The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1900-12-18
ALLEGED COLORED MURDER
ER'S SWIFT Ind.
MOB. CRIMLY Determined
Batters Down Jail Wall and
Hangs Victim in Court
House Yard.

Indianapolis, Dec. 17-A special to
the Sentinel from Bonneville, Ind,
says that John Rolla, the third Of the
colored men implicated in the murder
of Holly Simms, was hung to tree
in the court house yard by a mob Of
about 100 men from Rock port at $3.50
O'Clock this evening.
Not shot was fired and everything
was conducted as quietly as if the exc
cution had been one under the sane
tion Of the law.
Rolla was brought to Bonneville
this afternoon about 4 O'Clock in
charge Of Sheriff Aderson Of Rockport.
Upon his arrival he was placed in a
cell on the second floor of the Jail and
his presence was known to only a few
citizens. A few minutes after 6
O'Clock a body of 100 men marched
through the principal street Of the
town to the Jail and demanded that
the prisoner be turned over to them.
Sheriff Benjamin Hudson was out Of
town and his deputy, Raymond Char
ry, was in charge Of the jail. He had
heard that the mob was on its way
and at once made an effort to get the
prisoner out of town and take him to
Evansville, but before this could be
accomplished the mob had arrived and
the futility of the attempt became ap-
parent. He declined to give up the
keys to the Jail and members of the
mob at once began to batter down the
walls Of the Jail with telegraph pole,
! ~, Ioyl1ol INV lNonr on
more men. As soon as hole large
enough to admit the body Of man
had been made, six members Of the
mob crawled through and with sledge
hammers broked own the door of
Rolla IS CELL
! Inside the Jail the negro could hear
the sounds of the telegraph pole, as
it bored it's way, inch by inch, through
the wall and he lay upon the floor in
his cell in an agony of fear. When
the men reached his cell he protested
his innocence in loud tones, begging
pitifully now and then to be spared.
The men working at the door of the
cell might have been made of marble,
judged by the attention they paid to
the wailing of the negro.
Little time was used in breaking
into the cell and in the twinkling of
an eye the thoroughly terrorized col
ored man was in the hands Of the men,
who proceeded to place rope round
his neck. All left, crawling out by
the hole they had made, dragging the
negro out with them.
A few minutes was consumed III the
march to the Jail yard, where the rope
was thrown over the limb of a tree
and a hundred willing hands pulled at
the rope and sent his body flying into
the air. The loose end of the rope
was tied to the tree and as soon as the
members of the mob were sure their
work had been completed they left
in as orderly manner as they had
entered the town.
None of the mob was masked and
men, to all appearances, in every state
of life, took part in the lynching. Not
shot was fired before or after the
lynching and aside from the excited
groups of men standing on the street
corners, stranger would have known
nothing of the tragedy that had just
been enacted.
The citizens of Bonneville made no
effort to assist in the protection of the
negro and some admitted quite frankly
that the citizens generally were in
sympathy with the mob.
Judge Swab, of the circuit court,
made every effort to prevent violence,
but the mob paid no attention to him
and proceeded with its work. The
members of the mob came to Boone
vile in wagons, on foot and horseback.
They came in columns of three under
command of men who had evidently
been selected as leaders.