The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1900-01-25
TWO MURDERERS
LYNCHEO BY A MOB.
Geo. and Ed SiIbee Taken from
Jail at Ft. Scott and Hanged
ANOTHER ESCAPED VIOLENCE.
Elder of the Victims Dies Cursing the
Crowd. Tney We're Convicted Of
Killing Leopold Edlinger.

Killing Leopold Edlinger.
Ft. Scott, Kan, Jan. 20.-The
bodies of George and Ed Silbee, alias
Meeks, of Kansas City, convicted last
Monday OF the murder OF Leopold
Edlinger, young German, near this
city, in October, are tonight hang
ing by the neck to nearby trees in
the jail yard here, dead.
A determined mob did the work.
The barbed wire trocha surrounding
the Jail is a wreck, the immense doors
leading into the prison are battered,
twisted and torn, and the inside OF
the jail looks as if it had been a
wooden toy in the hands of a giant.
Both men died game. George Sill
bee placed the moose about his own
neck and died cursing the crowd.
Just before he was swung into eterni-
ty he turned and called to his brother
On you, die game"
He tried to get a knife from a boy
as they left the Jail, and when the
tree to which he was hanged was
reached, stated in calm tones that he
himself shot Edlinger, and that Amos
Philips struck him on the head with
an ak. He further said that his
brother Ed did not take part in the
crime, but that Philips was guilty
''as hell
''Be sure to get Philips" he urged.
Then came his last words. which were:
"And now, - - you all, hang
me-" and up he went.
Ed was calm, but not brazen like
his brother He said: Hang me, if
you will, but 1 did not help kill Ed
linger. George shot him and Philips
hit him with an AK" He got no
further. Four or five men had him
by the feet. The moose was around
his neck, the rope over a tree limb
and a dozen men seriously pulling at
the end of it,
Ed, the younger brother, suffered
the more, and his face and neck were
badly bloated George died without
a struggle.
The authorities seemed absolutely
awestricken and powerless, and moth
ing has been done with the bodies.
They hang dangling in the air, with
the whole town out to view the sight.
The mob began to gather at dark,
but was never noisy, and until the
rush was made on the iailno unusual
noise was made.
At about ) O'Clock this evening the
officers discovered that the Silbee
brothers, the first men convicted of
this murder, had been at work on
the cage and other Jail doors, and
sawed the hinges. A number of po-
licemen and all the deputies were
called together by the sheriff and an
attempt made to drive the prisoners
back into their cells, whereupon they
made desperate attempt to escape.
Deputy sheriff Allen and Patrolman
Behnec entered the corridor unarmed
when Ed Silbee struck Allen over the
head with an iron bar, knocking him
down. The officer was game, jumped
TO his feet and terrible struggle be-
gan between the four men.
The guards at the door began to
fire into the air in an attempt to
frighten the prisoners, but this did
not work, and Behner's revolver was
handed to him and he shot George
Silbee in the leg. That brought the
desperate men to their senses, and
they returned to their cells.
The people were undoubtedly pro-
voked into action by this assault.
When the officers finally succeeded in
getting the brothers into their cells
they were shackled and handcuffsd
and were hanged wearing these adorn-
ments.
When the mob first approached the
jail George Silbee pulled himself into
the window nearest the crowd and
began talking to the people and
cursing them. When the crowd got
inside the jail he yelled to the other
prisoners that craps game was go
ing on. he guessed, and then went to