The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-01-10
THE ONLY MAINE LYNCHING.
JIM CULLEN'S AWFUL CRIME AND
 THE PENALTY HEPAID,

A Giant Whom the Down. -Easters Carr
 ried, Pintoned, in Wagon to Where | Limb ofn Tree Hung Over the Road,
 and That Was the End of Him-A
 Brother's Awful Threat.
 The mother of the only man who was 1 ever lynched in New England by mol
 of his neighbors died in Mars Hill 1T
 Aroostook county this week. This wasn't her only claim to distinction. At the time of her death she was lOt
 years and some months old. Her name
 was Mary Cullen, and she was the mother of eleven children. One ol them was Jim Cullen, and the story of Jim Cullen is one of the most tragic
 tales in the history of the state.
 Thirty years ago Jim Cullen mingled labor in a Presque Isle sawmill with petty depredatons in the section. He
 was q huge man. He had a red beard and red hair and scowling red broWs.
 and his frontal bone sloped back with
 forbidding slant He was a giant in stature anu SdI s5tluludll III HID strength. It is related of him that he
 would lug out of mill ten bundles of shingles at one time. He had should-
 cred and lugged a 40-foot timber that five men couldn't sack
 One night he employed his strength
 to wrench off the shutters of a store in Presque Isle village. He stole pair of boots and some other things. Twas
 in the early spring, and there was snow at the rear of the store. The sheriff knew that Jim Cullen had committed the burglary on account of the size of the tracks in the snow No one else in the town had such big feet
 The deputy sheriff was Granville Hayden-the most popular man in town. He was a leading Mason and a prominent citizen, The warrant for
 the arrest of Cullen was placed in his hands, but 1t was hinted to him that the people would rather have Cullen scared off out of the town permanently than to have him in the hands of the county in jail. Word came to the will lage that Cullen was at camp in Mapleton woods-a camp occupied by two young men named Swanback and Bird. So Hayden took a Presque Isle man with him and started for the camp some dozen miles away. The two reached there at just about night fall. Cullen was there. Hayden ex- hibited the warrant and informed him that he was under arrest.
 "Jim,' said the deputy, significantly, you ought to have run harder Then l shouldn't have caught you. We don't want you around here, anyway"
 q guess I've given him enough of a hint" said Hayden to his Presque Isle, companion, 'so that Jim will clear out in the night. We'll lie down and go to sleep and give him all the chance ill the world. Of course, if he's here in the morning we'll be obliged to take him back with us. But I reckon he'll take the opportunity and skin out"
 So Hayden and his associate left Gull len unbound. At about o'clock they rolled thmeselves into their hunks and went to sleep The boys, Bird and Swanback. also went to sleep.
 Cullen all the evening had been sit ting in a corner and muttering about the way he was being used by some people," He declared that every time anything was stolen they came chasing after him. He growled that he had had enough of it. He wasn't going to stand 1t any longer-and he delivered much more talk of the same sort
 At 10 o'clock all was quiet in the lit- tie camp, except for the sputtering of the dull fire on the hearth. Cullen es+a ct tr lf ft,, self, creaked across the floor and wrenched the axe from block in which it was set. Then with growl of rage he leaped to the bunk where the officer and his man were sleeping and thuck! thuck! he buried the weapon to head in their skulls The men never moved. Then with the lust of blood in his eyes and his heart Cullen whirled with the dripping axe in his hands and started for the bunk where Bird and Swanback were sleeping. But the boys had been awakened. Bird was facing the murderer with eyes in which horror was supersedlng the bewilderment of slumber suddenly disturbed
 Cullen, giant that he was, was an ar rant coward. He couldn't kill even a DOy WHllS tndC DOy LdCeu nm. lie | dropped the axe and commenced to | blubber.
 "They driv' me to it, John," he | snuffed; they just driv' me right to it chasin' me with warrants and sech | like, They wanted to put me in jail | and break up my spring work, that's | what they wanted to do."
 Birds voice quavered with fright, but | he affected to side with the murderer He told him he had done just right in killing the men. In his mortal fear | that the giant would suddenly decide | to slay him and his companion for the sake of covering up the crime he never let his eyes fall from the face of Gull len. Cullen decided that he would | burn the bodies. He made the boys as- ;ist him in his grisly task. A huge fire was built out oe doors and the bodies ', were carried out and thrown upon the pyre. Daylight was streaking the east before the hideous work had been &C., 
 Then Bird and Swanback argued long with the man They wanted him to al ow them to go home. Suspiciously he eyed them and pondered He kept in ;isting that if he allowed them to go hey would ''blow on him. They pro- ested that they would do nothing of he sort. They explained that if they lidn't get home that day their folks 1 T