The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1916-10-12
PAGE SEVEN


Bert Dudley had been tried and convcted;
but under the lar, he could not be put to
death.
The mob decided that the law needed
amendment, and they amended it by hanging
the murderer.
They were not taking any chances on Leo
Frank escape, STRIPPING pardon, OF a Nc
Naughton ditto.
The Kansas people knew that the convicted
criminal deserved death, IN spite Of the la1c;
and they swiftly made new law to TT that
exceptional case.
The Editors of The Farmers Mail and
Breeze defend these lynchers
O the monsters.!!
How dare they do such a thing?
Go after them, Gregory!
Snatch 'em baldheaded Cart them around
from State to State, until you can ind an
honest cOnvlctng jury
This is how the Kansas editor puts 1t:
THE DUDLEY LYNCHING.
Mob law generally, perhaps always, is to be de-
plOred, atho | am not entirely certain ABOUT tne
last statement Theoretically mob law always IS
wrong, but there have been cases where con0lLlohS
seemed to Justify what was called MOB law l axe
the case of the California vigilantes where the
courts had become VIGOROUSLY corrupt ana COM
pletey under the domination of the worst element
of that country The organlzng OF the Nlgt-
lantes seemed to be the only recourse of the clt-
zens who desired to order and Cecency preVaii'
I scarcely think, however, that it was mop law
The people in that simply were setting ASIDE
the ordinary instruments for carrying OUT tEeF
will because those instrumentallt1eS had talleh
into the hands of thieves and criminals VINO were
using them to shield crime and criminals instead
of suppressing crime and Furnishing CRIMINALS.
believe in that case the people Of Calfo ala were
entirely justified in establishing new methods and
new Observation-Disclosures to carry out their will ana
protect society.
There always is strong sentiment, when a nor
rible crime been committed, like that IN Johh-
son county the other day, IN favor Oh meuhS out
summary vengeance the culprlt. Here was
case where a most brutal and unproVOked murder
was committed Apparently with no more com
junction than a wild beast the man, Bert Dudley,
killed two old people and threw their bodies into
the cellar With indication of regret or re-
morse he confessed his crime. 1t is the mose
natural thing in the world that the nelghoors Oh
these murdered persons should favor sudden ana
summary vengeance on the murderer Perhaps
this feeling was intensified by the fact that Kansas
does not have capital punishment, and the further
fact that the most brutal murderers ever sent ID
the Kansas penitentiary have not been Kept tnere
more than Is years. There is feeling that crime
is not adequately punished in this State. 1T is
doubtful however whether that was taken INTO
consideration by the mob which hung Bert Dud-
ley. or is ever taken into consideration by
mob.
Bert Dudley, the Johnson county murderer, was
very promptly convicted by the jury He would
have been sentenced to life imprisonment the eX-
IRENE penalty for murder in this State Judging
from past experience he would have been pardoned
out within 25 years if he had lived that long.
Most persons will say that this would not be
adequate punishment for the crime he had COM
mitted but that the mob which hanged him took
that into consideration at all is doubtful Inc
probability is that if the law had made hanging
the penalty for his crime the mob would have