River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-08-27
HEMP FOR HAWKINS

An Indiana Desperate Fatally shoots City
Marshal Bruce. of shelbyviIle-A Mol
Takes Him from Jail. and After Hang
ing Him Fuls His Body with Bullets
lis Victim still Alive.
SHELBYvILLE, Ind, Aug. 24.-Dan
Bruce, city marshal. was shot and
fatally wounded Saturday evening by
Charley Hawkins, desperate who was
lynehed by mob a few hours later.
Hawkins was in a quarrel when
Bruce came upon the scene and
requested him to cease his dis.
turbance. Hawkins then reached
for his revolver, and with an
oath fired three shots in sue
cession at Bruce, each bullet taking
effect Hawkins fired twice more. but
missed, and started to run, with Bruce
following When about $50 feet from
the place of the shooting Bruce caught
Hawkins, placed him under arrest and
Immediately fell. He was removed to
his residence. His case was considered
hopeless
At midnight a mob of 500 collected in
the courthouse yard and proceeded 10
the Jail without word. The sheriff
demanded to know who was there.
One of the mob impersonated deputy
marshal and said he had a prisoner.
The sheriff then opened the door, when
twelve men entered the parlor and
seized him by the throat. lie
was then tied hand and foot
and a handkerchief was stuffed into his
mouth. One of the mob secured the
keys of the Jail and the barred doors
were swung open and guards placed al
the entrance to keep back the other
prisoners. Hawkins was in a
rear cell, and when the mob
reached that portion of the
Jail fell upon his face. placed
his hands over his eyes and said:
please let me pray" The committee
did not wait, but proceeded to tie his
hands and feet and to adjust the rope
about his neck. In moment six men
came rushing out of the Jail pulling
their victim by the neck. drag
ging him on the ground. Twenty
feet from the Jail door a tree was
found and the rope was thrown over a
limb, and second later Hawkins was
suspended in midair Eight shots were
then fired into his body and the dread
full work was over The mob imme-
diately dispersed and in five minutes
everything on the streets was as quiet
as graveyard.
1t is said that Hawkins deed was
premeditated. A week ago the Mar
shall arrested Hawkins 12-year-old son,
b.. no. .
plate glass windows, and Hawkins
boosted that he had come to the city
prepared to get even with Bruce. He
had sought trouble with several per-
sons, but all were afraid of him
and avoided him. His father
and son We're left in Jail unmolested by
the mob, although each participated in
the cowardly shooting of the city mar
shall After Hawkins had emptied his
revolver, which he had borrowed for
the occasion, his son stepped up and
handed him another well loaded, but
of this he was disarmed by other
officers. The father of the
assassin, a very old man, came up just
as the marshal started to fall, and GO
ing up TO the dying man drew club
and was about To- strike him when a
bystander caught him. The mob, how
ever, let him go on account of his age
and his boy on account of his youth.
The lynching was all completed and
the mob dispersed inside Of three min
utes from the time it entered the yard,
and people living in the immediate
vicinity knew nothing OF the affair I'M
til all the participants had disappeared
1t is said that MANY of the most promi-
nent citizens of the city and county
participated in the hanging. Dr. Il. C.
Kennedy says that Bruce has even
chances. Three balls passed through
his right breast, but only one pierced
the lung.
Hawkins father and son were per-
mitted to go from Jail Sunday, and
with his wife and mother fingered at
the undertaSer's all day and at 3
o'clock were permitted to view the body
of their son and father HIS mother,
who is aged ~, bent over his form
and kissed him and sobbed pit
eously. His wife also wept and
created scene when permitted to see
him. She was in buggy 80 PAGES
away and witnessed her hus band
crime. She was cool at the time and
never moved during the shooting,
though two of the shots came near strik-
ing her.
Babe Hawkins, brother of the
lynched man, is said to be in the city
now on the hunt for Constable johnson
and others whom he believes to have
been in the mob A post-mortem
was held on the body of Charles
Hawkins DIR. Il. c. Kennedy,
who dressed the wounds of
Bruce, found that three of the
balls fired into Hawkins after he was
strung up had passed through his left
lung and two through his left arm and
shoulder. He also found that the skull
had been fractured where one of the
lynchers had struck him with ''knucks.