The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1901-01-17
NEGRO MURDERER is
BURNED BY MOB.
leavenworth People Wreak
Vengeance on Fred Alex
ander.
DIES IN SIGHT OF HIS HOME
Kerosene is Poured Over Body
and Match Applied.
DIES IN. SIGHT OF HIS HOME
". G. FORBES STARTS THE FIRE.
After Death the Negroes Hands and
Ears Are Cut 0ff. Appalling Record
of Crime.

| Leavenworth, Kan, Jan. ID
: mob composed of several hundred
men broke into the county Jail here
about 400 O'Clock this afternoon
and took Fred Alexander. a negro
charged with the murder of Pear
Forbes and an assault upon Miss
Eva May Roth. from his cell. poured
Kerosene over his body, chained him
to an iron post and burned him. The
match which put an end To the mis-
cradle creatures life was applied by
William e. Forbes, ia her Of the muir
dered girl
The negro was burned in the sight
OF 5000 people. on the spot where
the body of Pearl Forbes was found
on the night of last election day.
The active mem ers of the mob were
the young men of Leavenworth. who
considered the measure necessary for
the future protection of their sisters.
wives and sweethearts. Before the
quick fire which stilled the vicious
negro heart had died out men cut
the shriveled hands and ears OF the
victim away, wrapped them in paper
| and carried them home as memen-
toes OF the terrible scene. Women
and children who were in the great
multitude which stood around the
stake to which the negro was chained
and roasted, almost fought with each
other for fragments of the boards
watch fed the fire LETT uncomsumed.
The place to which Alexander was
dragged was ii ravine near a culvert.
which runs beneath Lawrence ave
nue. The ground SLOPES back on
either hand in benches. There the
people, who had gathered to SEE the
tragedy played to the end. stool.
The lay OF the ground afforded good
positions for all, and there was no
scrambling, no disorder.
The men who had the real work in
hand acted quickly. They brought
a piece of railroad iron from the
Santa Fe tracks, which run near the |
spot, drove it into the ground and
chained the negro TO it. Then pine |
boards We're carried from a pile of |
scrap lumber beside .he street and |
piled around his feet. An oil tank |
wagon belonging to the Standard |
Oil company, stood at the top OF the /
hill near Lawrence avenue, the driver
being down in the crowd Some one
drew a bucket of kerOsine from the
wagon and came running toward tie
negro.
William G. Forbes, father of the
murdered girl, approached Alexan-
der and asked him to confess. Alex
ander replied:
People, you are killing the wrong
man. Some day you'll run up
against the right man, the man who
killed the girl
Before the words were fairly out of
his mouth the man with the kerosene
dashed it over the negro's body.
'ileOne struck a match and handed 4:
{ to Forbes. He applied it to the
'aturated boards at the negro's feet.
\ pillar OF flame shot upward, and a
shout from the people drownded the
sgOniZed shrek of the man at the
stake. For moment all was silence
save the kissing and cracking of the
danes, and the wind rolled away d
great black cloud OF smoke, tainted
With the smell OF kerosene and burn
NJ flesh.
While in the court yard of the Jail
confessed to the assault !
on Miss Roth as we'll as other girls.
he denied having killed Miss Forbes.
however
CHARGED WITH MANY CRIMEs.
Fred Alexander was charged by !
he Leavenwcrth police with thirteen
eparate crimes. all of the nature for
which negroes have been burned from
line to time. The police saw his !
record was brief. compare ,
lively. in point of time. but in abso-
ute feHdishness unparalleled.
The Sedalia iambeau club viii Fe