The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1906-06-08

Springfield, Mo-, which recently dis
tressed the friends of order and JUS
tice the country over.
After a thorough investigation of the
events which led up to and eliminated
in the hanging and burning of the
three negroes by a mob, the grand
jury has just made it's report. 1t is the
report that drives home the lesson of
the case.
First of all, the grand jury finds that
two victims of the lynching, Duncan
and Coker, were not guilty of the
crime of which they were accused. The
evidence secured, and it was complete,
shows It was impossible for them tc
have made the alleged attack upon
Mrs. Nina Edwards, because the as
sault could not have occurred later
than $50 o'clock on the night Of April
13. and the two negroes were at work
for transfer company that night. and
did not leave their duties until 10
O'clock.
Again, the jury doubts that Mrs. Ed
wards was assaulted by anyone. 1t
cites her unsavory reputation as
among the substantial grounds for the
belief that her story was a fabrication
Thus. in a nutshell, the sequel proves
that a bowling gang deprived two men
nocent as the poor creatures We're,
hanged and tortued them. Now that
the victims are dead, it develops that
the courts would have established their
innocence had they had the trial they
were entitled to under the constitu-
ton. AS for the third man burned on
that night of April IA. he was seized
and lynched wholly in order that the
mob might have material on which it
might feed still further its appetite
for blood, which the earlier anarchy
had whetted.
"The lynchers, says the grand july
consisted mainly of crowd of ire
sponsible, drunken men, who had no
respect for law or for order and no re-
gard for the rights of others, and who
took advantage of the occasion to COM
NIT acts of lawlessness that were abso-
lutely barbarous and fieidish, and these
acts were nothing more or less than
the outward exhibition of their inward
criminality."
AS for the sheriff, the grand jury
declares he failed to take all the pre-
cautions and to make all the resistance
he might have made successfully in
suppressing the mob and in protecting
the prisoners of whom he was the law
full custodian. Of the police depart
ment. the report says:
Considering the facts as We have
them, the police officers must be re-
garded as culpably lacking in vigilance,
in that they did not secure more def
mite information as to the lawless in
tentions of at least several hundred
persons, who were round about them,
and from out of whom the mob was
formed.
1--WE further find them lacking in
the discharge of duty in this, that not
withstanding an urgent appeal for aid
was sent by the sheriff to police head
quarters only two officers were dis
patched to his assistance and they
never reached the jail
The whole affair is a shocking and
disgusting exhibition of lawlessness or
the part of the mob and fncompetency
approaching criminality on the part of
the officers whom the people had in
trusted with the great duty of defend
ing the law.
4 lsrrI&N Nt,st-
affair there should be no hesitancy
lamong the high officers OF the state of
Missouri TO bring mob and traitorous
lagents of the law TO terms. Every one
empowered to see that the laws are
faithfully executed, from the governor
down, should make short shift of the
offenders. The dignity of the law de-
mands it, The integrity OF the func-
tons of government urges it. The
memory of guiltless targets of lawless-
ness pleads for it. Members of the
llynching committee should be sent TO
the penitentiary Officers who failed
in their duty should not only be sum-
marily removed, but, besides, should be
made to pay whatever penalty may be
Imposed upon them under the law. The
harsher this penalty. the better Quick
aggressive prosecution is desirable
The mob spirit must be downed. Here
is a chance to deal it a heavy blow
Courier-Journal
We print the above at the earnest
request of a valued subscriber and
endorse the article in its entirety and
print il as our own.
oeala's Cheerful Resignation.