the case, to be an outrage, and the jury after
| leaving the courtroom, were hooted at py
the crowd, with suggestions that they should
be hanged. There was furious indignation
among all classes in Cincinnati. One OF the
jury was driven from the city and another
| severely beaten. A call for a mass meeting
| of citizens, signed by prominent business
men, brought out an immense crowd who
literally packed the larRcj Music Hall until
there was not even standing room.
The meeting, held Friday evening, the
2sth ult, was presided over by DIR.
A. G. Kemper, and speeches were
made by two or three leading citizens de-
] nounciatory of the prevalence OF crime and
| the lax administration of justice. After the
| adjournment of the meeting a surging, howl
| ing mob started at once for the Jail. The
| bloody and exciting scenes that followed are
chronicled in the telegraphic reports herc-
with appended:
The uews that lynching party was assault
| ing the Jail spread like wid-fir and soon the
entire neighborhood swarmed with thousands
| The advance guard OF the would -be-lynchers
arrived with a piece of joist and rushed down
| the steps leading to the basement entrance OF
the jail office. These were backed up by the
| hfvao 1ahi ind irst ind wa
! smashed and wild yell went up from the
crowd Another shattered window and a
wilder yell. Then the thump, thump of the i'm
proved battering- ram, pounding against the
| Office door, began, and every thump awoke re-
! sponsive yell Bricks and stones were buried
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.
Sheriff Hawkins and the few deputies who
! were inside were powerless to stem the fierce
human tide. besides the Sheriff had given orders
that his officers should not use their weapons on
the mob, believing that such proceeding would
only make bad worse. Wild with excitement in
| finding Themselves in possession OF the jail
office, 1t was short work TO force the door TO the
cell floor. Soon the stairs and corridors, indeed
the entire interior of the Jail. alive with the
mob yelling aud hunting for the murderers they
came to hang. They soon found their work had
| been for naught 80 far as Berner was concerned
| Disappointed and Disguised, the ardor of some
| of them beean to cool.
About this time squad Of fifteen policemen,
|
| from the Jail to the court house, we're brought
| into the Jail corridors and began TO clear the
mob from the second floor, or tho rotunda.
At 1855 the fire bells struck the ominous 621
/ the riot alarm, and followed by regular alarm,
as for ire, giving the number of the box located
at the court-hou corner, just back of the
county jail. The alarm started thousands OF peo-
pie all over the city, and from all directions they
focked by scores, by hundreds, toward the
county jail. Police, too, to the number OF thirty
or forty were hurried to the scene in patrol
wagons.
Bricks and stones were hurled through the
Jail windows. and down at the jail door was a
! gang OF men with axes or sledges heavily pound
ing on the Jail door The crowd in the mean
| time every few minutes broke out in bloodtbirsty
cheers. groans, Kisses, and maledictiOns on the
murderers and Hamilton County justice.
There were no less than 500 men In the crowd
for every officer, and the mob showed the most
logged determination and fierceness from the
first. Once light was struck in an upstairs
room OF the Sheriff's residence and men were
seen carrying pictures and furniture out of the
room. One man attempted to close the inside
shutters, but instantly the mob hooted at him
and shower of bricks and stones riddled the
| glass and broke the shutters to splinters, and
| efectually cleared the room. But for self pro-
lection the gang Of men with the axes, ct the
| doors below these windows, called out to the
mob behind them to cease throwing stones, as
they accomplished nothing except to scatter the
broken glass down on the heads of those at work
| at the doors.
At IL 80 o'clock the sound of axes at the
Court street entrance announced that fresh
attack was being made from another direction.
and cheer after cheer rent the air.
| When the wagon started through the crowd
| OF people who were densey packed around it
the greatest CONSERVATION and excitement was
created. Col. Reilly arrived shortly after the
riot alarm was sounded, and after taking in the
situation entered the Jail through the Court
House and tunnel.
At just about midnight the mob on Sycamore
street succeeded in batterfng open the entrance
a second time, and swelled into the ja,l-offioe
/ Here they were stopped by the heavy iron gate
shutting of the office fro m the Jail proper. Be-
hind this We're the policemen awaiting the
mob had heavy piece OF timber foot square
and eighteen feet long. Fifty men swung this
! back and forth against the iron gate. and in a
very little time they broke 1t squarely in two in
the middle Then followed hand to- hand
fight between the police under the leadership OF
Col. Reilly, the Chief of Police. and the mob
| The first man to enter through the breach
was a negro who was instantly seized by half a
dozen policemen, who hustled him up stairs
and locked him up Other rioters. to the num-
Der in all of twenty-five were similarly tire ated
and were all locked up in upper cells. Under
! strict orders from Ohiet Reilly, not a shot was
! fired du ing all this melee, although several Of
the fighters both rioters and officers, were
knocked down and more or less injured. All
sorts or weapons. knives. and revolvers were
captured with the prisoners 1t was impossible
| to ascertain any of the names of the rioters at
| the time OF tho arrest The officers did not stop
for that, but carried them of to the uppermost
cells as rapidly as possible.
The mob was too much for the officers how
| ever, and while n few hundred were left down
stairs 70 nght the Ioliceinen, hundreds OF others
| carried the heavy battering-ram upstairs to
| where the murderers' cells were. The mob con-
1 tinued determined. At exactly ~ o'clock a
| heavy beam borne by strong men was applied
to the south Sycamore entrance, and after three
| or four vigorous blows the door gave
way and the crowd poured in
| Almost Immediately afterward tn v made their
| way into the corridor Where IL Berner cel?"
| was the cry. Some one answered.: mo. IL"
and that number was soon found and n vigorous
| battery began At this time the military began
| firing FROM above and the mob were at once
arrested in their mad career and forced TO re-
treat, though very sullenly. IL il charged that
| the militia shot recklessl . and some of their
| number were wounded. Corporal Cook, OF
Company /, was shot in the chest, and another
| private was shot through the ear and another
| In the mouth
| Officer Adam Mechley was struck on the head
| with brick and knocked senscless He was
| taken of in patrol wagon. Officer Won
| SegRern WAS shot in the heal near the car, but
not fatally. The shot came from lme one on
| the inside. The crowd had forced its way into
| the jail yard and soon learned the way TO the
underground passage. Some of these started
into the tunnel while the few police at that time
| at hand attempted TO stay them Another man,
| a citizen. was shot i'm the arm above the elbow.
All the windows of the basement and first aud
second stories OF the Jail residence are broken
| In. the sash torn out, the doors broken down,
iron gratinRs torn out or bent into all sorts OF
strange shapes from the force of bowidc and
| heavy beams applied 10 them, and there IL
| general destruction. The stair-ways, some OF
them, are considerably demolished, even thoagh