Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-07-27
LYNCHING IN DENVER.
A Mob Took a Murderer From
the City Jail.
BODY DRAGGED ABOUT THE STREET
The Murdered Man Was a Veteran and Hi
Friends Were Determined to Take OulcL
Vengeance-Rather Than Shoot Into thu
Crowd the Sheriff Surrendered Arata.

Crowd the Sheriff Surrendered Arata
DENVER, July 27.-Not since Denver wa.
small frontier village and lynching par
ties were of common occurrence has the
city experienced anything like what ha.
just tkken place. Tuesday evening al
Italian saloon keeper named Arata brutally
murdered an inoffensive old man named
Lightfoot. pounding his head into Jelly
with a chair. slashing him with knife
and finally ending his henious crime by fl
ing two shots through the old mans body.
Arata was Immediately arrested and
locked up in the county jail which is 10
Gated in the very heart of the city, and one
of the finest and most secure structures Of
the kind in the west. All day long the
citizens continued to discuss the crime. In
the evening a crowd began gathering at
the Jail until there were fully Is, 900 PEG.
pie. Three Of the outside doors werr bat
tered down, but the sheriff and his men
still held the fort. A few shots were fired
over the crowds heads by deputy sheriffs,
but it seemed to only aggravate the already
maddeEed crowd.
Finally at an early hour this morning
Arata was taken from the Jail and hung TO
tree and shot by the mob.
The Punishment Came Swiftly.
Daniel Arata was the proprietor of the
Hotel d Italia, tough resort under the
Sixteenth street viaduct. His victim,
1-ightfoot, was member of the G. a. R.,
and the quarrel was over the price of a
glass of beer
When Arata was taken from the county
Jail by the mob he was hustled out,
strung up to a tree and his body filled
with bullets. The crime was ineNcusable.
the punishment swift
All day there had been mutterings among
the friends of the murdered man. and at
an early hour last night small crowd col
lected in the rear OF the Windsor hotel on
Market street. 1t grew in mum bers until
there were several hundred determined
men.
In silence and military order the crowd
marched through the business portion of
the city past the city Jail and the county
Jail across Cherry creek
Here demand was made for the Italian
from Jailer Crews. He refused to give up
his prisoner and the mob which was well
provided with picks and iron bars, began
an attack on the front door of the Jail.
The building is new and was thought
strong enough to resist any attacks which
might be made upon it. Gradually the
crown gre" until prOD1Oly lO,OuU people
surrounded the Jail. Sheriff Burchinell
was outside in the crowd trying to prevent
violence, but no attention was paid to his
commands or entrcatics
Crowd Not Afraid of shots.
Captain Crews in charge of the Jail in
struCted the guards to fire over the heads
of the mob to awe il. hut no attention was
paid to his firing. After two hours dig
ging and hammerirg entrance was made
to the corridor.
Captain Crews then saw that he had the
alternative of shooting down a few men or
surrenderlnC the Italian and he chose the
latter Arata was taken out to a neighbor.
ing tree, strung up. and his body filled with
bullets In the melee in the Jail one mem.
dangerously wounded
The vengeance Of the mob did not end
with the shooting The body was taken
down, dragged through the streets bv the
rope with which il was hanged II was
dragged along Curtis street through the
business part OF tbs eity to Seventeenth
and Curtis, whcre il was strung up to a
pole OF an electric street railway. IL pre-
sented ghastly sight hanging stark naked
Immediately under an are light, surround.
ed by several thousand people. The breast
was filled with bullet holes and the body
covered with blood and dirt.
A few minutes after il was strung UT
the police patrol wagon drove up the body
was cut down and taken to the police sta.
ton.