The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1891-10-17
A FOUL CRIME FEARFULLY EXPIATED
Steel Doors Prove Mere Phantom Bar
riers in the Way Of the Mad.
dened Mob.
Hauled Roughly Over a Granite Pave.
ment He Dies Before He Is
Hanged.

OMAHA, Oct. 0.-Ihis was q great day
here. Public sentiment had been
wrought up highly by the execution OF
Ed Neal. This tension was added to when
the report became current that little
Lizzie Yates, the five-year-old victim of
a lustful assault of Joe Coe, a disreput-
able negro, had died.
Coe was confined in the city Jail but
the people did not know it. "We will
lynch the niger" was soon heard on ev-
cry side and it IVES evident that before
nightfall the days comment would end
in a tragedy. Night came on with an ON
nous quiet. Few people were in the
streets. There was no intimation of
trouble in sight. Suddenly about $3.50
o'clock there came confused sounds of
t%ramping and hurrying along the paved
streets toward the county Jail and in a re-
markably short time the Jail was sur
rounded. There was no organization
and no leader seemed to control the
crowd. iells filed the air and hun
dreds were shouting at one what to do.
No attack was made on the Jail
for many moments, the mob standing
%irresolute waiting for some one to lead
it on. In the meantime a few police
men and the force of deputy sheritfs
that otficiated in the Neal hanging was
concentrated at the jail. The mob was
lowering about the east entrance clam
oring for ONE one to start the trouble.
A rush was made for the south street
door of the Jail. Stop. said a glittering
~six-shooter in the hands of Captain Cor
mack and 50 the leaders halted and
finally retreated. Then sledges were
brought and the east door was assailed
This was built of strong steel lattice and
the crowd had to desist. The crowd then
secured heavy bars of steel to batter
down the doors. Ey-Gov. Boyd tried to
stop them, but his words were cut off by
a man with a sledge. who said: "lou are
not governor here. Get out. Go attend
to your opera house." and swash the
steel rail changed against the steel door.
The latter yielded slightly. A mighty
yell went up from the ~maddened men,
and agnin and again the battering ram
was hurled against the door. Steel can
not stand everything and in five min
utes the door was open. Then there
was a short parley and a second door
was assailed. While all this was going
on Omaha's police force of
ninety men was gathered. but
concentration was impossible. Officers
were lost in the crowd. Some one sug-
gusted that the department be called
out and the hose turned on, but it wal
not that kind of a mob. The firemen
came and laid their hose and the crowd
simply carried away the lines and drove
the tiremen away. They were after the
negro. Bang! bang! came the sound of
steady blows from the inside Jail, as the
crowd worked on the teel doors.
1t didn't take the crowd long after the
second door was passed to effect an en-
trance to the huge steel cage in which
the cells are located. There wrapped In
a blanket covered the trembling wretch
for whom the lynchers sought. A howl
OF wild eXultatiOn was sent up by the
leaders who called for tools to cut their
way into the cage. Yell after yell of
triumph went up from the outside and
soon sledges and cOldchisels were in the
hands of those nearest the cage. In the
meantime the police under Chief Zeavy
undertook to mass at the Jail entrances.
The crowd surged up, picked up the
police and carried them to the edge
of the crowd. There they stayed. Then
the work went on. Inside of the cage
the negro begged and pleaded. His
shrieks for mercy were answered with
blows that brought his execution nearer
He was seized and thrust through the
corridor. Here he was identified. A
lamb would have Jared better amidst a
pack of wolves. There is a driveway
fifty yards long leading from the Jail to
the intersection Of Seventeenth and
streets. This is paved with
Over this rough road the
was dragged. Since he had left
the door he had not spoken a word and
in all probability was unconscious. By
the time the street was reached he was
dead. 1t mattered not that life was
extinct. A rope was thrown over the
trolly wire of the electric line. 1t had
served to drag the doomed mar from
cell. Then a hundred hands pulled
by a hundred men, surged back and
high above the street, directly in front
the beautiful new Boyd's theatre,
swung the lifeless corpse of the latest
rape tiend.
The E~cumenical Council.