Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-02-13
.SOVERY ORDERLY.
Some Citizens Who Make a Mock
Of Law and Justice.
LYNCH DOES A JOB IN ILLINOIS.

Man Charged with Murder and Rape
Takrn From an Unresi.tins Oniciai and
Hanged In tho Court House Yard-Jack-
son Makes Another Statement in the
Pearl Bryan Case-Robber ON Being Run
to Earth Shoots Himself Fatally.
SULLIVAN, Ills, Feb 13.-Grant After
berry was lynched here early yesterday
morning for an alleged outrage on his
sistcr-in-law, Mrs. Roxy Atterberry, in
this city on the night of Jan. 81. The
lynchcrs numbered twenty five or thirty.
and the affair was quiet and orderly and
the most riged discipline was preserved.
Guards were posted all around the Jail,
and people who were not members Of the
lynching party were not permitted to
come wiohin half u block of the Jail. The
outer door was battered down and the
cell door broken in with slcdge hammers.
Atterberry wronched leg from table,
with which he made n desperate fight for
his life but he was soon oyerpowered and
led out of the Jail.
No Resistance 90 tho Mob,
He was walked or dragged by tho arms
to the court house square, where the rope
was thrown over the limb of a tree and
he was drawn up while protesting his
innocence. The bodyswas left hanging
until o'clock in the morning, when it
was taken down by order Of the authori-
ties. An inquest was held, resulting in
the finding that Attertcrry had been
killed by unknown parties" There was
no attempt to interfere with the mob.
The sheriff fired his pistol lin the air rs an
! alarm when the mob demanded the pris-
oncr. and n large crowd of citizens came
| to the scene, but did not raise hand to
prevent the lynching.
Protested Ills Innocence of Cr,.src.
Attcrbury fought desperately from the
time the mob broke into his cell until tho
rope was around his neck, when he col.
lapsed. Il am innoccntr he shouted over
and over again, till the hoarse utterance
rang through all the sharp anger of the
crowd. You are hanging an innocent
mani he moaned. No attention was paid
to his protestations or his pleas. The end
! of the rope was tossed over a limb of a
tree. A dczen men seized it and pulled
with the frenzy of vengeance. The rope
slid over the icc-covercd limb and the
mans uttcrancc was choked with tho
tightening of the loop. The rope was
| wound about the trunk of the tree and
the mob stood back and watched tho
final writhing of man whom every one
in Sullivan believed guilty Of two heinous
crimes.
Charged with Murder and Rape.
Grant Atterbury was arrested, charged
| with the murder of his father. The elder
Attcrbury died by violence more than a
| year ago. The evidence of his brother,
and particularly that of his brothers
wife, Mrs. Roxy Attcrbury, was strongly
discriminating. Still the man was able to
! discourage arrest. And it was not till his
sister-in-law was assaulted that the senti-
ment Of the community crystalizcd
| against him. He was mt once arrested and
lodged in Jail. Bloodhounds tracked tho
woman's assailant to Grant Atterbury's
home. and the evidence against him was
regarded as conclusive. a week ago an
! attempt was made to take him from tho
| Jail, but it failed, and the police had ap-
parently settled down to the belief that no
would not be molested.