The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-02-27

some money to pay his way back to his
home in Purvis. The train AGAIN
started and there was enacted n scene
too horrible to describe and one
which the famed tortures of the
Spanish Inquisition only rivaled, but
did not excel. The stove in the caboose
was heated, and to compel Parker
to confess his crime they seated him OF
this. He yelled for mercy, but none
was accorded him; but confess he would
not. Then, it is said, a poker was heat
ed to a red heat, and with this, his cap
tors sought by inficting the tortures OF
the damned to open his lips, but with
out avail. They thrust the glowing
iron into his side, they drew it zero S
his shrivelled hand, the skin burned tc
a crisp, while the flesh, sized and
crept, but only screams of agony fol-
lowed, and q few words issued from
the thin, dry parched lips, but they
were protestations of innocence
or prayers for the mercy which
he himself had not known or shown.
The comrades and friends of Turner
had the sight of bis burned and listig-
ured corpse aver before their eyes, and
they needed not their victims pleadings,
nor yet his denials.
Ten and a half miles south OF Poplar
vile is ] located asand pit, from which the
builders of the Northeastern Railroad
obtained their supplies of ballast. 1t
is situated in a hollow, and on either
side is a rather steep grade. so that trains
running V the road either north or
south usually acquire great speed, as
much by reason of the momentum gain
ed in running down grade as by extra
steam applied, causing trains to run at
greater speed, in order that the ascent
beyond the hollow NAV be more easily
accomplished. The sand pit has long
been in disuse, but the side track or
spur leading from the main track a short
distance to the left of and parallel to it
and into a gravel and sand hill yet re-
mains. An in%terlccking switch had
been placed here, and several times this
switch had been tempered with, evil
IDENTIFY with a view to ditching a train,
but fortunately the fact was each time
discovered before any accident oc-
CURED. The spot has always been q
dreaded one to the engineers on the
road. and when passing this point they
usually keep a bright lookout ahead.
and their hands on the throttle valve
and air. brake.
This place, isolated from any dwell
ing, was selected for the execution o.
the train-wrecker. Here the crime o.
which he was accused could be expiat,
ed. and his CORY corpse prove a terrible
warning to any one who should seek il
the future to follow his example. 1
was now near daybreak, and the part,
built a fire and proceeded to tie Parke,
to q pine tree, which grew on the soutl
slope of the hill and within fifty feet O
the track and switch. and in plain view
of the trains passing. Parker wa:
made fast to the tree, and a rope having
been passed around tie tree, also en-
circling his neck; another turn a tax
en- around his body, under the arms ant
another around his legs. Afy-leaf wa
torn from a receipt book, and on thi
was written in lead pencil the words
"This is the train-wrecker who wreck
ed the train on December %. Tried b
Judge Lynch and sentenced to death
This should be q caution to all other train
w%reckers." This was pinned to til
doomed mans breast, and, those prepa
-%ations being completed, Parker WASH
formed that he had but two minutes t
live, and that he had better make goo
use OF them. The old man glanced a
the crowd, bnt his lips refused to ute
!, a PRAYER. One of the crowd ordere
him to pray, but he glanced detiantl
!, at them, and while his eyes were still
fixed upon them the two minutes eS
pired. Suddenly a vollev was heard
which reechoed through the woods, an
| then %thirty-fve shotguns and revolver
were emptled into the body of Parkel
The old man q~uivered, his head fell t
the left side, his knees bent under hin
and all was over. death having followe
almost instantly upon the firing. TIL
party continued to fire into the corps,
putting over n hundred bullets, bucl
v shot and small shot into the lifeles
body, and the sentence of the inexol
a able Judge, whose officers they wer'
$ had been carried out. The body VIZ
i left tied to the tree, and the party SCI
arated.
: Parker was almost sixty five years
: age, and was the last of four brothers
4 all OF whom died with their boots on.