The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-08
OHIO MOB KILLS A
NEGRO MURDERER
Breaks Into Jail and Fills the
Blacks Body With Hun
dreds of Bullets.

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio, March AT
II o'clock tonight Richard Dixon, the
negro of Cythiana, KY, who murdered
Police Sergeant Charles Coils of this
city, was taken from the jail and shot
to death in the jail yard and the body
was taken from there to Main street
and Fountain avenue and hung to a
telegraph pole. where the mob spent
the next half hour riddling the body
with bullets.
The mob forced an entrance to the
jail by butting in the east doors with
railroad iron. At 1920 the mob
melted rapidly. At 1916 the police
were satisfied that there was nothing
more to fear and they with other off,
Gals and reporters passed freely in
and out Of the jail.
+ Shortly before II o'clock q diversion
was made by a small crowd moving
from the east doors around to the
south entrance. The police followed
and bluff was made of jostling them
off the steps leading up to the south
entrance. The crowd at this point
kept growing, while yells of Hold the
police!" Smash the doors!" Lynch
the niggerp were made, interspersed
with revolver shots. All this time the
party with the heavy iron was beating
at the east door, which yielded to the
battering ram, as did the inner lattice
iron doors.
The mob then surged through the
east door, overpowering the sheriff,
turnkey and handful of deputies and
began the assault on the iron turnstile
leading to the cells. The police from
the south door were called inside to
help keep the mob from the cells and
within five minutes the south door
also had fallen. In an incredibly short
time the jail was filed by $50 men,
with all the entrances and yard gates
blocked by fully 1,500 men. The mob
broke its way into the corridors lead
ing to the cells.
Seeing that further resistance was
useless and to avoid the killing Of in
nocent persons, the authorities con-
sented to the demand of the mob for
the right man. He was dragged from
his cell to the Jail, and thence down
the stone steps to paved court in the
jail yard. Fearing an attempt on the
part of the police to rescue him, the
leaders formed q hollow square. Some
one knocked the negro to the ground,
and those near to him fell back four or
five feet. Nine shots were fired into
his PROSTATE body.
When satisfied that he was dead,
dozen men grabbed the lifeless body, and
with a cheer the mob surged into Co
lumbia street and marched to Fountain
avenue, one of the principal thorough
fares of the town. From there they
marched south to the intersection of
Main street and rope was tied around
Dixon's neck. Two men climbed the pole
and threw the rope over the topmost
cross tie and drew the body eighteen feet
above the street Their work was greeted
with a cheer. The fusillade then began and
for thirty minutes the body was kept
swaying back and forth from the force of
the rain of bullets which was turned
upon it, Frequently the arms would fly
up convulsively when muscle was struck
and the mob went fairly wild with de-
light. Throughout 1t all perfect good or
der was maintained and everyone seemed
in the best of humor, joking with his
nearest neighbor while reloading his re-
volver.
Coils was shot by Dixon Sunday morn
ing while the latter was in his room in
a hotel here removing his baggage. He
had decided to quit the place. and fear
ing trouble with Anna Corbin, woman