LYNCH LAW IN CALIFORNIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18141, 12 January 1921, Page 8

LYNCH LAW IN CALIFORNIA

SWIFT JUSTICE METED OUT. THREE MEN HANGED. Judge Lynch, unreasoning advocate of the days of gold in California, has come back to the bench with terrible effects, after 25 years’ absence, says the San Francisco correspondent of the Auckland Star, writing under date December 12. Impersonated by a mob of 75 to 100 angry citizens, ho passed and executed a death sentence upon Terrance Fitts, George Boyd, and Charles Valento, all white American citizens, alleged members of a San Francisco gang accused of the murder of three police officers and of unspeakable attacks on two comely girl telephone operators of San Francisco. An houf after the three men had been summarily strung from the same limb on a big oak tree in the Oddfellowai’ cemetery on the outskirts of Santa Rosa—the beautiful city of flowers of California —Coroner Phillips and Sheriff Boyes went out and cut down the bodies. But they did not do it until scores of Santa Rosa citizens—including many women —had made a pilgrimage to the cemetery and stood there silently gazing upon the three bodies as they swung gently in the breeze. There they dangled about 3ft from the ground, the three men who had been indicted for the murder the previous Sunday of Sheriff James Betray, of Sonoma County, and Detectives Miles Jackson and Lester Dorman, of San Francisco. Boyd, who had confessed to shooting the three officers, was hanging et the end of the limb, his face expressionless, for he was nearly dead from a mortal wound when the lynchers pulled the rope. Pitts, his head out open, his mouth gagged, and his face contorted with terror, was in yhe middle. Valento, a defiant half-smile still on his face, his body stripped to the waist, just as he was found in bed at the gaol, was nearest the trunk of the tree. The mob had formed quietly, and Judge Lynch had acted swiftly. MARKED MEN DROVE IN. About 1 o’clock that morning motor cars began driving into Santa Rosa, with masked men at the wheels and in the seats. They were heavily armed, too. Presumably at a given signal they poured into the office of Sheriff Boyes, pointed to a picture of the murdqred abend Betray hanging on the walls, and shouted: ‘‘Look at thatl Isn't that enough?” Outnumbered and with shotguns pointed at him, the sheriff said he could not resist. Late that forenoon a coroner’s jury relieved the sheriff of all blame in giving up his prisoners.

The lynchers took the sheriff’s keys, opened the cells, dragged out the prisoners, and. rushed them into motor cars.

Then a cavalcade of about 30 motor cars, each filled with masked men, drove silently through the most fashionable section of the town to the Oddfellows’ Cemetery. - With hardly a word passed, except for the screaming and pleading of Terrance lifts, they placed the nooses and lifted the three men to their deaths. It was lynch law of the gold-rush days of '49 ruling again, modernised by automobiles instead of the glow of lanterns; the ghastly gleam of headlights made the tortpred, writhing bodies glow ghost-hke amid the mist which helped to blacken the night of that December Friday. . It was all done with modem efficiency—quickly, over in half an hour; hardly a word uttered, not a shot fired. , Not since the days of the famous Vigilantes operations egainst early-day desperadoes in California has there been such a lynching in California as that which occurred that December morn. For a month San Francisco had been aroused over the outrages of a gang of ex-prize fighters and thugs who kidnapped) girls and subjected them to fearful mistreatment, scarcely imaginable in civilised America, in the very heart of a city of some half million people. On the previous Sunday two of the score of girl victims accompanied police detectives to Santa Rosa, some 40 miles or less from San Francisco. There occurred a revolver battle with the desperadoes, and three of the most popular police officers of California were shot dead. DYNCHE.ES ORGANISED.

Tho lynchers, who took things into their own hands a few days later, were organised perfectly. Masked guards with rifles in their hands and revolvers strapped to tho outside of their overcoats were stationed at the four street corners of the Santa Rosa county gaol. Pedestrians and autoists approaching the gaol were stopped) and turned into another direction, and sensing what was taking place no one protested. When the band, armed heavily, rushed up to tho gaol in autos, whose number plates had been removed, they were met by Sheriff John 11. Boyes, Gaoler Jewitt, Deputy Sheriff Marvin Robinson, and Isaac Bindley, a former policeman. Guns were thrust against tho stomachs of the officers, and Jewitt was mad© to hand over tho cell keys. "We want those keys, and we mean business,” one of tho party said. “Don’t do that, boys,” the sheriff protested. “These men are to b© arraigned this morning, and they will be tried soon, and it is certain they will hang. Let the law take its course.’’

“We’re not taking any chances,” the leader of the party replied. In the meantime, the keys bad been handed to other members of the band, and' while the officers were held at bay the great doors of the gaol were unlocked. Others' of the party then went to the insane ward, where the wounded Boyd was lying on a cot, seized him and took him outside and into one of the 30 waiting motor cars. Fitts and Yalento were taken from their cells in another part of the gaol andl were rushed out. The death ride then started along Fourth street to MiacdonaJd avenue, and down this, one of Santa Rosa’s beautiful streets, to the Oddfellows’ cemetery. The three gansters were rushed inside a great human circle to a spreading oak tree 60ft inside the cemetery gates. The hanging was carried out with great speed and precision. Three of the automobiles were drawn to flash their lights on the tree. Another cordon of armed guards was thrown about, the scene to prevent interference. Only five minutes was consumed by the mob at the gaol. Fifteen more at the most, and the men had been hanged. Within half an hour the mob disappeared into the darkness whence it came.