The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-03-31
Ec-ncr,s Escape - His Crime THE
ssETy.

tina murderer, after his sentence, was dis
Guised, placed in a buggy, and driven to Lin
wood, where he was to await the arrival
Of papers for his committal to the
peniientiary. At L.awoOd, how
ever, q crowd made rush for
Berner. In the excitement Borner escaped
and has not yet been captured One man de-
clares that he ran into the river and was
drowned The following is the story of Ber-
neT's crime:
March "a William Belner, on trial for the
murder of William f. Kirk, was found
guilty of manslaughter. The verdict was de-
clared privately by the judge who tried the
the ease to he an outrage, and the jury, after
leaving the courtroom, were hooted by
the crowd, with suggestions that they
should be hanged Kirk was killed
in his stable by blow of a hammer,
robbed of about 800 in money, put into
wagon, hauled off toward Cummnsville, and
dumped into Mill creek, where the body was
found two days later Joe Palmer and
William Berner confessed that they did the
murder and robbery. On trial Berner testified
that Palmer did the actual murder, while he
only looked on ANA & a share of the money.
The verdict was universally con
demned. The result of the trial was
the subject of talk all over the city
wherever men met. OF the thirty murlerers
confined in the jail the case against Berner
was the strongest The responsibility for the
practical acquittal of Berner was placed
upon the jury Some of the jurors are said
to have been chosen by defendants counsel,
and light verdict thus assured from the
first. When the jury left the court house
al l,xr oh
and there were cries of Hang them!7
Two of the jurors were so badly
frightened that they escaped from the court
house through an unfrequented pas
sage-way opening into an alIey. March &c
James Boyne, one of the jurors was threat
ened by a mob, and would lave met with
violence had policemen not taken him from
his house by bacl, way He spent the night
at the Bremen street police station. Upon
his returning home next morning a crowd
again gathered and exhibited a rope with
which they threatened to hang him. The
crowd was dispersed by th2 police. Soon
afterward Boyne received word that a couple
of friends wanted to see him at neighboring
saloon. Emerging from his house, a
| crowd who had been in concealment jumped
upon him, tore his clothes, and beat him in
serious manner. Boyne was taken to the jail
for safety. Charles DoIlahan, another men,
Der of the jury, who lives in Harrison, did
| not dare to return home He got as far as
| Cieyes, where a crowd peted him with rotten
| eggs He spent the night in a cornfeld, and
the next day went to Brookville, Ind.
| There he recognized and told that
| Re had better leave, which he did. The
| foreman of the jury, A. F. Shaw, is
n hiding, through fear of the mob. Louis
Harneyer, another of the jurors, returned to
| tie printing room of Russell & Morgan, i'm
| tending to go to work, but was told that the
="s-t ice Of such men were not wanted there.
| During the noon hour the employees hung
| him in ettigy. A crowd gathered before the
house of t. Phillips, on Liberty street, sup
| posing that j.. A. Phillips, one of the jurors,
! lived there. They tore Off the blinds and
threw dead cats aud rotten eggs through the
windows before the mistake was discovered
nerner Recaptured.
/ CINCINNATI, March 29-Berner was caught
at Fosters Crossing about $50 p m. and is
ii c.,aYge Of officers, who will take him to
| Columbus,
The LOyeiaDi Mob.
| COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 29-The ira in
men aud passengers who arrived here after
midnight give the following account of the
not,s AT iloveland and Morrow, and the eff
| fort to get BeYner, the murderer, to Colum
bus The two deputies with Berner drove
| from Cincinnati over to Linwood. and there
took tire accommodation train for Love!and.
| Thus far the Journey WAS made without acct
dent, Joe Moses was then to go to the Little
Miami depot and quietly board the train for
Columbus and join the two deputies and
| Barner at LJvelaud. When the Little Miami
| train pulled into Loyclind Barner waq
placed en- the car next to the Sleeper, before
| the train had come 10 full stop Tie two
| deputies sat near him, but did not have him
| fastened to them. Joe Moses sat in tha next
car in advance As the train came to
| n stop a bowling mob of nearly
800 men made dash for the ears, yelling:
"There he isl Catch himl' Soma men were
masked, while part of them were not.
| They climbed in all the cars. but most of
| them broke for the oae in which Moses was
seated. One of the deputies who had been
| detailed to watch Berner sprang from his
seat and started for the front end of the