Bismarck daily tribune., 1908-12-22
4 NIGHT Of TORTURE R
It Brought a Fortune to Its Half
Strangled Victim.

~ DlUuyHt q tUitusitg " itS Tail
Strangled Victim.
| IAN INNOCENT MANS ORDEAL.
Twice Strung Up by Lynehers, He
Confessed TO Murder and Was After
| ward indicated and Recovered $25,-
600 From His AssaiIanss.
Late In the fifties Of the last CEN
tury George w. King was the pro-
prietor Of a hotel In Oxford, twenty
Rix miles from Lafayette, Ind. In
1850 q stranger arrived at the hotel
and gave his name as DR., Rowe. He
told King that he had no money and
asked to be trusted for his board till
he could get practice In the place,
promising to pay him as promptly as
possible. King. consented to the ar
fangement, and Rowe soon became a
favorite with the people on account Of
his companionable disposition and SUI
perior intelligence. The doctor, how
ever, fell deeper and deeper In debt.
He had been at the hotel for nearly q
year when King reminded him one
morning that he had not paid any
thing on his board bill for three
months. The converse tion, it after
ward appeared, was overheard by
some one in the hotel, though moth
ing was thought Of it at the time.
Al week after the conversation Rowe
was called ont late at night to see a
patient and failed to return. Days
passed without any word from him.,
and his disappearance soon was con-
nected with the conversation that had
passed between him and the landlord
about the unpaid board. One night
three months later a party OF disguised
men entered the hotel and, overpow-
ering King, took him to a woodland
adjoining the town. |:y
He recognized the voices OF several
Of his captors and especially Of the
leader, who told him that he was sus-
pected Of numbering Rowe and de-
manded that he confess King stoutly
maintained his innocence, and the
leader OF the mob ordered his COM
panions ito string him vi" "a rope
was placed around his neck, q dozen
men pulled down stout limb, over,
which the other end Of the rope was
thrown, and when the limb was re-
leased 1t carried King Off his feet and
left him hanging by the neck. He
was nearly unconscious when let down
and again ordered to confess.
! After much delay he was restored
sufficiently to understand what was
said to him, and he again refused, de-
claring his innocence and saying he
4 did not know what had become Of
Rowe. A second time he was strung
up and a second time let down, but
life was nearly extinct, and he was
much longer in being restored than be-
fore. 55..]# NJ Il
The luckIess landlord knew he could
not, pass through another such ordeal
land live, SO he consented to confess.
He purposely heightened the confes-
sion In order to gain time and said
that he and two men, named Rogers
land Haggard, had poisoned some whis-
ky and induced Rowe to drink it, and
after his death they had buried him
in a hollow some distance away. 1t
was nearly daylight when the confes-
sion was made, and the lynchers de.
termined to take King to jail in Lafa-
lyette and then arrest Rogers and Hag-
gard. {E 5s
Before the jail was reached day had
dawned, and King recognized shis cap
tors as members Of the Horse Thief
Detective company Of Benton, Warren
and Tippecanoe counties, nearly ali OF
4 whom were known to him. Confident
Of his guilt. the men made no attempt
to conceal their identity SO great
4 was the excitement and SO intense the
feeling against King that he waived
examination and went to jan, hoping
that something would turn up to es-
1 tablish his innocence
From the jail at Lafayette King ad-
dressed letters to editors Of papers fiji
Cincinnati, Chicago, st. Louis, Louis
! Vile and other cities, setting out the
circumstances Of his confinement and
asking them to keep his letter III the
papers IN hopes that It might fall I'M
der Rowe's notice. The appeal was a
pathetic one and was copied into
many papers throughout the north
i west. 81 3s5
Two weeks after its first appear
ance Or. Rowe rode into Oxford and,
Iattended by a number Of citizens, pro
ceeded to Lafayette, where his ap-
pearance caused the Immediate re-
lease Of the accused landlord. In ex-
PLANTATION Of his disappearance Rowe
said he had left his home In the east
on account of domestic troubles, that
he had learned that his wife was on
her way to Oxford, and he had deter
mined to leave the place secretly In
order to prevent her from learning
where he had gone He had gone to
q little town in southern Illinois, and
1t was there that he learned that the
4 man who had befriended him was sus-
i pected Of his murder and was In jail
i In Lafayette.
4 I Ar soar ae King xvae ra1aacad to