Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1901-01-18
AN AWFUL PENALTY.
Negro Meets a Terrible Death at
the Hands of a Mob.
BLOT ON LEAVENWORTH'S FAIR NAME.
Fred A~lexander, Accused of Murder
of a Girl Is Taken from
Jail and Burned at
the Stake.

Leavenworth, Kan, Jan. 16.-Fred
Alexander, the negro who Saturday
evening attempted to assault Miss Eva
Roth, and who was supposed to have
assaulted and killed Pearl Forbes in
this city in November, last, was Tues
day afternoon taken from the sher-
ifs guard and burned to the stake
at the scene of his crimes, half a doz-
en- blocks from the center of the city.
Probably 5000 people witnessed the
lynching. The wretch protested his
innocence to the last.
The negro vas taken from his cell
at the state penitentiary at three
o'clock Tuesday afternoon and loaded
into a hack and brought to town.
Fifty deputy marshals surrounded
him, and Deputy Sheriffs Stancemy-
ers and Tom Brown sat in the hack
OF either side of him. There were 50
buggies and wagons in the procession
which followed the hack in, and it was
a funeral march indeed for Fred AL
exander. The trip to town was made
quietly, and there was no attempt to
create a disturbance. on the road.
When the corner of Fourth and Olive
streets was reached, the police who
were in the hack following the one in
which Alexander was concealed,
jumped out and chased several ne
groes. This created a diversion which
attracted the attention of everyone,
and in the excitement the hack in
which Alexander was concealed was
frantically driven to the county jail,
and just as the mob reached the doors
he was locked in the first cell on the
east side of the cell house. All the
doors of the Jail were locked, and the
crowd first attempted to gain admis-
sion by peaceful means.
Attacked the Jail.
Sheriff Everhardy refused to de-
liver the negro. Then the crowd
pushed it's way to the side door, and
using one man as a battering ram,
the door was forced from it's hinges.
Then the crowd surged into the CORR
dor by the narrow doorway. A huge
iron bar was secured, and the iron
door of the cell Q attacked. This
was finally bent so that it could be
forced far enough back for men to
climb over it. Several gained an en-
trance in this amer. In the mean
time the crowd had pushed down the
side gate of the stockade, and in a
moment there was a yelling pack in
the jailyard. The side door, which
was made of heavy sheet iron. was
the next object of attack. Several of
the thoughtful ones had provided
themselves with sledgehammers and
cold chisels, and it was the work of
only a few moments before the hinges
were cut from inside. It was off it's
hinges in a moment. More men
pushed inside, and the iron bar was
again called into play, and the doors
of the cellroom broken down. Then
the cry went up: "He is not here; he
has escaped. Search the courthouse,
there is a tunnel between, and he has
been taken out that way" Then a
man with sharp eyes spied a shapeless
mass crouched down in one corner of
the dark cell. An exultant cry went
up: 'Here he is; we've got him;
bring the keys"
In the Mob's Hands.
Several keys were found lying
around the corridors, and these were
passed into the crowd. They would
not work. Then again a sledgeham-
mer was called into action, and in five
minutes the heavy lock had been
broken off. A yell Of terror issued
from the cell. Outside the tension
was SO great that strong men filled the
room with hysterical laughter. Out
side the crowd was yelling in a manner
that has perhaps never before been
heard in the city of Leavenworth. III
side the cell rushed those who were
nearest the door. The mob issued
forth in a moment, dragging the negro
by the coat collar He had been struck
v the head with a hammer, but was
still conscious. Men fought to get al
him. These Infatuated beings struck
savagely at him, and hit only his cap
tors, who guarded him we'll. Outside
the stockade the crowd sprged. Alex.
ander and his captors were surrounded
by a solid wall of human flesh. Across
Third street and up the hill into the
courthouse yard they dragged him
Then they stopped still.
Protests His Innocence.
"Confess before we harm YOU" saic
they.
II am innocent. I am dying fol
what another man did. I see lots O;
my friends here; they know I did no,
do it. If I had been guilty I woulG
have said SO at the p%enitentiary ant
would have staid there for life. TIL.
warden told ms so. The policemen
told me so. Would not I have told then
If I was guilty?"
When he talked his voice was steady
BE spoke with the resignation of a maj
who sees only before him death, slow
perhaps, but certain, and was prepared
to meet it in it's most awful form
When he had finished talking a NOV,
was made for a large cottonwood tire,
in the northeast corner of the court
house yard. He was backed up agains
it, and a chain was hunted for. On,
could not be found, and while the.
waited Alexander was given anothe
Ahonoo, IN oopfaec