Phoenix tribune., 1922-02-04
Entire MOB CAUGHT
BY OKLAHOMA SHERIFF
SENTENCED TO PRISON
ASSOCIATED Negro Pressl

Oklahoma City, Okla, Feb. g.
Lynching received a set back here at
home last week Five men, two of
them Negroes, were sentenced to life
Imprisonment when they pleaded
guilty today to charges of completely
in lynching Jake Brooks, Negro. The
trial was one of the speediest in the
history of the state. Governor Rob-
ertson, who has won a reputation for
defending law and order was active in,
seeing justice done.
The white men are Lee Whitley,
Elmer Yeartal, striking members of
the Butcher Workmens Union, and
Charles Polk, union sympathizer.
The Negroes are Robert Allen, cousin
of Brooks, and Nathan Butler, also
union men.
Allen made a clean breast of the
atrocity at the county jail last Sun
day to state and county authorities.
He related in detailed every incident
of the crime from the time the five
lynchers left headquarters of the
Butcher Workmen's Union on Ex-
change avenue in Packingtown until
they returned to the union hall after
swinging the Negro on a limb six
miles southeast of the city less than
hundred yAds from the Grand
Boulevard.
Occasional acts of violence which
marked the strike of packing employ
es beginning Monday, December S,
reached the climax Saturday night
when Brooks, a Negro employed at
the Wilson plant, was taken from his
home at 1905 East Fourth street by
two motor carloads of strikers, spirit
ed away to an isolated spot southeast
of the Capitol Hill district and hung
from the limb of large tree.
Brooks, who had been ill, was sit
ting at the supper table with his
wife and little daughter when the
lynching party arrived. Two white
men, their hats pulled down to shade
their faces knocked at the door.
Brooks little daughter answered.
"Does Jake Brooks live here?"
she was asked. She replied he did.
The two men, revolvers drawn, fore
ed their way into the house and seiz-
ed Brooks. Nathan Butler turned
you in," one of the men said. "We
are going to fix you up right"
Brooks was forced into one of the
motor cars. The party sped away.
Brooks was never seen until the fol-
lowing Tuesday when his body was
seen swinging from the tree by B.
A. Reed, 1905 East Fifth street.
Sheriff Ben Dancy started an in
vestigation of Brooks disappearance
early Sunday after Brooks wife re-
ported that the police refused to go
outside of the city to search for her
husband.
The discovery of Brooks body
brought about tense situation which
resulted in an appeal being made for
! the institution of martial law. Gov
ernor Robertson offered a reward of
$4,000 for the apprehension and con-
viction of the lynchers. A reward Of
$500 for each of the party was offered
by the Chamber of Commerce.
Nathan Butler, another Negro, i'm
plicated by Aliens confession, and
Allen was arrested by Dancy's order
the Sunday after Brooks disappear
ance. They were released but were
shadowed by deputy sherffs in hope
of obtaining information. The day
brooks body was discovered, Allen
and Butler were arrested by the city
police.
Dancy ordered the men brought to
the county Jail, where he questioned
them. Deputy sheriffs Immediately
began to make additional arrests. A
total of twenty-five arrests were
made. The men were held in sep
arate cells and questioned
Thursday Allen confessed to Dancy.
He declared he would have told about
the lynching the day after it occurred
but that he feared that his life would
be taken by the strikers. a
"The men out there (referring to
Packingtown) would get me if I told"
Allen said to Sheriff Dancy. "They
told me the night they hung Brooks