The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-07-25
The Brutal Murder OF Poor John
Clancy Was Most Summa-
rily Avenged.
From the High Gross Arm or a
Telegraph Swung a
Corpse.
1t Was That of the Unknown Tramp and
Thug Who So Heartiessly Killed
Mr.. Cinncey.

BILLINGS, July M.-ISpecinl. AT fve
O'Clock Thursday evening Joseph Clancy,
an inoffensive and invalid saloonkeeper of
this city, with one foot in the grave, was
murdered by ono OF q party OF three hoboes,
the difficulty arising over tho price Of
quart of beer. After striking down the old
man and breaking his neck with a second
blow of beer mallet the cold -blooded brute
and his two companions went behind the bar,
being nlone on the premises, and in a &c.
cluded place. They drank the liquor and
robbed the till. passing coarse jokes as they
stepped over their bloody victim. The
arrest of the three followed in due course,
and all were drunk when taken TO the jail.
The evidence of one named Quinn
was taken at the coroner's inquest
late last night, and then the
coroner postponed his inquiry until to-day.
Excitement and indignation had been
growing all the evening and needed but the
damning testimony of Quinn to bring the
feelings of the friends of poor murdered
Clancy up to that pitch which causes cool
headed men to resort to mob violence.
Sheriff Ramsey was aroused by knocking
at the door of the county jaif shortly after
midnight. The spokesman of the band of
masked and heavily armed men demanded
of the sheriff that he come down and open
the door. This the sheriff refused to do,
and few heavy blows from q sledge
soon crashed in the outer door.
The sheriff came down and attempted
to remonstrnte with the men,
when he was seized from behind
and ovsrpowered, and without another
word the band divided up into parties and
batteries and commenced breaking the
looks of the Pauley cells, with which the
Jail is fitted. The crash of the heavy sledge
could be heard several blocks in the still
| ness of the night, but the men seemed de-
termined and kept up their work for an
hour or more. One by one the bars were
beaten down, and the man the lynchers
were after was in the hands of grim and
merciless mob. The after happening was
made public to the world when the gray
dawn broke and a strange figure dangling
from telegraph pole on the railroad track,
met the startled gaze of the travellers
| on the morning train. There was
a cold blooded, unprovoked murder
| avenged. and hoboes and vagabonds will
hereafter give the town of Billings wide
berth.
| The body was cut down when the coroner
arrived on the ground at about $50 this
morning. and the inquest was subsequently
held, at which the jury returned verdict
that the unknown man there lying dead
came to his death by hanging, ON the night
of July 2s, at the hands of persons un-
known. Before the body was cut down
hundreds of people visited the spot and
with morbid curiosity gazed and gazed as
though the identity of the victim and the
mob might thus be revealed to
them. Neither name of the man nor
any particulars of his life are
known. The general sentiment of the COM
muuty seems to be in sympathy with the
lynchiug, but the hope is expressed that it
may never again be deemed expedient to
resort to mob violence. No other prisoners
in the Jail were allowed to escape, the cells
| being closed and locked with handouts