Idaho Daily Statesman 1894-10-16 An
Indiana Tragedy
Rockport, Oct 15. - In this city this morning
Robert Burr shot and instantly
killed
Arthur Williamson. Burr
saluted Williamson on the street, saying that he wanted to speak to
him. While conversing, Burr drew a revolver and shot Williamson in the
head, the wound causing instant death. Williamson claimed that burr had
visited his home during his absence. There is great excitement about
the jail where Burr is confined and threats of violence are heard.
Butte Weekly Miner 1900-12-20
Two Negroes Lynched by a Howling Mob at Rockport, Indiana
Barber on his way home was attached and beaten to death, young man who
witnessed the deed became raving maniac
Victim's wife likely to die from the
shock
Rockport, Ind. Dec 16 - Two negros,
Jim Henderson and
Bud Rowlands, who waylaid. murdered
and robbed
Hollie Simons. a
white barber, early this morning, were lynched today in the jail yard
by a mob of 1,500 persons. The negros were arrested soon after the
murder occurred, and although Rowland's clothing had blood stains on
it, they claimed they were innocent.
In the meantime
Sheriff
Clemens of Union county, Kentucky, arrived with a trained
bloodhound. When the dog was placed on the trail he followed it to a
house where Rowlands lived, six blocks from the scene of the murder,
and baying to the bed the negro occupied. this was enough for the
excited citizens. within a few minutes a mob of a thousand Rowing,
bloodthirsty men, with sledge hammers, ropes and guns, were on the way
to the jail.
Sheriff Anderson and his two deputies made an
attempt to protect the prisoners. The officers were sized by the
leaders of the mob and disarmed. The sheriff, although locked in a room
and placed under guard, stoutly refused to give up the keys or tell
where the prisoners were hiding.
The mob made a determined but unsuccessful attempt to break in the jail
door. Finally they secured a telegram pole and using it as a
battering-ram caved in the side wall of the jail. The door Rowland's
cell was then quickly broken in which sledge hammers, and he was
dragged from the jail to the east side of the courtyard, where a noose
was placed about his neck. He was given time to make a statement in
which he implicated Jim Henderson and another negro. Rowlands then
begged piteously for mercy, but the mob swiftly swung the confessed
murder to a tree and riddled his body with bullets.
Leaving the dangling body of Rowlands, the mob
rushed back to the jail and burst open the cell occupied by Henderson.
Before the bars yielded to the blows of the sledge some one in the
crowd fired upon the terrified negro as he crouched in the far corner.
It took but a few minutes to get at Henderson and the negro, more dead
than alive, was dragged at a rope's end to the courthouse yard and
swung to the tree beside the body of Rowlands. Firing a parting volley
at the swinging bodies, the mob eager for another victim, hurried away
to catch the other negro implicated by Rowlands. He was found at a
hotel, where he was employed as a porter. The negro escaped to the roof
of the building and Manager Debruler succeeded in convincing the mob he
had nothing to do with the crime. The mob then dispersed, apparently
satisfied with its work of vengeance.
Simons was murdered in the most brutal manner one
square from the main street of the city as he was going home from his
barber shop at 2o'clock this morning. He carried the receipts of the
days work, a fact of which the negros were aware. They attached him
from behind, striking him over the head with a club into which a large
nail had been driven. Although terribly beaten, Simons made a desperate
fight. His cried attracted two passers by. The negros drove them away,
and accomplished their criminal design, securing a bag containing
something over $40.00 from their victim and then escaped.
When an officer arrived Simmons was dead. His skull
was crushed in and his head and face beaten to a pulp. The spike on the
club had penetrated his brain.
Walter Evans, one of the young men who attempted to rescue Simons and
who afterwards witnessed the lynching, had become a raving maniac. The
dead man's wife is prostrated and it is believed she will die from the
shock.