The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-12-08
A KENTUCKY LYNCHING BEE
4 MOB WRE4KS ITS VENGEANCE ON
 THO ALLEGED MURDERERS.

The Victims Were Confined In Jail-It Was
 Alleged That They Killed a Woman and
 Two ChiIdren-Jail Broken Into-Bodies
 of the Men Found Swinging to Tree
 They Protested Their Innocence,
 masked men, two hundred in number, broke into the jail here this morning and then hammered down the doors to the cells in which were confined James Nelson and Jesse Winner, charged with the murder of Mrs. Winner and two children near Liberty in October last. The mob dragged the prisoners from the prison and carried them away in the darkness over into Ray county, where they hanged them to 8 tree.
 The jail was guarded by five men. The guards were covered with Win chesters before they were aware that any enc was near.
 Jailer Goode refused to deliver the keys when demand was made, so sledges were used in breaking down the doors. Both prisoners protested their innocence, but without avail.
 | Maggie Catron, a woman with whom Winner was intimate, made a full con- i fession on Saturday to the county pros | ecutors, duplicating Jesse Winner, Lon Lackey and James Nelson in the crime. She made an affidavit iii which she said l that on the night of October 26 Winner, Lackey and Nelson drove to the Win | ner house, and that Winner killed his | wife and Nelson cut the threats of the 1 two children, while Lackey held the horse at the fence.
 | Thomas Sick and wife, uncle and l aunt of Maggie Catron, made affida- wits to the effect that Winner, Lackey and Nelson were in their house between | 10 and Il o'clock on the night of the murder looking for the girl, and that | they went away together in buggy. | This evidence convinced the people of their guilt and the lynching followed.
 The bodies were found this morning | half a mile from the river in Ray coun- | ty. hanging to an oak tree. Their 1 hands were tied behind their backs and | they were swinging from the same | limb, Nelson's feet barely touching the | ground. His face bore the same grave | look as when he was taken from jail. l Winners face bore the look of cow ardice. and had an expression of horror | upon it. Winners watch, which had stopped at a. m, was still in his pock- ct His feet touched the ground, but his legs were bent at the knees. Hun l dreds of people flocked to the scene to see the dead bodies.
 Lon Lackey, who had also been in | jail here under charge of complicity in the murder, was taken back to Rich mond Saturday, which fact alone saved his life, as he would certainly have ! been lynched with the others. The probabilities are that vengeance will | be meted out to him later. Winner
 when led out of his cell this morning
 was trembling with fear. Nelson clearly showed that he was not afraid.
 The mob members made no effort to conceal their identity. The majority of the mob were young men. Winner ad-
 mittcd to a prisoner in the jail last night that he was guilty. Prosecuting l Attorney Aull says:
 "I have evidence sufficient to identify some of the mob and have the names of others. If it is the last act of my life I expect to bring the perpetrators to | justice, and shall request the assist ance oe the attorney general and all
 the power that the state can lend to see that such conspiracies against the
 law are punished and the conspirators
 brought to justice"