, 1889-05-11
HORRIBLY BUNGLED.
Disgraceful Scene at the Hang
ing of Three Bald Knobbers.
Hot Weather and Severe Storms
Reported from the East.
Partisan Copper Kings Accept
the American Proposition.
Terrible Scene at a Hanging.

OZARK. Mo-, May I0.-The bald knob
bers, Dave Walker, chief, and his son
William Walker and John Matthews were
hanged here at 10 o'clock to-day for the
murder of Charles Green and William
Eden on March IL, 1887.
Just before leaving his cell, John Mat
thews proclaimed his innocence in a loud
voice. The sheriff helped Matthews up
the steps. Young Walker followed with
a firm step; the father followed close be-
hind, firm as ever. At the trap religious
services were held. The moose was ad.
justed at $40. John Matthews said he
had nothing to say; he was there but took
no part in the crime. Matthews called ON
all who were willing to help his little ones
to hold up their hands. Nearly every
one in sight held up hands. The black
caps were adjusted at 9:5l and at 9:53
the drop fell. John Matthews fell pray
ing. The stretch of the rope let all fall
to the ground and then the rope broke.
William Walker fell loose and Law there
struggling and g~roaning. He talked for
three minutes when he was taken up by
the sheriff and deputies and carried to the
scaffold. Dave Walker, when drawn up,
died in about Is minutes. Matthews
lived about IL minutes, and died with his
feet on the ground. The scene was hor.
rible in the extreme. Matthews and
Dave Walker were cut down at 1910.
The trap was again ad iusied, and William
Walker was lifted helpless, groaning and
struggling and almost insensible. the rope
was again adjusted and the trap again
sprung. This time the descent came 90 a
sudden stop with the feet full thirty inches
from the ground. He died without a
struggle.
William Walker was baptized last even
ing by immersion in a bath basin carried
into the Jail. The scene was affecting.
John Matthews made a long prayer which
could be distinctly heard in the street
fronting the Jail. The two Walkers re
tired about II O'Clock went to sleep and
did not wake until after 4 o'clock. They
were up early and ate their breakfast at
the usual hour. The Jail yard was full of
guards armed with Winchesters, shotguns
and revolvers. Divine services were
opened in the jail a. 7:30 o'clock. Mat
thews and William Walker taking part
At 1888 the sheriff entered the Jail and
c the death warrant to the doomed
"Sb hhN oooh oibSi Shtf "SlC uiCSoCu loI
execution.
For the past two weeks powerful pleas
have been made to the governor for COM
mutation OF the sentences of the three
men, and Wednesday last, after reviewing
the case at length, the governor declined
to interfere, and the condemned men were
notified that they must die. The arrest,
trial and conviction of the Bald Knobber
leaders attracted widespread attention,
and for .he first time Yesterday the secret
of the Bald Knobbcr organization was
made public.
Janey county. Missouri, was the birth
place of this order of masked operators.
1t is in the widest section of the state,
and in the early DAYS lawlessness caused
the formation OF leagues for protection of
lite and property. At a point eight miles
from Ozark and near the Edeus dwelling,
one Jshn Evans was whipped by the Bald
Knobbers for misbehaving i'll church.
Old man Edens, who was a friend of
Evans, InterIcred, and received several
blows with a whip. Edens afterwards
fearlesslv denounced the Bald Knobbers,
and on the night of March IL a band OF
twenty six of them proceeded to Edens'
residence TO punish the inmates, They
first went to the house of William Edens,
Dub unulnR nO one tnere proceeded 10 the
house OF James Edens. Williams father.
There were in the house at the time the
father, mother. son, daughter in-law,
daughter, son in-law and two grandchil-
dren. The knobbers fred promiscnously
into the house, killed young William and
Charles Green, his brother in law, and
left old man Edens on the floor for
dead.
The peculiar feature of Bald Knober
ism, now dead, is that a majority of the
most prominent members of that band of
regulators were devoted church members.
Chief Walker was an exhorter, temper.
ance advocate. and generally a devout
man, The Bald Knobbcr chief chung to
the belief the regulators were champions
of rights. asserting that the Edens-Green
killing was unfortunate, but an unavoida-
BILE mistake.