News article:"D. C. Hutchins Lynched"/Bossier Parish/LA
Source: The Ouachita Telegraph 
Submitted by: Lora Peppers 
Date: Oct 2000
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The Ouachita Telegraph
Saturday, May 18, 1883
Page 2, Column 4

ONE HUNDRED MASKED MEN OF
BOSSIER LYNCH A MURDERER.
Desperate Attempt At Suicide By The Victim.
 On Tuesday of last week D.C. Hutchins shot and killed Will. H. Lyon at the
ferry landing opposite Shreveport.  Lyon was a young South Carolinian who
had been living in Bossier parish about 12 months, and was clerking at the
time of the murder for Fetterman brothers who kept store a the landing.
Hutchins was formerly of Texas, but for three years had resided in Bossier,
and was a man of desperate character, especially when in liquor.  He called
Lyon from out the store, and a conversation ensued in a low tone of voice,
which was suddenly ended by Hutchins drawing his repeater and shooting Lyon
twice.  The latter rushed in to the store, seized a double-barrel shot gun,
and fired twice at Hutchins, the first shot wounding Hutchins in the hip,
and the last being discharged as Lyon, gun in hand, fell dead, from a bullet
in the heart, from Hutchins’s first shot.
 Lyon was a young man well thought of, and the cowardly, brutal act of
Hutchins greatly incense the people in the vicinity of the murder.  Hutchins
was arrested, and for safekeeping was take to the Shreveport jail.
Demonstrations of an alarming character were made in that city against the
prisoner’s safety, and a removal to the Bossier jail was thought prudent.
 We find the stern and awful sequel thus narrated in an Shreveport special
of Sunday to the Times-Democrat of the day following:
 Deputy Sheriffs James Burt and Robert Stenson, of Bossier, learning there
was some danger of the prisoner being taken from the jail in our city, where
he was confined for safe keeping, and being lynched, came over last evening
to take him to the Bellevue jail.  They summoned a posse to assist in
conveying him to Bellevue, consisting of Chief of Police E.M. Austin, George
L. Whipp, Charles A. Dewing, E.A. Conway, Policeman Quiggles, William Mash
and William Wimbush.
 They started at about 5 o’clock this morning.  On the way the prisoner
stated to Mr. Dewing that he expected, from movements he had seen since the
killing, that he would be mobbed.
 On the road, when about four miles from town, a large number of masked men
made their appearance.  They were first discovered by the prisoner, and he
at once called on Dewing for his pistol to defend himself.  Dewing refused
to give up his pistol, and said he would protect him.  In the meantime
Hutchins drew a large springknife and stabbed himself over the heart in
rapid succession three times.  Chief Austin, who had dismounted and was
standing near the carriage, caught his hand and wrenched the knife from it.
Hutchins then fell over and seemingly fainted.
 The masked men then took him from the carriage and hung him to a thorn tree
about 30 yards from the main road.  His only request was that his wife be
notified as to the whereabouts of his body.
 The following placards were pinned to the body:  “There is a point where
forbearances ceases to be virtue. – CITIZENS.” – “Fettermans – both of you –
never return; if you do, you will follow this desperado and thief.
 The Fetterman brothers keep stores on the opposite side of the river, and
are alleged to have urged Hutchins to commit the murder.  Hutchins was
generally regarded as a desperate character, and although the lynching is
deprecated by law abiding citizens, many referred to it as a public
necessity.
 After the hanging the masked crowd dispersed, leaving the carriage and
sheriff’s posse standing in the road.  Your correspondent was on the ground
at a late hour this evening, and the body was still hanging awaiting the
arrival of the coroner, who lives a long distance from the scene.  Several
thousand people visited the scene today.
 There were from 75 to 100 masked men in the crowd who did the hanging.

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