Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-12-08
A NIGHT 0F TORTURE
It Brought a Fortune to It's Hali
 StrangIed Victim. <
AN INNOCENT MANS ORDEAL.

Twice Strung Up by Lynehsrs, He
 Confessed to Murder and Was After.
 ward Vindieatsd and Recovered $2o,.
 900 From His Asssilants.
 Late in the fifties of the last cen. tury George W. King was the pro prietor of a hotel in oxford. twenty six miles from Lafayette, Ind. In I 1859 n stranger arrived at the hotel and gave his name as pr. 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. rangemcnt, and Rowe soon became favorite with the people on account of hIs companIonable disposition and su. perior intelligence. The doctor, how. ever. fell deeper and deeper in debt. He had been at the hotel for nearly \ year when King reminded him one morning that he had not paid any. thing on his board bill for three months. The conversation, it after. ward appeared, was overheard by some one in the hotel, though noth. ing was thought of 1t at the time.
 A week after the converse tion Rowe was called out late at night to see 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 party of disguised men entered the hotel and, overpow. ering King, took him to woodland adjoining the town.
 1 He recognized the voices of several of his captors and especially of ths leader, who told him that he was sus- pected of murdering 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 up" A rope was placed around his neck, dozen men pulled down a 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. Ha 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 did not know what had become of up and a second time let down, but 1 life was nearly extinct and he was much longer in being restored than be- fore.
 The luckless landlord knew he could not pass through another such ordeal and live. so he consented to confess. He purposely heightened the confess sion in order to gain time and said that he and two men, named Rogers and Haggard, had poisoned some whis- ky and induced Rowe to drink 1t. and after his death they had buried him in hollow some distance away It was nearly daylight when the confes- sion was made. and the lynchers de. termined to take King to jail in Lafa- yette and then arrest Rogers and Hag- gard.
 Before the jail was reached day had dawned, and King recognized his cap tors as members of the Horse Thief Detective company of Benton. Warren and Ttppecanoe counties. nearly all of whom were known to him. Confident of his guilt. the men made no attempt to conceal their identity. So great was the excitement and so intense the feeling against King that he waived examination and went to isll. hoping that something would turn up to es tablish his innocence.
 From the jail at Lafayette King ad. dressed letters to editors of papers in Cincinnati, Chicago St Louis. Louis. vile and other cities. setting out the circumstances of his confinement and asking them to keep his letter in the papers fin hopes that it might fall un- der Rowe's notice. The appeal was a pathetic one and was copied into many papers throughout the north- west
 Two weeks after It's first appear ance Dr. Rowe rode into Oxford and, attended by number of citizens, pro- ceeded to Lafayette. where his ap- pearcnce caused the immediate re- lease of the accused landlord. In ex- plana ton 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 a little town in southern Illinois, and 1t was there that he learned that the man who had befriended him was sus- pected of his murder and was in jail in Lafayette.
 | AS soon as King was released he brought suit against thirty-two mem bers of the Horse Thief Detective company for S5,O00 each and also against the company as corporation. Thomas A. Hendricks. afterward vice president. was his counsel. but the case was not allowed to come to trial, the lynchers compromising by paying King S25,Oo0. With this money he purchased farm and other property near I.afayettp where he lIrad i'll his