The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1911-08-14
NEGRO 7
BURNED
alive.
Recalled Scenes Of
InquiSition.
HAD KILLED POLICEMAN
Dragged From Hospital By
Pennsylvania Mob,
PLACED ON FUNERAL PYRE
PLACED ON FUNERAL PYRE
Victim Leaps From Bed Of Fire
Three Times Only 10 Be Beaten
Back By Fencerai|s-, When
Captured Shot Himse|fThrOugh
Mouth and Fell From Tree.

COatesville, Pa, Aug. IA mob
of 400 mer battered down the doors
of the Coatesvlle hospital, dragged
out Ezekiel Walker, the negro charg-
ed with killing Special Policeman
Rice, carried him half a mile, man.
acled to his hospital cot, and burned
him alive.
The lyINching was accomplished
only after the negro, mad from pain,
had leaped from the blazing pyre
built over him and tried to escape,
dragging the bed. to which he was
bound by his handouts. A crowd or
1000 watched the mob leaders beat
the man with fence rails and force,
him. shrieking, back into the flames.
Three times he bounded up and three
times was thrust back, until finally
the quivering body fell into the fire.
Only then was the mob satisfied.
The masked men walked back to the
town and half hour later they had
dispersed as rapidly as they had
gathered.
crowd of 400 men with handker-
chiefs over their eyes gathered in
front of the hospital. There was no
revealing of Identities. The men call
cd their leaders marshal" and each
other they addressed as brother"
Walker was in shackles and bound
TO a cot IN the mems department on
the first floor. Policeman Howe had
been stationed to guard him. Attend
nnts at the hospital saw the mob
gathering and ran to the telephone.
There was no response over the wire.
The men evidently had cut all. wires
leading irto the building.
The mob stood muttering on the
lawn and in the street in front of tho
hospital. An ambulance came up the
driveway. In an instant the leaders
had surrounded It and climbed on the
drivers seat. They thought the negro
was being hurried away. The patient
In the ambulance was not Walker.
Lying fastened to his cot in the hos.
pital, he was crying and trembling
yell came from the outside
Assured that the man they were
after was still in the hospital, the
mob advanced toward the door. For
an instant there was a falling back.
Some Of the leaders stopped midway
up the lawn and few went on
alone. A man in white mask, whom
the other men had been addressing
as marshal" walked up the steps.
He turned and faced the crowd on
the lawn. "Men," he shouted, "are
you going TO allow a white man 10
be downed by nigger?"
Those in the rear Of the mob
surGed forward The others were
pushed up toward the hospital steps,
and with a wild yell the men storm
ed the hospital door. They hammered
glass out of the windows with their
fists. In the corridor OF the hospital
Policeman Howe met them with a
| drawn revolver. He fired two shots
but the mob did not notice Il. They
brushed the policeman aside and
pushed away the hospital attendants
who tried to interfere.
Walker lay helpless on his bed In
the right wing OF the hospital Into
the ward the leaders rushed, other
patients fainting and screaming from
| fright. Someone produced rope
They TIED this around the shackiod
negro. fastening him to the cot, wind
Ing the rope about his feet and un
| derneath the bed Then a score OF
men laid hold OF the rope and ran
down the corridor Out of the hos
pital they dragged the bed and the
negro with 1t.
| Walker couldn't make an outcry
His self-infllcted bullet wound in the
mouth had made this impossible
| His eyes glared in his terror. The
negro's he'd turned and rolled the
manacles and ropes digging into his
flesh.
The crowd outside the hospital gave
a cheer when their leaders came out
Out over the lawn they ran to tbs
street. Chief Of Police Olmsted triet
to rush through the crowd to cid Po
liceman Howe, but he was Aioyet
back into the street.
Outside the hospital grounds, tho
men with the rope started down tn
road on dead run. The cot bumpe
over the roadway and rolled fror
side TO side. The bowling rioit no'
increased to 1000 persons or mor'
followed. A half mile to the soul