The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-09-15
Four Hundred Men Attack the
Jail at Versailles, Ind,
And Shoot at the Prisoners i'm
Their Cells.
DRAGGED TO A TREE
All are Hanged a Square From
the Jail Door.
Victims Were Accused of Bur-
glary and Robbery.


Versailles, Ind, Sept. ia mob Of
400 men last night lynched Lyle Levi.
Bert Andrews. Clifford Gordon, William
Jenkins and Hiney Shuler.
They were taken from the authorities.
The men had been arrested for burg
larry
Frequent robberies had enraged the
citizens of the county and the mob
was composed of citizens from Milan,
Sunman and other towns.
The mob on horseback entered the
town an hour after midnight and call
ed out Jafler Kennan, who, upon re-
fusing to give up the keys, was over
powered.
The mob soon pushed it's way into the
cell rooms and in their impatience first
fired on the five prisoners and then
dragged them to a tree. a square from
the Jail door, and hung them up
Andrews and Gordon had already
been wounded, having been shot several
times while attempting to rob a store
at Correct last Saturday night.
Shuler was in Jail for attempted bur-
glary, and Levi and Jenkins had just
been indicted by the grand jury for
robbery. They had failed to give bond
and were put in Jail last evening.
1t is thought that Levi and Shuler
were both dead from the shots fired by
the mob when taken out of the Jail. The
bandages that We're on the wounded
men were found later this morning
along the street where they had been
torn off as the men were dragged along.
Lyle Levi was an old soldier and
bore ON his face wounds received dur
ing the civil war while fighting for the
Union.
None of the lynchers is known. They
all came from distance, presumably
from the neighborhood of Correct. where
arrested
night.
Louisville. Sept. ia special to the
Evening Post from Osgood. Ind, says:
Incensed by numerous depredations,
repeated burglaries and daylight rob-
berries, the people of Ripley county, In
diana have taken law into their own
hands and meted out to the perPetra-
tors a punishment greater than provid-
ed by the law. Five men, who have
long been a terror to the citizens of this
county, met their death at the hands of
an enraged pOpulace and when the citi-
zens of Versailles, the county seat
arose, this morning, it was to find the
bodies of five men dangling from
many limbs of an elm tree, in the CEN
ter of the public square. Stout ropes
not over six feet in length had served
to send each to his eternity and their
feet were but a few inches from the
ground, while their hands and feet had
been securely pinned with strong ropes.
Versailles is town of some eight
hundred people It is one of the oldest
in the state and although it is five miles
from a railroad station, and has no tel
egraphic communication with the out
side world, as have more pretentious
towns of the county, 1T is still the cOun-
ty seat For four or five years, and
even longer. the farmers of the county
have been the victims of a lawlesS gang
who apparently lacking in fear, have
piled their vocation to the terror of the
people, for they seemingly have had no
visible means of earning a living. Farm
ers would come into town with a bunch
of cattle, load of farming products
and the next morning they would be
found along the roadside suffering from
a wound and minus the proceeds oftheir
sale. Old German farmers have been
visited and both men and women have
been subjected to all the tortures that
a hardened mind could devise. Aged
German women have been forced to
stand upon red hot stove in an effort
to compel them to disclose the hiding
place of some treasure in the house.
These depredations have continued
increasingly. Arrests have been made
but the guilty parties had covered up
their laWIesSnesS and it was seldom
that conviction followed.
During the past week Cobberies had
increased alarmingly. On last Satur-
day word was received by the sheriff
that the store of Wooley Bros. at Cor
rect, Ind, ten miles from here, was to
be entered. The informa ton was given
by one of the gangs confederates who
had been under suspicion.
Sheriff Henry Bushing arranged that
his informant should accompany them,
and securing five deputies, they went to
the place. Sheriff Bushing concealed
himself in the cellar while his deputies
were stationed at convenient distance
outside. Shortly after midnight the
gang reached WooIey Bros store. Cliff
ford Gordon and the sheriff's informant
were designated to break into the build
ing Gordon himself effected an en-
trance and just as he stepped inside.
the sheriff grabbed him. Both pulled
pistols at the same time and began fir
ing. Bert Andrews was with the rob-
bers, and he too Joined the fusillade.
while the deputies came TO the assist
ance of the sheriff Some so shots were
fired. The sheriff was shot through the
hand and Gordon was shot several
times Three pistol balls entered his
body and he was also shot in the leg.
Gordon and Andrews succeeded in es-
Gaping and came to Osgood, where they
were arrested
The robbers had driven out to the
place in a buggy belonging to- Lyle Le-
vi and from information subsequently
gathered, it was learned that the rob-
berry had been planned at the home of
Williams