Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1901-01-25
MOB BURNS A NEGRO.
LEAvENwoRrH. KAN., WITNESS.
ES A HORRIBLE AFFAIR.
Doomed Man Fastened to a Stake and.
Oil-saturated Fuel Piled About Him
Wretch Had Attacked bliss Eve
Roth-suspected Of Another Crime.

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Tuesday afternoon, took from it Fred
Alexander, a negro, and burned him al
the stake. Alexander was under arrest
for an attempted assault on Miss Eva
Roth and was suspected of having as
saultcd and murdered Miss Pearl Forbes
last November.
The negro was taken from his cell ut
the State penitcntiary at 3 o'clock in.
the afternoon and loaded into IL hack and
taken to Leavcnworth. Fifty deputy
marshals surrounded him and deputy
Sheriffs Stancemyers und Tom Brown
snt in the hack on either side of him.
There were fifty bugges and wagons in
the procession which followed the hack
IN, and it was funeral march indeed for
Fred Alexander. The trip to town was
made quietly and there was no attempt to
create disturbance on the road.
Entrance to the Jail was effected by
steel rails and iron bars, with which the
mob battered in the doors and wrcnclled.
the cell doors and gratings from thciK
faStenings. Sheriff Everhardy was call.
ed upon to surrender the negro, but re.
fused. The mob was prepared for this
action on his part, and in minute the
steel rails, propelled as battering rams
by the united strength of hundreds OF
determined and bloodthirsty men, began
resistless attack on the Jail doors. One
after another the barriers gave way to
the onslaught and in less than fifteen
minutes the trembling negro was i'll the
clutches of his captors.
The punishment meted out to Alexan-
der was identical with that administered
by Colorado mob last November to an
other negro, Preston Porter. The details
Of Porter's execution We're fresh in the
minds Of Leavenworths people, and as
Alexander was accused of precisely q
similar crime his punishment was made
replica of the Colorado affair.
He was taken to the scene of his alleg-
ell victims death, fastened by chains to
an iron stake driven in the ground, fuel
was then piled around him and saturated
with oil and the father of his alleged VIC
tim given the privilege of putting the
torch to his funeral pyre. Alexander
made no resistance after once dragged to-
the stake and only kept saying: You are
killing the wrong man."
While preparations We're being made
for the execution there stood on IL box
across the street a woman of 20. She
had stood at the door of the penitentiary
and had said, THAT is the man." as she
saw Warden Tomlinson produce Alexan-
der. ''That is the man, she said, who
assaulted me-" The crowd had heard her
evidence. That evidence was the negro's-,
sentence and the mob was carrying it out
By o'clock the stake was declared
ready. 1t was the work of but few
moments for half IL dozen men to haul
Alexander from the wagon up the four
foot bank of cordwood, and to fasten
chain about his chest and another about
his feet to the rail. Then came the coal
oil. 1t was poured ON his head and
splashed upon the cordwood.
''More! Good! Light it," were the
cries.
Confess, for last timc," said rugged
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 kill the man who hael killed
his daughter.
II ain't got n thing to confess"
sThen you are off for hell" was his
answer.
"Wait. Let me see my mother. Let
me shake hands with my friends. l see
lots of them here" But the oil was all
poured and the match was ignited. In
moment there was flicker, flame. the
head Of the negro waved from side to
side us the flames jumped to meet it. A
tiendish roar burst from the multitude.
Alexander's mother was the only one
noticed crying. She was taken away by
her negro friends before the match was
applied.
In less than five minutes he was hang
ing limp and lifeless by the chains that
bound him. As soon as the crowd saw
that life was extinct, it began slowly to
disperse.
When, two hours later, the fire had died
down sufficiently to allow the crowd to
approach what remained of Alexander,
there was q wild scramble to obtain
relics, bits Of charred flesh, pieces of
chain, scraps of wood-everything that
could possibly serve as souvenir, was
seized on with morbid eagerness.