The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-01-16
MOB GOT HlN.
CONTINUED from First Page.l


as she saw Warden .Tomlinson produce
who assaulted me- The crowd had
heard her evidence. That evidence was q
sentence and the mob was carrying it out
Don't burn him here was cried.
take him 20 where ne klned MISS =
fairly ran pell nell for the scene of the
November murder. There were plenty Of
Communicated. Into it the negro, dirty.
muddy, bloody. perspiring. .collapsing and
piled his self-constituted guards and
away the mob went for half a mile
There was a race between the wagon
in which the victim rode and one which
had a tank instead of a box, and coal oil
for freight Men beat both to the scene.
These had taken from the Santa Fe track
nearby q rail and had set it upright in the
gfo1nd ABOUT Us pssse tney We're ptlnss
lxindling and eordWood as the negro and
his captors arrived The pyre was not
ready. Alexander was forced to stand
up in the wagon so that the hoWling,
shouting. screaming thousands could be-
hold him. His appearance was the signal
for the most Scathlng condemnation.
Burn him. from thousands. Hurry,
from as many.
ssConfess2' those nearest to him asked.
He has confessed those furthest from
him said; the crowd heard the latter and
The scene of the tragedy was in a nat
uraI amphitheatef. with the pyre at the
bottom 1t really is a gully. For twenty
minutes that mob of 5000 and that lone
victim watched the building of the pile
extreme punishment the mind OF a mad
dened multitude could conceive. But all
things have an ending and by o'clock
the stake was declared ready. 1t was the
work of but a few moments for half a
dozen men to haul Alexander from the
wagon up the four foot bank of cordwood
and to fasten a chain about his chest and
another about his feet to the rail Then
came the coal oil It was poured on his
head. and allowed to drain to the cord
more. Good. Light it,
The crowd could scarcely wait.
Confess for a last time urged old Mr..
FORBES, determined to finish the tragedy
he had set out to witness, but anxious to
have conviction that he was about to help
killed the man who had killed, more
cruelty. even. his own daughter
T amt got a thing to confess"
wait. Let me see my mother. Let me
shake hands with my friends I see lots
But the oil was all poured and the
match was ignited- In moment there
negro waved from side to side as the
flames jumped to meet it. A yel1-such a.
The fire burned for three hours, but the
man must have died in two minutes. He
to death internally. The spectacle was
fearful in the extreme. yet the fire
was found, when too late, that the pris-
oner had been suspended too high, so that
for two hours, the head and shoulders
were only charred- But the rest of the
BODY was consumed.
After Alexander had been dead for half
an hour his mother and sisters appeared.
As the mother caught sight of the body
with the flames playing around 1t she ut
tered a piercing scream and walled out
to the crowd that her boy was innocent.
The two sisters walled and noaned, but
their cries were answered with jeers-
Look at poor Fred. my poor. poor bro
ther,' moaned one of Alexander's sisters
between sobS and shrieks. The mother
lost her self-control in the desperation of
her grief and, throwing her arms wildly
about, screamed: Don't cry for him;
pray, pray!'
AS soon as the crowd saw that life was
extinct II began to slowly disperse. There
were hundreds of the morbid, however,
who stayed to the last Men kept piling
on wood all the time until o'clock, when
the flames were allowed to die down
At O'Clock the body was cut down by
the coroner. after having hung in smoul-
dering fire for nearly three hours.
Fred Alexander was charged by the
IeavenwQrth police with thirteen separate
crimes. all of the nature for which negroes
have been burned from time to time. The
comparatively, in pont of time, but in alb
solute fendishness unparalleled.
Crime after crime Of the nature attempt
ed on Miss May Roth has been traced to
Alexander One case in particular in
which there is no lack of evidence is
that of a young negress named Lizzie
her and made no attempt to conceal
either his identity from the girl or the
matter from her parents. On the other
hand, he went boldly to them and boosted
of his crime. threatening to kill the entire
family if anything said about the
matter. Alexander was % wears OF age.
He was born in IeavenWorth and his
father was a preacher of unsavory rec
ord The elder brother of Alexander was
It is said the mother of the boys schoo1ed
them in the deviltry which they practiced
since early boyhood
RTEgE7 47TrumFNN