The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1893-08-05
STRUNG UP BY A MOB.
BRUTAL LYING HING OF AN lTAl-
IAN MURDERER

DENVER, Colo, July 2s Tuesday
night Il. c. Lightfoot, an old Grand
Army man of this city, entered q
saloon in the bottoms, kept by Dan
Arata, an Italian of unsavory fame.
Lightfoot asked for q glass of beer and
paid for it. When he had drank it
Arata asked him to have another
drink Lightfoot supposed il to be a
treat" accepted and started to leave
the place. Arata stopped him, and de-
manded pay for the beverage. Light
foot did not have the necessary money
and the Italian, picking up q chair,
brutally assaulted him, knocking out
the left eye at the first blow. The
murderous bartender followed his az
tack, literally beating the old man
nearly to death. To make sure of
the his victim Arata shot him
through the heart. The murderer
was arrested and placed in jail.
All day yesterday there were muir
murs, not only among the grand army
men. but of the people in general, re-
garding the brutal deed. Many threats
of lynching were heard but not needed
by the staid-going people of Denver,
who thought that quick Justice had
passed away with the frontier days
A meeting of the un mployed men
was called for last evening at S o'clock
and at Eighteenth and Market streets
speeches were made deploring the
present siringency in the money mar
ket and the resultant idleness. When
the speakers were through, a tall,
gray-headed and whiskered vet ran
wearing the Grand Army uniform, got
upon the stand and said: Follow
me-"
The words were few but vervbody
understood what was meant. and 5000
people followed the leader to the
county Jail, fully mile and a quarter
distant through mud and slush, caused
by the heavy shower. The crowd
gained in numbers in their long march
and before the jail was reached fully
10,0D0 were in the line and people were
tiocking in from every street, most of
of them bent on seeing what was going
to be done.
The Jail Isl new ana massive one.
and no one in the crowd outside of
the leaders thought that it could be
entered by a mob. The crowd at
tackled two sides of the Jail at once,
the ones on the north side being the
most determined. They finally bat
tered down the sheet on on the door
protecting the inside bars of the Office
entrance and then began the next OBJ
struction. At this point Capt. Crewes,
the jailer, and his guards assisted by
the police, who were inside
turned heavy stream of water upon
the men battering at the door. Al
though the force of the stream threw
the angry men back repeatedly, vet
they kept on at their work.
D,,t f,,1l
rounded the Jail as spectators Up te
now a gas jet at the entrance afforded
the attacking party sufficient light to
work by, but suddenly the besieged
turned off the light and left
things in utter darkness Several
cable cars were seen approaching and
the mob made dash for them, tear
ing off the large head lights and bring.
ing them to the aid of the men at work
at the door. Plenty of light being had,
the leaders went at the work with
will and few moments later broke
down the door leading to the Jail Of
flee.
At last Arata's cell was broken into
and the murderer found crouching in
the corner. Here an awful scene IN.
sued. One of the leaders of the
mob was "Broncho Jim"
burly negro. Some one, pos
sblv Broncho Jim, drew a huge
knife and ripped the murderer up the
abdomen. Then the rest of the leaders
interf rred and kept him for the rope.
He was hustled out of the Jail across
the street TO IA cottonwood tree, ana
in the dun light cast by an arc lamp
was pulled up. He was asked If he
had anything TO say.
N faAh1a hlaa1inor al
CHASTITY woun in his body. he said:
II am the man; killed him in self
defense" lie was procee ing to speak
further, when some one cried out
Here comes the patrolr 1t |
was false alarm, for the |
police, excepting those inside |
the Jail. did not present themselves
at any time, although the mob occu-
pied three hours in getting their VIC |
tim. The warning cry. however, had |
its effect and the murderer was sud- |
denly jerked off the earth in view of a |
mob that occupied the ground for |
blocks around. |
No sooner was he in the air than |
several persons drew six-shooters and |
riddled his body with bullets The |
mob packed around the tree with aw-
ful force, many striking matches to |
view the corps and some giving it |
vindictive push. Az last the rope broke |
and the bleeding body fell into the
gutter underneath the tree with a
splash. The crowd laughed and
cheered and yelled: Burn him; burn
him like they do in Texas" This,
however, was rather impracticable as
everything within reach was soaked
with rain.
The mob finally comp omised by
getting hold of the rope and the (
corpse was dragged bv the neck
through the mud into the heart of the
city, and at Seventeenth and Curtis
streets strung him up to huge tele-
graph pole for the edification OF those
who had not been present at the
original hanging. The police did not
interfere with the awful procession as
II passed through the street, and il was
only after the mutilated body of the
murderer had swayed in the electric
Yni lnt 81 |