LYNCH DRAMA.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 10825, 23 March 1932, Page 4

LYNCH DRAMA.

NORTH DAKOTA MURDERER. ‘‘Whatever else you do, for Heaver,‘s rake save dad.” As Charles Ba 22, of Schafer, North Dakota whipr 'od out those pleading words, hooded men drew a noose about his •neck. A ro creaked. Bannon shot aloft. A tv,-;. ... A gurgle in the victim’s throat. C harles Bannon was dead, by hemp. But the ironic sequel to th/ lynch-ing-—for mass murder horn. U.. Hie great North-west last June—was y ; to be written. Far from “savin, dad,” the North Dakota State authorities brought him to trial for paricipation in his son’s crime and succeeded in sentencing him to life imprisonment in the penitentiary at Bismarck. Prom behind chill bars, the elder Bannon—James F., 55 —continues to protest innocence. “They killed my son, that mob,’ he reiterates. “If it hadn’t been for their brutal violence, Charlie could have attended my trial, testified for me. Instead, I was given life. And why? Just because I was Charlie’s father!” The unofficial execution of the younger Bannon was the climax to his confession that he had slain Albert Haven, a farmer, his wife, their sons. Daniel, 19; Leland, 16; Charles 3; and their infant sister. The relentless ferocity that characterised the murders inflamed the temper of the community to fever pitch. Charles Bannon had been lodged in the local gaol—safely, It was thought—but the maddened townsfolk stormed the building, front and rear. While one wing of the lynchers piled up boxes, at the back, in an effort to reach the window of the prisoner’s cell, other mobsmen broke in the front door, overpowered the keeper, seized Bannon, dragged him to a nearby bridge and promptly strung him up. This savage revenge was partially prompted by the knowledge that Bannon could never be executed officially, since in 1915 North Dakota '(Jid away with capital punishment. But Bannon’s death failed to convinced State’s Attorney J. F. Taylor that he alone had exterminated the Haven family. In his confession, the youth declared he had shot Daniel and Leland Haven while they were doing chores in the barn. When Mr and Mrs Hayen ran in, after hearing the reports, he had shot them, too. He had next gone to the house and shot little Charles Havep. The baby girl, asleep in bed, he had clubbed to death.

The coroner and an investigating physician verified four of the shootings, hut found that Albert Haven, the father, had been clubbed on the head with a blunt instrument. This fact indicated that there had been a.n active accomplice in the commisison the crimes. And because of cerU„ definite suspicions, the shadow of guilt fell upon James Brennon, the father.

The prosecution pointed out, at the Bannon’s trial, that it would hero been a physical impossibility for a single man to have slaughtered six persons and disposed of their bodies in the brief time at his command. It was the elder Bannon’s sudden departure for the West “to locate the Havens” that first focused attention on him. In itself, his trip to Portland Oregon, might have been an innocent%ne. But in the city he made a fatajffldunder. i n a letter to his son, he wrote;—“Now Charles, watch your step and see that, everything is right and do what is-right and then there will be no comeback.” These phrases contributed largely to his ultimate conviction, though there were other phases of the case that convinced the jury that the snowyhaired Dakotan had had a hand in the most frightful mass murders in the State’s crime annals. Specifically, he was charged witli killing Albert Haven.

“Save dad!” implored Charles Bannon from his improvised gallows. And with grim irony, the law has “saved” dad’s life but from the motive of stern punishment, not sentimental mercy.