Arizona republican., 1901-07-29

school house some years ago Amur Green was strung up by lynch law and his body left hanging there In view of the appearance of the ghost so fre- quently and its apparent inability to rest the community Is beginning to take some stock In Amers dying dec laration that he was innocent of the crime for which he was lynched, and that he will never rest in hls grave uii- til his innocence is made clear.
 Amer Green was known fn the neigh
 borhod as d terror" and was gen erally notorious character. He was an adIndrer of Lucia Mabbit. q daughter of William Mabbit a well-to-do farmer nving near Young America, thirteen
 miles northeast of here. Mabbit did not | approve of the intimacy of his daugh- ter with Green. and at his command the | girl wrote her admirer letter request ing that he abandon his suit for her
 hand.
 Such a request did hot suit the i'm
 petuous nature of Green, who became
 greatly enraged at the girls letter and
 made numerous threats of what he | would do. August l9, 1SS5. Green, in |
 a; the Mabbit house in the evening,
 and asked to see Luella. Her sister, | Cynthia, now Mrs. Walker, went to the
 door and told Green that Luella had | zone to bed and did not wish 10 get up.
 Green raved at hearing this. and final ly Luella got up and dressed and she | and Green went out together,
 That was the last seen of Lucia Mab- bit alive. When she did not return home Q search was made for her, but | no trace could be found. Green was ar | rested on the charge of murder and
 placed in the jail at Delphi Almost
 six months afterward. on Feb. g. 1887, | the body of a woman was fished out of the river some miles below Lafay-
 cite and some of the relatives of the
 girl recognised the corpse as that of Lucia. There were doubts then. and always have been since. of the value of | the Identification. When the coroner S | jury held an inquest on the body picked Out of the river the verdict was that 1t 1 was the body of Lucia Mabbit and that | she came to her end at the hands of l Green. He was held for the crime but
 the state officials found so much diffi- culty In tracing his movements the
 night he had gone out with Luella that | the trial was put off time and again in
 order that they might make out a case | against him.
 This delay was not understood or ap- | preciated by the community. which was
 terribly aroused over the disappearance | of the girl, and was fearful that her ab- Cuctor and murderer. as they judged Green to be, might csoape punishment
 on some technicality. It was resolved
 that Green must die.
 About 10 o'clock on the night of Oc-
 gober 2l, 1887, a mob surrounded the jail
 ut Delphi and called on the sheriff to
 surrender the keys. When he refused
 to give them up the mob attacked the
 jail with cold chisels and sledge ham
 mers and soon forced an entrance.
 Green was taken ou., placed in a wagon
 with a guard and then the mob climb
 esi into their vehlc.es wkich were
 standing around, and the procession ! came to Walnut Grove.
 When they got there Green was con- fronted with MT. Mabbit and to the lat- ter's question as to what he had done
 with Lucia, swore that the girl was alive and well and was then living at Fit. Worth, Tex Mir. Mnhbit and the
 mob w2re of the opinion that this was | lie and was told for the purpose of gaining time. So without any more par
 ley the rope that had been brought
 along was placed about his neck and the other end thrown around the limb If irA avx1 tv. f1t.
 was corpse. He protested his inno-
 cence to the last moment and at no time
 exhibited the least trace of fear except at the expression of wish on the part
 of some of the mob to burn him, and
 then he b"gged them to kill him like a
 man." and not to torture him
 In explanation of his movements with
 Lucia Mabbit on the night they went away together, Green said that he and
 the girl had planned to elope and had | gone from the Mabblt house to Frank 1 fort, where they separated, Lucia go- l ing to Indianapolis. while Green went
 to Kokono for money and they met at
 Indianapolis the day following. From
 there Luella had gone to Texas. while
 he had returned home to settle up some
 anairS preparatory to Joining her. | In the meantime the people are sat-
 isfied that Greens spirit is walking the l earth, and tha'e 1t will never rest until
 the mystery of Lucia Mabbit's fate Is
 enecttally cleared up. But he has driv-
 en them oub ot their school house and
 forced the board'to build a new one.
 and this is undoubtedly the first time in
 the history of Indiana or any other
 state where ghost has had that meas
 ure of official Chicago In- ter Ocean