IN A PUBLIC
SQUARE
A WESTERN MOB HANGS A NEGRO PORTER CHARGED WITH ASSAULT
La Junta, Colo., March 26- A mob of 4,000 people hanged
to an electric light pole in the public square W.H. Wallace, a negro
sleeping car porter, charged with criminal assault. After the
hanging the body of the negro was riddled with bullets. The victim
died protesting his innocence.
Mrs. Henrietta H. Miller, 67, going from Los Angeles,
Ca., to Denver, to visit relatives, was assaulted in the Santa Fe
railroad yards here by a negro porter on a Pullman car running
between Denver and La Junta. Wallace was suspected of the crime and
he was arrested.
A peace element endeavored to stop the proposed
lynching, and a committee consisting of Robert Patterson, banker;
Dr. Fleming, Charles Dearborne, county treasurer, and other
prominent citizens, asked the privilege of trying to get from
Wallace a confession. This was granted and the negro was taken into
the courthouse. After half an hour or so the word went out that the
courthouse doors were locked and that the committee would try to
prevent a lynching. Immediately pandemonium reigned. Stones were
hurled at the building until every window was broke. Then, with a
telegraph pole for a battering ram, the crowd broke in the doors,
and Wallace was taken out and hanged.
Coshocton Daily Age, Coshocton Ohio March 26, 1902
©S. Williams |