River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-10-15
OUTBREAK In OMAHA.
Leaders of the Recent Lynching Placed
in Jaii-A Mob Threatens to storm the
building. but Desists Finding That
the Prisoners Had Been Removed.

Leaders of the Recent Lynehing Placed
in Jaii-A Mob Threatens to storm the
Building. but Desists Finding That
the Prisoners Had Been Removed.
OMAHA, Neb., Oct. 12.-Seven of the
leaders of the mob that lynehed Coe
were brought to the Jail from which
they on Saturday night took their vic
tim, and a bowling mob surrounded
the bastile Saturday night and demand
ed their release. The men under ar
rest are Il. q. Bloom, Capt. John
.O'Donohoe, II. ii. Brandies, Ed Fitz-
gerald, Ed Neaschaeffer, Patrick
0Herne and John Fritz Bloom is
manager of the Morse Dry Goods Com
pany, the largest retail house in the
city; O'Donohoe is an ex-captain of
police and O'HIerne was arrested while
attending the democratic county con-
vention as a delegate. The men are
all charged with murder in the first de-
gree and were refused bail
AS soon as il became known that
they were under arrest a crowd gath
cred at the city lookup and demanded
the release of the prisoners. Instead
of complying with the request Chief
Seavey loaded the seven men into
patrol wagon and rushed them up to
the county Jail The crowd followed,
and by 1880 p. m. the Jail was sur
rounded and word was sent to County
Attorney Mahoney that unless the men
were released on bail they would be
taken from the Jail by force. Ma
honey replied that under no circum-
stances would the men be released.
The crowd az once began to make
preparations for storming the jail.
There were fully 5000 people in the
mob The mob secured big steel rail
and marched to the east door. They
had just started to use it as battering
ram when a committee of citizens
appeared at the Jail door and
made proposition to the crowd to
have a committee appointed to go
through the Jail and ascertain if the
men wanted were inside. This suited
the crowd, and when the committee re-
ported that five of the men had been
released and the other two had been
taken out of town for safe keeping the
mob dispersed.
County Attorney Mahoney said that,
under the laws of Nebraska, any man
who took part in the lynching was
guilty of murder in the first degree and
punishable by hanging Mahoney will
advise the county commissioners to
offer a reward for the arrest and con-
viction of the leaders of the mob He
did not blame the county and city
officers, but thought that if squad of
police had been detailed when the mob
first gathered all trouble would have
been avoided. Omaha aud Douglas
county would be compelled to take hold
of the matter ami ferret out the perpe-
traitors of what he called a cowardly
and cold-blooded murder
Jailer Horrigan in speaking of the
case said that Coe was alive when he
was pulled through the window and
into the open air, but before he was 10
feet from the jail he was dead. Every
spark of life had left his carcass, as he
was tramped upon by hundreds of men,
while others at the end of the rope
pulled the body almost limb from limb
Scarcely had the body of Coe stopped
its convulsive swaying Friday before it
was known that the Negroes victim was
not dead and in no danger of death.
| 1t is claimed that the announcement
the papers gave of the death of the
child was merely an incident in the
| plot to provoke mob violence by the
| friends of the victims family. Grape
| had been attached to the door of the
family, and apparently preparations
were being made for the child's funeral.