The Springfield herald., 1907-01-04
LEBERC LYNCHEp.
Mob OF MASKED MEN HANG DES
PERATE MURDERER.
AT THE LAS ANIMAs JAIL
Lynchlng Party Made Up of Disei-
pIined Men Under leadership
Sheriff and Force overpowered and
Qisarrned,

Sheriff and Force overpowered and
Disarmed.
Denver.--A Republican special from
Las Animas. Colorado, Thursday night
says: Infuriated by the tiendieshnesa
of the crime and by their failure to
| lynch Iceberg 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 a
cell.
They then secured Lars Iceberg, the
| murderer of Henry Lanvenmeyer, and
hung him to a telegraph pole in tn ,
railroad yards an hour after they al
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 1t was fully
an hour after the man was dead bea
fore the people generally knew thai
Iceberg had paid the penalty of his
crime.
The disorderly, leaderless mob oi
last night was transformed into q
thoroughly disciplined body of men un'
der a leader whose commands were
obeyed with alacrity There was No
shouting, no shooting, no loud talking
and The man was secured from the jail
and taken out in less than an houl
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 1t is believed that Iceberg was
insane, the feeling against the mar
was so intense that the avenger,
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 tbs
identity Of the men who tonight tool
justice into their own hands, but it il,
generally believed that they vert
close friends of the murdered farmer
and from the section where the de
ceased lived and where the atrociou;
crime was committed.
The people of the city generally he
lieved that the attempt to lynch lie
berg had been given up, as during tins
day there were no demonstrations ol
any sort against the man and nj
threats made openly that he would b'
made to pay the death penalty for his
flendish crime.
Before Las Animas knew that thu
man had been hanged Iceberg hat
been dead more than an hour.
Details of the arrival of the lynch
ing party at the Jail were divulged b!
two negroes confined in the jail fol
petty offenses.
. I,N
completely armed, made their appear
ance at the jail and demanded of thu
sheriff that the prisoner. Iceberg, b'
turned over to them. The demand mel
with instand refusal.
Without further words the leader
of the mob disarmed and overpoweret
Sheriff Brown. Marshal McCune ant
Undersheriff McAffee.
The three men were then gagged
and bound, thrown into cell and LEFT
there while the mob began the effor
to get Iceberg out of the steel cage il
which he was confined.
The work of the mob last night hat
made entrance to the Jail compare
lively easy. All that was left between
the mob and the prisoner was the stee
gage, which the mob last night bat
tered in vain.
With the fifty men was one who wal
evidently well acquainted with tn,
mechanism of the lock on the stee
cage. The lock last night resisted al
efforts of the mob, but in few min
utes tonight the locksmith of the party
managed to break it and effect an ell
trance to the cell of Leberg.
When the avengers arrived at thu
jail Iceberg was in bed. When h.
heard them he got up and dressed. ant
when the men broke into the cell ht
met them calmly and allowed the lead
ers to put n rope around his neck with
out resistance.
In thirty minutes, that is at 9:15
Iceberg was brought out of the cell
and the rope put around his neck. HI
was then led by the mob to telegraph
pole in the railroad yards about 15t
yards from the Jail.
Without evidence of excitement, and
with absolutely no noise, the rope wal
hoisted over an arm of the pole ant
Leberg was jerked twenty feet OF the
ground BY twenty men.
No shois were fired at the body, ant
there was absolutely no other demon
StratiOn.
While it is believed by many thu
Leberg was insane, and that no san;
man could have committed the crim;
charged against him, the feeling raI
so high among the friends of his vic
tim. who are believed to have been TIL,
men who composed the mob who huns
Iceberg. that nothing would satisfy
them except the netting out of sum
mary punishment.