LYNCH LAW IN CALIFORNIA.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18075, 13 January 1921, Page 6

LYNCH LAW IN CALIFORNIA.

SWIFT JUSTICE METED OUT. TRIO STRUNG UP. SAN FRANCISCO. Dec. 12. Judge Lynch, unreasoning advocate of the days of gold in Cahiornia, has come back to the bench with terrible effects, after twenty-five years’ abscence. Impersonated by a mob of 75 to 100 angry citizens he passed and executed a death sentence upon Terrance Fitts, George Boyd and Charles Valento, all u hit© American citizens, alleged members of a San Irancisco gang, accused oi the murder of three police officers, and ot unspeakable attacks on two comer-; girl telephone operators of San r raneisco. An hour after the three men had been summarily strung from the same limb on a big oak tree in the Oddfellows’ cemetery on the outskirts of Santa Coroner Phillips and Sheriff Boyes went out and cut down the bodies. HOW THEY HUNG. But they did not do it until scores oi Santa Rmsa citizens—including many uomen had made a pilgrimage to the cemetery and stood there silently gazing upon the three bodies as they s" gently in the breeze. There they dangled about three feet from the ground, the three men who had been indicted for the murder the previous Sunday of Sheriff James Pctrav. of Sonoma County, and Detectives Miles Jackson and Lester Dorman, of San r rancisco. Bo.id, who had confessed to shooting tho three officers, was hanging at the end of the limb, his face expressionless, for ho was nearly dead from a. mortal wound when the lynchers pulled the rope. I'itt.v his head cut open, his mouth gagged, and his face contorted with terror was in the middle. Valento, a defian. halt-smile sflill on his face his body stripped to the waist, just as he n as found in bed at the gaol, was nearest the trunk of tho tree. The mob had formed quietly, and Judge Lynch had acted swiftly.

1 -MASKED MEN DROVE IN. About one o’clock that, morning motorcars began driving into Santa Rosa, j ''Mil masked men at the wheels and in : the seats. They were heavily armed .. too. Presumably at a given signal thev poured into the office of Sheriff Boves t pointed to a picture of the murdered Sheriff Ictray hanging on the walls, 2 and shouted . “ Look at that! Isn’t that , enough;-’ Outnumbered and with shotguns ; pointed at him, the sheriff said he could • not resist. Late that afternoon a . coroners jury relieved the sheriff of all blame in giving up hi s prisoners. Ihe lynchers took the sheriff’s keys, opened the cells, dragged out the prisoners, and rushed them into motor ) cars. I Thon a cavalcade of about 30 motor cars, each idled with masked men, ' drov r> Ellent L’ through the most fash- • loname section of the town to the Odd.elloAss’ cemetery. ’ r iiar<l| y a word passed, except • tor tile screaming and pleading of Terranes !•itts they placed the nooses and uited the three met to their deaths. WITH MODERN EFFICIENCY. It was all done with modern efficiency quickly over in half an hour; hard"!y a word uttered, not a shot fired Not since the day, of the famous Nigilantes operations against earlv day desperadoes in California has there been such a lynching' in California ns that which occurred that December morn, lor a month San Francisco had been aroused over the outrages of a gang of ex-prize fighters and thugs who kidnappea g lr ls and subjected them to iearful mistreatment, scarcely imaginable in civihscd America, in the very C s ty °‘ solne half minion people. On the previous Sunday two ™li a C * re^ f glrl rictims accompanied police detectives to Santa. Rosa some forty miles or less from San Francisco there occurred a revolver battle with n n„ C espera r oes ’ W ld thrae of tla ’ most ; ? 01Ce i offlccr3 of California ver© shot dead. LYNCHERS organised. Iho hnchers, who took things into their own hands a few days later were organised, perfectly. Masked guards ! with rifles in their hands and revolvers ' str.ipjied to tho outside of their over- j coats were stationed at the four street , coniers of the Santa Rosa county gaol. Pedestrians and autoisis approaching tho gaol were, stopped a.nd turned into another direction, and sensing what was taxing place, no one pretested. IVhen tho band, armed heavily, rushed up to the gaol in autos, whose number plates had been removed, they we-e met by Sheriff John H. Boves Gaoler Jewitt, Deputy Sheriff Marvin Robinson, and Isaac Lindlev, a former policeman. Guns were thrust against the stomachs of the officers and Jewitt " as made to hand over the cell keys. U e want those keys, and we mean business,” one of th© party said. NOT TAKING CHANCES. " Don’t do that, boys,” the sheriff protested. “These men are to be arraigned this morning, and they will be tried soon, and it is certain will hang. Let the law take its course.” " We’re not faking any chances,” the leader of tho p>arty replied. in the meantime, the keys had been handed to other members of the band and while the officers were held at bav 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 thirty waiting cars. A QUIET DISPERSAL. Fitts and Valento were taken from their cells in another part of the gaol and were rushed out. The death ride ’ then started along Fourth Street to Macdonald Avenue, and down this, eno of Santa Rosa’s bountiful streets, to the Oddfellows’ cemetery. Ihe three men were rushed inside a great- human circle to a spreading oaK tree sixty feet inside 'th© oemetery gates. Tho hanging was carried out Wl mi f=» a P°ed and precision. 1 lire© of the automobiles were drawn to flash their lights on the tree. Another cordon of armed guards was thrown about the seen© to prevent in-tei-ferieiicc. Only five minutes consumed by the mob at, tho gaol.” Fifteen more at the most, and the men Had been hanged. Within half an hour tile mob disappeared into £he darkness "hence it came.