Las Vegas optic. (East Las Vegas, N.M.) 1908-1921, 1911-08-14
TOOK VICTIM FROM HOSPITAL
LAID COT TO WHICH WOUNDED
MAN WAS STRAPPED ON TOP
OF PYRE OF FENCE RAILS
HAD KILLED A POLICEMAN
SUICIDE BY FIRING
BULLET THROUGH HEAD,
WHEN SURROUNDED

Coatesvllle, Pa, Aug. 14.-Every
person who is found directly or indi
rectly connected with the lynchins
last night of the negro Ezekiel Walker
for the murder of Policeman Edgar
Rice or Saturday night, will be ar
rested and prosecuted to the full ex
tent of the law. This was decided to
day at conference between Sheriff
David M. Colder of Chester county
District Attorney Robert S. Gathrop
Burgess Shallcross, Chief of Police
Umstead of Coatesville, and Chief of
Police Entrekin of West Chester. at
which it was decided to make a full
investigation.
1t is said that the authorities have
not the name of one person directly
connected with the burning of the ne
gro, although many men are suspected.
An investigation independent of that
being prosecuted by the Chester coun-
ty authorities leads to the belief that
men prominent in the community and
who are numbered among the best
citizens in Coatesville are implicated
The number of persons who claim to
have been out of town last night or in
bed is astonishing to the authorities.
The sheriff and district attorney be-
lieve, however, that because of the
large number who participated in the
lynching they will surely get some one
who will tell them enough on which to
base warrants.
Thousands of persons journeyed out
to the scene of the burning today
Nothing is left of the victim, Ezekiel
but his ashes. All the un-
burned portions of the hospital cot
that formed part of his pyre had been
gathered up by souvenir hunters.
When surrounded yesterday Walker
tried suicide sending bullet into his
head. He fell to the ground and was
quickly captured by the crowd With |
no thought of lynching but with the
determination of having him tried
quickly for the murder of Rice, the
posse laid him across three shotguns
and carried him to a waiting automo
bile which brought him to the Coates
vile hospital. When he reached the
hospital, Walker confessed his crime
to Chief of Police Umstead and Dis
trict Attorney Gathrop.
Last night the talk of lynching him
spread and finally a masked man
mounted the steps of the hospital and
shouted: Men of Coatesville, will
you let a drunken niger do up such
a white man as Rice?" The rArong
was instantly transformed into a riot
GUS mob. The attack on the hospital
was then made There were only the
four nurses and po-
liceman in the institution at the time
and a defense of the negro was i'm
possible. Still lying on the cot he
was carried through the streets and
out of the city to the Newland farm.
He had been tied to the bed with ropes
and as the crowd tore fence rails and
gathered wood and other inflammables
Walker writhed on his cot and tug
ged at his bonds but could not free
himself. The mob did its work quickly
and after piling up the rubbish, placed
the cot with its shuddering victim on
it, over the lie A dozen matches, it
seemed, were simultaneously applied
to the pyre and in an instant the
negro was enveloped in flames. The
fire burned the ropes that held him and
he made dash for liberty. Walker
reached a fence and was about to
climb it when stalwart hands seized
him and dragged him back and hurled
him into the fire and the frenzied mob
yelled its satisfaction. Shortly after