The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-10
JUDGE LYNCH IS
BACK ON BENCH
IN CALIFORNIA
Mob at Santa Rosa Hangs Three
to Cemetery Oak.
One Had Confessed to Killing
Three Officers.
HAD ASSAULTED TWO WOMEN
Lynchers Well Organized, Over
powered Sheriff and Deputies.
One of Victims, Wounded, Had
To Be Carried to GaIIOWs.

Santa Rosa. Cal. Dec. 10-Judge
Lynch. unreasoning advocate of the
days of gold in California, came back
to the bench today
Impersonated by a mob of rs to
100 angry citizens, he passed and ex-
ecuted a death sentence upon Ter
rance Fits, George Boyd and Charles
Nalento. all white, American citizens,
alleged members of a San Francisco
gang accused of the murder of three
peace officers and of unspeakeble at
tacks on two girl telephone operators
An hour after the three men had
been strung from the same limb on a
big oak tree in the odd Fellows ceme-
terry on the outskirts of Santa Rosa,
Coroner Phillips and Sheriff Boyes
went out and cut down the bodies.
Women Among the Curious.
But they didn't do it until scores
Of Santa Rosa citizens-including
many " WOmen-had made a pilgrimage
TO the cemetery and stood there ST.
lently gazing upon the three tortured
forms as they swung in the breeze
which was blowing a soft mist around
them.
They were dangling about three feet
from the ground, the three men who
day Of Sheriff James Petray of So
noma county, and Detectives Miles
Jackson and Lester Dorman of San
Francisco.
Mob Formed at Midnight.
According to pre-arranged plan, the
mob began forming around the Jail
about 1910 a. IN. The mob advanced
on the prison and the startled guards
were suddenly confronted by scores of
masked men. Every member of the
mob was masked.
The Jail guards were disarmed and
their keys taken. They protested, but
were so outnumbered that resistance
was useless. The three prisoners failed
to show fight when the mob dragged
them from their cells. They were
placed in automobiles and driven to
the cemetery where ropes were looped
over the bough of a tree and noosed
about the necks of the three.
Fits, face to face with death, begged
pitifully for his life. He screamed for
mercy. but the members of the mob
made no answer to his outcries.
Valento laughed and jeered at the
lynchers to the last He maintained
his air of bravado until the moose
frightened around his neck and his
feet swung clear of the ground.
Boyd. who was suffering from
wounds sustained Sunday in the gun
fight in which the three officers were
killed. was too weak to protest or re-
auto to the improvised gallows.
Had Feared Lynching.
The lynching had been feared since
the murders Sunday afternoon. Sher-
iff James Petray of Sonoma county
and Detectives Miles Backson and
Lester were killed in a gun fight with
the three men.
nj,
ftcerS attempted to arrest Valento on
a charge of being a member of the
Howard street vice gang, in San Fran
cisco. He was accused of assaulting
Jessie Montgomery and Jean Stanley,
telephone operators, on Thanksgiving
day.
One Had Confessed.
The operations of this vice gang
resulted in widespread terror and the
public was aroused. The officers
found Valento with Fits and Boyd at
the home of Peter Guidotti here.
When they demanded the surrender
of the trio. the gangsters opened fire.
killing the three officers instantly.
Boyd, in confession, admitted that
he shot all three officers, but the jury
indicted Fits and Valento with him.
Were Identified by Victim.
The three men were ex-convicts.
Boyd having served two terms, Fits
three and Valento one. Boyd and Val
ento had been identified last Monday
by three young women as members of
the gang which attacked them at a
house in Howard street, in one of the
more densely settled sections in San
Francisco.
Two attempts to take the men from
the jail were made last Sunday night
a rev hours after they had been ar
rested. One attempt was broken nm
by officers and the other failed when
Mrs. Petray. widow of the slain sheriff
begged friends not to countenance
mob violence
Last Sunday when the three men
We're arrested a mob of hundreds sur-
rounded the jail and cried for blood
yengence. That mob lacked leader
ship and organization but it was f1if-
ferent last night.
Plans Well Laid.
Plans had been laid beforehand.
The members of the mob moved to The
Jail silently. A Gordon was thrown
about the structure of concrete
granite and steel.
Twelve were detailed to approach
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