REVIEW OF REPORTS OF YESTERDAY’S LYNCHING

Being a Reproduction of the Associated Press Reports Together With Other Comments From Various Other Sources.

April 20, 1909—The Evening News-- The News of yesterday handled the story of the lynching as best in good in a local way, though up did not endeavor to a lab or rate minor details or quote statements from officers and others informed regarding the affair.  We were wore fully imposed upon by other papers over the country, who knew that we were disposed to show them every possible courtesy, even to the neglect of our own publication.  All matter relating to the affair, which the people will care to know, however, will be given from time to time, and the readers of the News may rest assured that we will give the facts as nearly as they can be ascertained.

            In getting hold of a story as important as this, it seems almost impossible for the large papers to get all their statements correct in the first reports.

            In connecting reports and reviewing the facts it should be borne in mind that the statement of Oscar Peeler, relative to the guilt of the four men mobbed, was made after the lynching, and that it corroborated the evidence possessed by the county attorney's office, and that it was absolutely contrary to his previous statements.  The evidence produced and the preliminary hearing of Miller will be published a verbatim in order that the public may be relieved of any possible doubt as to the guilt of the persons lynched.

The Associated Press, report of the lynching, which appeared in the daily papers over the United States this morning is a very fair and reasonably.  We produce the report in full herewith:

Ada, Oklahoma, April 19.--This morning between two and three o'clock.  A mob of masked men, estimated from 30 to 40 in number, stormed the Pontotoc County Jail, overpowered the four guards, Bob Nestor, Walter Goyne when, Jim McCarty, and Joe Carter, took the keys of the jail from them and proceeded to take four prisoners from jail and hang them.

The men hanged or Jim Miller, Joe Allen, Jesse West and B. B. Burwell, all under a rest in connection with the assassination of A. A. (Gus) Bobbitt near this city on February 27.

The jail is located at the rear of the courthouse and is accessible both from the rear and through the front hall of the courthouse.

The mob was literally choking the hall of the courthouse before the guards were unaware of its presence in the city.  Leaving men stationed on the outside of the courthouse, and to the rear of the jail, the masked men quickly overcame the four guards, who put up a stiff resistance as possible

One guard, Bob Nestor, received a severe blow on his head with a revolver and was left stunned at the point of their guns.  The mob forced one guard to open the jail doors.  Having secured entrance, they told Miller, Allen, West and Burrell to dress and prepare for death.

West Resists Mob

The doomed men dressed as quickly as possible, made no resistance that the guards could hear, with the exception of Jesse West, who fought the mob fiercely and head to be beaten on the head with guns before he could be taken from the jail.

Leaving the guards tied and bound, the mob, then took the men to the Frisco barn, a deserted livery stable not 30 ft. from the jail, and their hanged them to the rafters.  The wounds of guard Nestor were dressed this morning, and he is resting easy.

Before raiding the jail, the mob had apparently taken pains to map out every detail.  To masked men were sent to the power plant of the Ada, at Electric and Gas Company, who, at the point of their revolvers, forced the night engineer to cut off the circuit lighting the streets, thus leaving the city in darkness.  The lights remained off an hour or more, and during the temporary darkness, the lynching was done and the mob dispersed.

Bodies Are Found

The bodies of the victims of the raid were found at an early hour this morning hanging  in the Frisco barn, and were cut down and taken to the undertaking establishment of L. T. Walters, were they now lie.

No shots were fired during the raid, and everything was carried out in accordance with seemingly carefully laid plans.  The town is quiet, but a gloom hangs over yet, such as was never before felt.

All of the members of the mob are thought to have been out of town parties, as they were mounted.

The examining trial of Jim Miller, charged with the killing of Gus Bobbitt and one of last night's victims, was heard here before Justice of the Peace H. J. Brown all last week, and Miller was a bound over without bail.

Justice of the Peace Brown made an order excluding this testimony from the newspapers, but the trial was attended by the largest crowd that ever attended a criminal prosecution in this city.

Spectators Searched

Officers of the court searched every man who entered the court room for guns before he was allowed to enter.

Gus Bobbitt, the assassinated man, had been a former United States Marshal for the Southern District of the old Indian Territory, appointed under Cleveland's administration.  He was a vigilant officer and made many enemies among some of the early settlers of this country.  On February 27 or thereabouts, he was shot from ambush, with buckshot from a double-barreled shotgun near his hall, 7 mi. south of Ada, from behind a clump of trees near the roadside.  Blood towns are brought to the scene could not take up the sent.  The murdered man told his wife, who reached him before he died, that  two of his enemies were in on the plot.  B. Beebe, Burwell, another of last night's victims, was also captured at Fort Worth and brought here about the same time.   B. Beebe, Burwell, another of last night's victims, was also captured at Fort Worth about the same time.  Burwell had been associated with Miller for some time past.  Joe Allen and Jesse West are citizens of Canadian city, Texas.  They were captured in Oklahoma City about April 6 or seven.

The county attorney of this (Pontotoc) County, learning that Allen and West were in Oklahoma City and head phoned or written for an attorney from this city to come up to see them, he immediately phoned a description of the two men to the Oklahoma City officers, who captured the men.  One night and brought them to Ada the next day.

Allen and West raided in this part of old Indian Territory years ago.

B. B. Burrell, one of last night's victims, had formally lived in Dallas, Texas.  All the men who were lynched are said to be men of means.

