The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-04-20
new SHERIFF OUT
OF JOB RESULTOF
STATELY LYNCHING
Gould Has Ten Days to Prove
He Did Duty.
Law Provides for Automatic
Suspension in Such Cases.
THREE SHERIFFS IN ONE WEEK
Crawford County Makes Record
Webb Was First Victim.
Resigned Following Custer Suit
Coroner Is Now Acting.
Crawford County Makes Record
Webb Was First Victim.
Resigned Following Custer Suit
Coroner Is Now Acting.
NEGRO STRUNG UP BY MOB
Had Assaulted Girl, 15-En-
ragged Crowd Wrecks Jail.
Blacks White Companion
"Spirited" to Cherokee County.

Three sheriffs in one week is to be
the record of Crawford county. Sher-
IF Gould, appointed late last week by
Governor Allen. is today automatically
out OF office under the Kansas stat
utes. The coroner is the acting sheriff
OF the county.
Under the Kansas law a sheriff is
automatically suspended when mob
law prevails in his county and results
in a lynching. Unless a special ap-
pointment is made by the governor.
!, the coroner is designated sheriff un-
der the statutes. Sheriff Gould has
ten days in which to make a showing
that he performed his official duties
faithfully and to the best Of his abil-
ity during the outbreak which resulted
in lynching of an unknown negro for
assault of a young white girl.
Thinks Gould Did His Best.
From all reports which have
reached me- Sheriff Gould performed
his services to the best of his ability
and showed unusual courage, said
Governor Allen. THE sheriff was
himself badly beaten during the riot
which resulted in the lynching. How
ever. under the laws of this state the
sheriff is suspended until his record
has been passed upon.
Governor Allen will probably re-
ceive a statement from Gould in a
few days. If the governor is convinced
that the sheriff did not falter in dis
charging his duty. Gould will be rein
stated. In the meantime, tho, the cor
oner will be the sheriff of the turbu-
lent county.
White Boy Is Removed.
custer proceedings were filed
against Sheriff Webb when he permit
ted Alexander Howat to deliver an in
F1ammatory speech from a balcony of
the Crawford county Jail at Girard.
Webb resigned The governor late
last week appointed Gould, one of
Webb's former assistants. Now, after
but four or five days of service, Gould
is suspended.
A white boy who was with the negro
at the time of his attack on the girl
has been removed to the Cherokee
county Jail at Columbus, according to
reports to Governor Allen. The gov
ernor today conferred with ]. K. Ran
kin, assistant attorney general, rela-
tive to an inveSti CATION of the Null
berry lynching. Arrests will be made
at once. the governor said, should evil
dence be produced as to the mob
leadership.
Girl Clears White Boy.
benjamin Franklin Caldwell Work
negro when he attacked the girl and
who was with him when members of
the mob captured him, and who was
taken out of the little Jail here with
the negro. was in Jail in another
county today. The officers refused
to state when he would be brought
here.
Workman, who was rushed away
from the Jail while the attention of
the mob was centered on the hanging
of the negro, told officers that he met
the negro Sunday and spent Sunday
night with him at a coal mine start
ing out with the negro the next morn
ing. When they met the girl in the
road near her home, northwest of
Mulberry, about 10 o'clock yesterday
morning, the negro proposed to at
tack the girl and Workman, who says
he Is Is years old, held a gun which
the negro had stolen at the mine,
pointed at the girl while the negro
More parts Of her clothing off and
made ropes with which he tied her
TO tree. After they had gone a short
distance the girl began to scream.
Workman says, and the negro went
back and slashed her throat twice
Further efforts were being made to-
day to identify the negro who, with B.
+. c. Workman. 16 years old, was cap
A, tured by a posse near the state line
and later identified by the young wo-
man IS the man who attacked her.
Workman, who told the authorities he
was from Springfield, Ill. was not mo-
Tested by the mob. He was taken to
jail at Girard while the lynchfnr wa
in progress. He denied being impli-
Gated in the attack and his story was
confirmed by the young woman, ac-
cording to the authorities.
Hanged to Telephone Pole.
Pittsburg. Kan, April 2O-A negro
tramp. name unknown. paid with his
LIE late yesterday for brutal assault
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