The record-union., 1899-04-25


had killed two men; Hetherington's
murders counted up half score or
more. Both these men were hanged
ON the same day. from a scaffold put
up at the intersection OF two main
streets. Eighteen hundred vigilantes,
fully armed, formed a hollow square
around the scaffold, infantry companies
were posted at various points through
out the nearby parts of the city to pre-
serve order, and loaded brass cannon
were placed on the nearby street corn
ers. Rescue of the prisoners by the
State authorities was quite Impractical
BILE, and so was not attempted.
yankee" Sullivan, ballot-box suffer.
and friend of Casey and the cause of
the feud between him and the editor,
King, whom Casey shot, was tried and
sentenced to banishment. Sullivan was
a prize-fghter, and not native of New
England, but an escaped convict from
the then British penal colony of New
South Wales, Australia He was ter
ribly frightened after conviction, and in
spite of the fact that his sentence was
only banishment, cut his throat in his
cell four days after the close of. his
trial.
The number banished was not in ex-
cess OF thirty. In every instance fair
chance was given the convicted person,
free passage to Hawaii, Australia or
the Eastern States being provided by
the committee which also guarded the
accused from harm till he got ON ship
board. But in every instance there was
death penalty in, case of return, and
only one man went back, He showed
that he did not know of the death
clause, and, though placed on trial for
his life was banished the second time,
and remained away ever afterward.
Most of the work of the San Fran
cisco vigilantes of 1851 was done in
consequence of plain murders and other
crimes perpetrated chiefly by imported
thugs from the ends of the earth, but
the vigilantes of 1856 were called into
being mainly because of political cor
ruption. The Ku-Klux Klan of recon
struction times in the South was organ
lied on different plan, one highly sug-
gestive of some of the recent Southern
lynchings. The lynchings and White
Cap doings in Indiana. in the Cos, the
SOS and the early years of the present
decade were of still another order.
From 1856 to 1868 the entire southern
tier of counties in Indiana was con-
trolled by what was known as the Reno
gang. The little city of Seymour was
the focus of it's energies. There had
been killings, robberies, train holdups--
all sorts of crimes. One day in 1866
mysterious sign-the number IL, in
closed in a triangle-was seen in many
public places. Few knew what the sign
meant at first, but the whole world
knew all about it full soon, for when
ever and wherever it was seen there
We're hangings galore by the vigilantes,
and in every county of Indiana's south
ern tier one or more ''hangman's trees"
or ''hangman's corners may be still
seen.
1t took nearly three years to do up
the Reno gang, at the end of which
time the State authorities sent detect
ives into the vicinity of Seymour. They
never made their discoveries known, if
they found anything out, and they
didn't stay long. Possibly they were
moved to depart by the posting of no.
tices giving their names and volunteer
ing the information that while they
would be welcome to remain if they in
tended to go into ordinarys business,
they were not at all welcome IF they
had any notion of sticking their noses
into the affairs of honest men
The White Caps proper of Indiana
have almost always been actuated by
desire to improve the personal morals
of the gayer members of the commu-
nifty, and the numerous whippings they
have inflicted upon. those whose conduct
had dfspleased are we'll remembered
Lynchings became common in Indiana
about every quarter-century; the
White Cap outbreaks occur at the
end of shorter periods.-Cleveland Plain
Dealer.