Statements of Lee West

Lee West, a night policeman of this city, relative to the lynching of four men, at this place all last night, says: "The first I knew of the trouble at the jail was when I saw a bunch of masked men going into the front hall of the courthouse.  This was somewhere near two o'clock this morning.  I was on Main Street about a half block and across Townsend Avenue from the courthouse.  I went down to see what was the matter.  I followed on into the hall of the courthouse.

"When I had gone about one third of the distance of the hall, I was suddenly covered with what looked to me to be about 10 or 12 guns.  I asked what all this trouble meant.  They told me it was none of my d----d.  business, and for me to get out quick.

"I retreated to the front of the building, and proceeded back up on Main Street, where I met County Judge Terrell.  Judge Terrell and I both went back to the hall of the courthouse again, were he tried to persuade the mob to do nothing wrong.  He told them they were men in the jail who were probably innocent and to all not to be hurt in any way without a fair trial.  The mob, then told Judge Corral that it didn't want to hear anything out of him and ordered us both out.

"Judge Terrell and I then went out of the building, and I went out on Main Street.  The next I knew about what happened was when the guard, Walter Goynes, came out of the building and told me to phone for a doctor, that Bob Nestor had been severely cut in the head.

"I then went back to the jail and phoned for a doctor.  All the doors of the jail, the front wall doors, were open.

"After I first came out of the hall of the building I noted that all the streetlights had been cut off.  I never saw any of the mob leave the courthouse or the jail, as it was completely dark."

Statement of Bob Nestor

Bob Nestor, one of the guards at the jail last night said:

"I sleep in the little room at the rear of the jail.  I am not a regular guard at the jail, but guard some.  Last night about two o'clock I was awakened by three or four men, pulling the cover off me.  I thought it was some of the boys and told them they would get in trouble if they did not watch out.  They were feeling over my bed and told me to get up.  I noticed, then they head masks on.

"I slipped, my guns under my bed, the best I could, but they must have seen before they hit me over the head with their guns.

"They've forced to Walter Goynes at the point of their guns to open the heavy labor doors that open the cell doors and took Miller, West, Allen and Burwell out in the runaround.  As I can't hear very well, I did not know what all was said or done after this, except that the four prisoners were hanged."

Statement of Joe Carter

Joe Carter, another one of the four guards at the jail last night, say is concerning the lynching:

"The first I knew of the presence of the mob last night was at 3:10 this morning.  When six masked men suddenly appeared at the waiting room in the run-around near the sales, and covered Jim McCarty and me with their guns.  McCarty and I had the watch for this part of the night.  They told us to step aside and hand over the keys to the jail.  I told them we had no keys, that a gentlemen an another room had the keys.

"At this moment about 20 more men appeared thronging through the hall of the yard and from everywhere else, it seemed to be saying:

"Keep quiet, men and give up the keys."

"The men were all masked.  They kept me and McCarty undercover of their guns and proceeded to wake up Walter Goynes and Bob Nestor and took the keys away from them.

"Nestor rose from his bed with his gun and the masked men hit him over the head with their guns and left him stunned.  The men forced Goynes to open the heavy lever doors to the cells.

"They then took Miller from his cell and fastened a rope around his neck and bound his hands at his back with bailing wire.

"Jesse West was the next men taken out, and the mob says:

"Tell us what you know about this," West says:

“I’ll tell you nothing."

"They then hit him over the head with their six shooters and said:

"D---- you, tell us what you know about it," West repeated:

"I will tell you nothing," and made a fight with the mob.

"The rest of the prisoners then began to plead for their lives.

"Then I rushed through and went out on the street for help, where I met the two night policeman, and we all went back and got about one third of the distance down the hall of the courthouse, when we were again held up and commanded to retreat or they would kill us.  We retreated and I never saw any of the mob leave the courthouse or jail as it was totally dark on the street."

Statement of Walter Goynes

"Walter Goynes one of the guards at the Pontotoc County jail last night, and a deputy sheriff under sheriff Tom Smith Pontotoc County, concerning the raid last night says:

"I was awakened about 2:30 o'clock this morning by several masked men standing over my bed.  I immediately reached for my gun under my pillow, when the men covered me with their guns and said:

"These other men haven't got any keys to the jail, and we want them.  I told them I could not give them the keys.  Then they told me they would have been or kill me.

"I then brought the keys on the floor and they pick them up and tried the heavy lever doors and could not work them.

"I was still held undercover of their guns.  Failing to work the heavy doors, three or four of the men took the bodily from the room at the point of their guns force me to turn the lever.

"They've then bound my hands with bailing wire and left me in the room with Bob Nestor, whom they had beat over the head with their guns.  I don't know much about what happened later, as it was totally dark outside and we could see nothing.  McCarty released me at some hour in the morning, and I at once went out for a doctor for Nestor.  There were 40 or 50 men in the mob, and all were masked and they carried out their work and orderly fashion."

Verdict of Coroner

The coroner’s jury this morning, impaneled by Justice of the Peace, H. J. Brown of this city to hold an inquest over the bodies of Jim Miller, Joe Allen, Jesse West, and B. B Burrell found hanging dead in the Frisco Barnett known this morning, this afternoon at reached their verdict to the effect that each of said men met their death by strangulation from a rope tied around their necks.  Between two and 3 a.m. on April 19, and the city of Ada, Oklahoma, administered by the hands of persons unknown.  Miller's body will be shipped to night to Fort Worth, Texas, for interment, upon the request of his widow Mrs. J. B. Miller, who resides in that city.  No disposition has yet been made of the bodies of Allen, West and Burwell.  They are still at the undertaking establishment of L. T. Walters and this city, where a large number of people has reviewed them today.