Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-20
TEXAS MOB HANGS
SANTA CLAUS Thief
First Rope Breaks-CaptiVe
Held While New One Is
Obtained.
BY the Associated Press.

EASTLAND, Tex, November 90
Impatient at the laws delay and en-
ragged by the latest violent crime of
Marshall Ratliff, condemned Santa
Claus" bank robber, mob Of approx
mately l 200 persons last night hanged
the condemned man from a telephone
cable 200 yards from the jail from which
he was dragged.
For several hours the mans naked
body dangled from the end of a grass
rope in a bitter wind, while a crowd
which included many women and chill
dren, stood gazing upward in compare
tive silence until justice of the peace
ordered the body cut down.
Two years ago Ratliff, dressed as a
Santa Claus, participated in a bank
hold-up, in which two officers and one
of his companions were killed. Monday,
after feigning paralysis and winning the
sympathy of his keepers, he attempted
Jail break, shooting and seriously
wounding Deputy Tom Jones, veteran
peace officer. Last night 200 men over
powered his jailer, entered Ratliff's cell,
dragged him, naked, to well lighted
business street and lynched him.
Sanity Hearing Pending.
Ratliff was held in the Eastland Jail
pending a sanity hearing, asked for
by his mother who asserted her son had
lost his mind while awaiting execution
in the death cell at Huntsville State
Prison.
Discovery by the townspeople of East
land, who remembered the deaths of
Chief of Police G.. E. Bedford and
Ofdcer Carmichael in the battle with
the bandits at the nearby town of Cisco
two years before, that Ratliff was pre-
tending and hiding his time for a break
brought their anger to a climax.
All yesterday afternoon they gathered
in little groups about the town and
muttered about Jones' shooting, which
physicians said might prove fatal. Last
night crowd in front of the jail
swelled to nearly a thousand at $50
o'clock.
JaiIer Is OverpOwered.
At about o'clock some 200 men
slipped into a side door of the jail and
asked for the man. Jailer Gilborn re-
fused to give him up. Then they over
powered Gilborn, took his keys and got
Ratliff.
The bandit had been stripped of his
clothes when he was brought down.
stairs. He was dragged in the direction
OF the public square, but the crowd
would not wait to go those few blocks
Two hundred yards from the Jail a
strong telephone cable was pointed out,
rope flung across it, a moose was put
around Ratliff's neck, a dozen men on
the other end of the rope bent their
weight and Ratlif was jerked from the
ground.
The rope broke. Messengers were sent
for another, and again the mob set to
its task. Then some one remembered
that men about to die are usually given
a chance to say last word.
Strung Up Again.
For another moment he was lowered
to the ground, but, diSpleased at his
mumbling, the crowd yelled, String
him up!"
An inquest was ordered for today.
Ratliff'S death leaves but one of the
four Cisco bank robbers alive. Robert
Hill was sentenced to 80 years impris-
onment and later escaped from the
State Prison Farm. Henry Helms was
electrocuted last Summer and L. E.
Davis was fatally wounded in the bank
robbery battle.
Late last night District Judge George
L. Davenport indicated that grand
jury would be called to investigate the
mob action, and County Attorney Joe
H. Jones, nephew of the wounded dep
uty, said his Office would prosecute in
the event indictments were returned.
Jones. at the hospital, was told OF
Ratcliff's death.
That's fine" he said. 'I'm glad of It,"