The Colorado statesman., 1906-12-29
LEBERC LYNCHED
MOB OF MASKED MEN HANG DES
PERATE MURDERER.
AT THE LAS ANIMAs JAIL

| Lynching Party Made Up of Disci-
pIined Men Under leadership
Sheriff and Force Overpowered and
Disarmed.
Denver.-A Republican special from
Las Animas, Colorado, Thursday night
says: Infuriated by the fiendieshness
of the crime and by their failure to
lynch Leberg last night, fifty masked
men, heavily armed, tonight broke into
the Jail, overpowered Sheriff John d.
Brown and two deputies, bound and
gagged them, and threw them into
cell.
They then secured Lars Iceberg, the
murderer of Henry Lanvenmeyer, and
hung him to telegraph pole in the
railroad yards an hour after they at
tackled the jail.
| The lynching was done so quietly
that only those directly concerned in
the hanging knew anything unusual
was about to occur, and it was fully
an hour after the man was dead be-
fore the people generally knew that
Iceberg had paid the penalty of his
crime.
The di5orderly, leaderless mob of
last night was transformed into
der a leader whose commands were
obeyed with alacrity. There was no
shouting, no shooting, no loud talking.
and Ih. man was secured from the Jail
and taken out in less than an hour
from the time the lynchers started to
make their way into the jail.
The men who meted out death to
Iceberg met little resistance at the
hands of the peace officers. When the
mob arrived at the Jail they sought
these officers and before they could
offer resistance they were helpless.
While it is believed that Iceberg was
| insane, the feeling against the man
was so intense that the avengers
would not risk his being declared in
sane by the courts, so that the murder
of the popular farmer would go un'
avenged.
Nothing can be learned as to the
| identity Of the men who tonight took
justice into their own hands, but it is
generally believed that they were
close friends of the murdered farmer
and from the section where the de-
ceased lived and where the atrocious
| crime was committed.
The people of the city generally be-
| lieved that the attempt to lynch Le'
| berg had been given up, as during the
| day there were no demonstrations OF
any sort against the man and no
threats made openly that he would be
| made to pay the death penalty for his
| fiendish crime.
Before Las Animas knew that the
man had been hanged Iceberg had
been dead more than an hour.
| Details of the arrival of the lynch
| ing party at the Jail were divulged by
two negroes confined in the jail for
| petty offenses.
1t was Just S:45 when the fifty men.
| completely armed, made their appear
ance at the Jail and demanded of the
sheriff that the prisoner, Iceberg, be
| turned over to them. The demand met
with instand refusal.
Without further words the leaders
| of the mob disarmed and overpowered
| Sheriff Brown, Marshal McCune and
| Undersheriff McAffee.
| The three men were then gagged
| and bound, thrown into cell and left
| there while the mob began the effort
| to get Leberg out of the steel cage in
which he was confined.
The work of the mob last night had
made entrance to the Jail compara-
| lively easy. All that was left between
the mob and the prisoner was the steel
/
| tered in vain.
With the fifty men was one who was
evidently well acquainted with the
mechanism of the lock on the steel
| cage. The lock last night resisted all
efforts of the mob. but in few min
| utes tonight the locksmith of the party
| managed to break it and effect an en-
trance to the cell of Iceberg.
When the avengers arrived at the
| Jail Iceberg was in bed. When he
heard them he got up and dressed. and
when the men broke into the cell he
met them calmly and allowed the lead
| ers to put q rope around his neck with
out resistance.
In thirty minutes, that is at 9:15,
| Leberg was brought out of the cell,
and the rope put around his neck. He
! was then led by the mob to a telegraph
| pole in the railroad yards about 10
yards from the jail
Without evidence of excitement and
| with absolutely no noise, the rope was
hoisted OYER an arm of the pole and
Iceberg was jerked twenty feet off the
ground by twenty men.
No shots were fired at the body, and
there was absolutely no other demon.
| stration.
While it is believed by many that
j Iceberg was insane, and that no sane
man could have committed the crime
charged against him, the feeling ran
so high among the friends of his vic
tim, who are believed to have been the
men who composed the mob who hung
Leberg, that nothing would satisfy
them except the melting out OF sum.
mary punishment.