The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-02-24
RED HOT IRONS.
Story Comes Through the WeS-
lingtOn Mail
That They Were Used to Sub
due a Refractory Prisoner
AT THE REFORMATORY
officers Stood Outside of the
Cell Door
And Jabbed the Rods Into the
Victims Body.
IT THE REFORMATORY

w ellington, Feb. 24.-The Mail or last
evening publishes the following story in
regard to a happening at the Hutchin-
son reformatory:
The odor of burning human flesh per-
meates the Hutchinson reformatory
and the odium of having perpetrated
the most f1endish, inhuman cruelty ever
recorded in the annals of Kansas has
settled like a pail over the management
of that institution. When w. J. Lin
genfelter left this city yesterday it was
professedly on the ordinary business of
the reformatOry; but in fact he went
with heavy heart to Hutchinson.
Wade Thomas, young negro, was
an inmate of the reformatory under J.
c o. Morse's management He takes
peculiar delight in being regarded as
a bad niger He is mean and dew
ilish, always Quarreling, always in trou-
BILE.
His intellect is of a very low order;
he is natural born criminal; his refor
nation is as impossible as the cure Of a
hereditary cOnsumptive.
Recognizing the hopeleSsness of ever
reforming Wade Thomas and knowing
that he would continue to be a source
of perpetual annoyance and trouble,
Mr.. Morse asked the board of managers
to send him to the penitentiary, and
they did so.
But for the purpose of manufacturing
political capital, the board of managers
OTueT6Q w aue 1hOInaS returned from
the penitentiary to the reformatory.
He arrived there about February I,
and was put to work in the laundry. On
Friday, the 18th, he got into a fight in
the laundry with another negro. Officer
Overmyer from Topeka attempted to
stop the fight. Thomas turned on him
and made one of his typical ramaca-
boos.
Overmyer scared all right, and Thorn
as ran him clear out of the laundry. a
platoon of officers was then after
Thomas and he was locked up in his
cell and kept there until Monday, the
18th, when he got tired of the mOnoto-
ny of cell life. Consequently on that
morning he started out on as extensive
a jamboree as his surroundings would
permit.
He broke up the iron co. in his cell,
tore his bedclothing into shreds, piled
them up in a corner and set fire to
them.
superintendent Case ordered ten Of
ficers to the cell at once. Wade Thomas
was in his glory. He raved, he swore
and cursed the pack of officers and ev-
erybOdy in general at great rate. He
scared the wits out of everyone of
them.
During this seance Case stood in the
corridor below, quaking and trembling
Finally some one suggested that they
heat iron rods and poke them through
the cell door and burn the negro. Case
grasped at the suggestion and ordered
it done.
The whole party FASTENED to the en-
zine room procured two long iron
rods, heated them white hot and rush
ed back to the cell house. Assistant
superintendent Hopkins and Officer Jo-
seph Riggs from Usage City handled the
hot irons. Case stood in the corridor
below and gave the orders.
AS quick as the mob returned with
the hot irons, the negro began to beg
and plead for mercy. He instantly of
fered to calmly surrender and even to
put his hands through the cell doors
so that he could be handcuffed before
the door was opened.
Amidst the most fearful oaths and
inprecatiOnS of the ten officers huddled
around that cell door, Hopkins and
Riggs commenced jabbing their hot
iron rods into the helpless negro.
Wherever they touched MIN they burn
ed through his light clothing, through
the skin and deep into the flesh. They
burned him on the neck, the shoulder,
the side and the back. They got him
cornered and held their sizzling hot
irons to his stomach until they were
buried in his frying flesh In his ago
nv he grasped these red hot irons with
both hands and they were burned deep
Finally the officers tired of their hell
ish work, but even then they would not
enter the cell where the negro was
writhing in terrible pain. He was called
upon to put both hands through the
bars of his cell door. He was then hand
cuffed the cell door opened, and, OF
course, he came out with it. ShackIes
were then put on his feet before his
hands were released.
This torturing of the negro took place
Monday morning at about IL o'clock
He was taken to the hospital and allow
ed to lie there without any medical at
tention whatever until last Thursday
morning His condition is critical The
sickening odor of his burning flesh fill
ed the whole cell house and still clings
We learned these facts from an alb
solutely reliable source. We questioned
w. ]. I4ingenfelter about them yester-
day morning and he admitted that they
were substantially correct according
to his information from reformatory Of
6cia1S