The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-10-02
WAS HANGED
THREE TIMES.
Struck By Stone Which Frac-
tured His Skull
And Yet Joseph Spivey Escaped
from Mob Alive.
FIVE MEN WOUNDED
FIVE MEN WOUNDED
In a Street Fight at Oxford, o.,
During the Fair.
Party of Kentuckians Under
took to Shoot Up the Town.

Oxford. O.. Oct. 2-Five men were
seriously injured and one narrowly es-
capped lynching several times as the re-.
suit of riot last evening at this place.
Those injured are:
John Woodruff. marshal of Oxford,
believed to be fatally shot.
Jacob Marrod. deputy marshal, seri-
ously sh6t in the back and in the
shoulder.
Ernest Jotten. school teacher of
Monroe, o.. believed to be fatally shot
in the abdomen.
Louis Spivey of wagonville, KY. seri-
ously shot in the back and breast.
Joseph Spivey. skull fractured by
stone, also Of Wagonville, Ky.
The Spivey brothers were visiting Ed
ward Richardson of Billingsville, 1na.s
just across the state line from Oxford.
The three came here to attend the an
nual street fair and farmers exposition.
The town was filled with strangers
when these three men began carousin.
in a saloon. They pulled their revoivers
on the bartender who elected them and
then they proceeded 10 raise more rrou-
Bile in other saloons. When Marshal
Woodruff undertook to arrest them he
was mortally shot. A fusillade or bull
lets in the crowded streets followed the
shooting of the marshal. Deputy Mar
shall Manrod was shot twice when ne
took the place of his chief. During this
fusillade in the street. Ernest Jotten,
while returning from his school 10 his
boarding house. was struck in the aD-
domen by a stray bullet and he is now
in a critical condition. After the shotpt-
ing the three men ran in different d1-
rections with crowds after each one and
each was hit in the head with stones
thrown by those pursuing them. Louis
Spivey was shot by a citizen. The ex-
citement was intense when the three
men were finally lodged in jail after
running a mile from the scene of the
shooting.
Edward Richardson was dismissed
after it was shown that he had nothing
to do with the shooting and was only
accompanying the. Spivey brothers.
The crowds pursuing the three men
i'll different directions finally concen-
trated about the jail and battered down
\ the door and took Joseph Spivey out to
lynch him. There possibly never was
such an experience of any one in the
hands of mob as his.
He was hauled from place to place
with a rope about his neck and swung
up three different times, and yet
escaped with his life. In their haste
the mob did not pinion his arms or his
/ legs, and he managed to use them so
as to prevent strangulation the first
/ time he hanged. At another time
he was let down so that he might write
a farewell letter to his wife and chill
cut the rope. Before the mob finally
succeeded in hanging him until he was
dead the officers grabbed him and
rushed him off to the city prison, where
4 the mob was held at bay for some time
and finally order enough was secured
for speeches to be made by ex-Mayor
Flanagan, Rev. DIR. Thomas j. Potter
and the brother of Marshal Woodruff.
While the speeches were being deiiy-.
cred. the officers spirited the Spivey
brothers into the cellar of the iail and
! = out oh
made their escape with them to the
Butler county Jail at Hamilton. Ohio, d
distance of 10 miles. The mob then
finding that it had been beaten dis
1 persed. and the village was quiet dur
ing the latter part of the night.
This village was the scene over a
year ago of the lynching of Henry
Corbin, negro, for the murder of Mrs.
| Horaer and a striking feature of the
attempted lynching last night was the
part taken by the negroes, who pro-
tested every time the rope was slack
ened and Joseph Spivey was let down
to say his prayers. write to his wife
4 and CHILDREN. or for any other purpose
| of mercy. Some of the negroes raised
| that if the man had been a negro he
would surely have been lynched in the
first place without giving heed to his
appeals. The mob was without
/ leader at any time, but still it would
not have been foiled but for the ap-
peals of Woodruff's brother to let the
law take its course.
Hamilton, o.. Oct. 2.-The physicians
attending the Spivey brothers, two of
the five men injured in the riot at Ok
| ford last evening. report both today in
/ serious condition. Louis. who was
shot by citizens while assisting the Off
GERS. is in such serious condition that
| physicians can not probe any further
for the bullet. Joseph Spivey. who
may recover, presents a horrible ap-
pearance- Both ears are torn and .his
neck is raw and swollen from the
effects of the rope, while his face is
also disfgnred. His most serious in
| jury is a scalp wound, which was
caused by being hit by stone
The Spivey brothers, who are in jail
here, confessed today that they had
been in shooting scrapes before. having
served terms in the Denitentiary at
Frankfort for shooting to kill. They
ascribed the whole trouble at Oxford
to their drinking, which not only
caused the disturbance in the saloon
but also resisting the officers on the
street Joseph Spivey when asked to-
day for his nearest of kin, replied that
Deputy Sheriff Brannon was his best
friend. Brannon is the officer who
broke through the crowd and cut the
rope the last time Spivey was strung
up last night,
Deputy Brannon is highly commend-
ed for his bravery and Judgment in pre-
venting lynching.