The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1913-12-19
.SLAYERLYNcnED
0Ob 1oOk culbevison FrOu Jall q
Wllllston Meaday Might
MURDERER OF DILLON FAMILY
Hanged to oIrdsr Of Railway
with Bullets by Mob

Williston, N. d., Dec. 49,
About 2 o o'clock this morning q
we'll organized mob of 80 men.
heavily armed. surrounded the
county Jail here, smashed in
the door with a four.inch water
pipe which they had picked up
on the street. took Cleve Cul-
bertson. the convicted murder
er of the y. T. Dillon family,
out, put him into an automo-
bile. drove down to the Little
Muddy river bridge and strung
him up to one of the overhead
girders.
As he hung there members
of the mob fired eleven shots
into him, Ave of them passing
through his body. 1t is believ-
ed that life was extinct before
any shots were fred, death be-
ing due to strangulation.
Sheriff Erickson, States At
torney Burdick and the coroner
were on the scene within 40
minutes and took the body
back to town. The coroner ex.
amined the mans brain and
found it to be perfectly normal
and it was also pronounced by
several other physicians today.
Culbertson's defense in his
trial was insanity.
The mob was evidently all
from out of town supposedly
from the locality where the
murder was committed, near
Ray, and was thoroughly or
ganized. They came into Will
lirton quietly and no one knew
of their approach until they
were well in the center of the
town. They took possession
of the telephone Office and the
city fire hall and also covered
the power house 90 the engi-
neer could not give An alarm.
The crime for which Culbert-
son was lynched was one of
the most revolving in the his
tory of the state. 1t occurred
iOct. n, about 9 O'Clock in the
evening. Mr.. Dillon. familiar
ly know as Doc, was in the
barn STOPPING over to get oats
from bin when he was shot
in the back.
Mrs. billions body was found
in the yard half way between
the house and the barn and
her death was evidently in
Simultaneous. The third mem
her of the family was Leila, the
13.year-old daughter, whose
body was found in a bed room
lying at the foot of the bed in a
pool of blood. She was shot
through the breast.
Doc Dillon did not die at
once and the crime was first
discovered by u neighbor pass
ing who heard the wounded
mans cries for help. Dillon
was taken to the home of a
cousin. Jchn Dillon, about
eight miles from Ray, where
he died the next day. He made
an ante tnortem statement in
which he named Culbertson as
the murderer.
No motive for the crime was
ever shown and at the trial,
Culbertson's attorney admitted
the killings but put in the plea
of insanity. The trial was a
comparative short one but at
tracted a large throng. The
case was given to the jury Dec.
8 at 8: O5 o'clock in the after
noon and at 8:O5 that night
they brought in a verdict of
guilty of murder in the first
degree and fixed Culberts0n' .
punishment at imprison ment
for life.
In accordance with this YER
dict sentence was formally
passed on the man last Monday
by Judge Fisk. The verdict
was an extremely unpopular
one and resulted in much
strong discussion and comment
which eliminated in the work
of the mob Monday night.
! States Attorney Burdick says
everything within the power
of his Office will be done to as-
certain who the members oi
the mob were, and if necessary