The Ouachita Telegraph - HANGING OF FOUR MEN IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE Date: Aug. 2000 Submitted by: Lora Peppers * ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** * The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, August 2, 1878 Page 2, Column 1 HANGING OF FOUR MEN IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE. Coming along Oak street, early Tuesday morning, from his residence to this office, the writer passed the courthouse square. He was thinking very hard about the eclipse, a new constitution for the State and generally what should go into this paper, to make it interesting. A large bundle of exchanges was under his arm, and he was wholly absorbed in thought, when, looking over the fence enclosing courthouse square, he saw a crowd of people gathered around one of the beautiful water-oaks growing in the square, near the steps on the western side of the enclosure. This square is a beauty in nature, and no city, large or small, can rival it. Its beauty is marred only by the little bake-ovens known as the offices of the Clerk and of the Recorder of the parish, and by a barn called a courthouse. In April, 1864, the Yankee gunboats came up the Ouachita, and one Foster commanding the fleet, burned the courthouse. Foster, an eye-witness tells us, was as “drunk as hell” at the time. He found only women and children in Monroe. Harrison’s cavalry had skedaddled to the pine hills, stopping somewhere about Vienna, some 30 miles west of this place, where water and buttermilk were plentiful, and there was a good place to camp. Facing the courthouse square, on the west, is the parish jail – a sweet-scented place, known to all criminals and to the community generally. In this jail were confined, for safe-keeping, four negro men and two negro women. The men were up-stairs, the women below. Two of the men were in the rear cell, and two in the front cell, chained together, in pairs, by the ankles, and then chained to the “bull-ring” to be found in the center of the floor of each cell. In the rear cell Henry Atkins and Peter Butler were incarcerated; in the front cell, Jim Beatty and Tom Ross. Between one and two o’clock Monday night Deputy Sheriff Richardson was waited upon while in bed, and the keys of the jail were demanded of him. His evidence before the Coroner’s jury shows that he did not give up the keys, but told his interviewers where the keys were. He was told to stay in bed and not move from it. He did not. Just around the corner Mr. W.H. Ferry has a sleeping room. Mr. Ferry says that he could not go to sleep, and lit his lamp to read awhile. Some one came up, and said, put that light out. What did you say? Inquired Mr. Ferry. Put that light out, was the response, with a long pause between each work. The light was extinguished, and Mr. Ferry quit reading. Policeman Crawford was walking along his beat. He was halted in front of the Catholic Church, and Mr. Crawford halted. This is the best evidence we can gather of the hanging of the four negroes in the courthouse square Monday night. Tom Ross, Jim Beatty, Henry Atkins and Ples Phillips, were all hanging from a limb of one of the water-oaks in the courthouse square, Tuesday morning, and were all dead. Had not their arms been tied, they might have shaken hands, so close were they together. A small manilla rope, three-eighths in thickness, was used, and a neat hangman’s knot was around the neck of each one, and the knot was directly under the ear of each. Their feet were not off the ground very far, Tom Ross’s feet touching the ground. Against the tree stood a ladder, got from the rear of S. Meyer’s store, and on the ground lay another which came from the rear of Judge Richardson’s office. The mouths of the four men were either filled with scraps of old newspapers, or stopped up with bandages. No one heard them halloo, and no one heard and disturbance, so far as we can ascertain. The town was not alarmed, and men who were up knew nothing of what was going on. If the men were masked, we have not heard it. Where they came from, or what road they came is more than we know, or have been able to find out. Tom Ross had been tried and found guilty of killing Louis Collins, a freedman, and was under sentence by Judge Parsons to the penitentiary for life. The Supreme Court, at its recent session here, granted Tom a new trial, on the ground that the jurors of the regular pannel (sic) were not called from the door of the courthouse. Louis Collins was killed. Steve Birdge, another negro, was in jail a short time, charged with the crime. He was subsequently released, and gave in the evidence that convicted Tom Ross. In Ross’s cell, we found the following note, written on the reverse side of an old envelope, in a very bad handwriting. Two spades and a coffin are drawn in pencil on the note, and the note ends just as printed: 1878 Mr. Steve Birge Dear frind you get a way from here in 15 fifteen days if not you will Be hunge to a lim or shoat to Death for you and Thomas Ross is the men that killed Louis Collans and tom will Be killed if he gits out and Jim Beatty had been tried and convicted for the murder of Constable Fitzgerald of Trenton, in this parish, and would have been taken to-day to the penitentiary for life. Atkins and Phillips were apprehended some two months ago near Port Hudson as parties concerned in the murder of Fitzgerald. These three were all employed on Hasley’s place, above Trenton. Fitzgerald heard some shooting in rear of Trenton, and went out to ascertain the cause. In pursuit of these men – having ascertained that they were the offenders – Fitzgerald was shot down, and he died in a few minutes. Mr. Fitzgerald was a worthy citizen and a good officer. His wife and three children survive him, and he was their only help. There was a special venire of jurors summoned, after the regular session of the District Court, by Judge Parsons, to try Atkins and Phillips. At first, the jury stood eleven for conviction, and one, Duncan Hill (col.) for acquittal. Finally, the five colored men all favored acquittal, and the seven white men were for conviction. There was a mistrial, as the jury could not agree, and Phillips and Atkins were remanded to jail. We annex the proceedings had at the investigation held by the Parish Coroner, Mr. L.W. Surghnor: CORONER’S INQUEST. MONROE, LA., July 30th, 1878. State of Louisiana, Parish of Ouachita. – At an inquest held this day upon the bodies of Jim Beaty, Ples Phillips, Tom Ross and Henry Atkins, there lying dead, and after summoning and empanneling the following named persons as jurors of inquest, J.E. Vinson, W.P. Vinson, H.C. Downs, J.L. Graves and L.F. McClendon, the jury being sworn, the follwing testimony was had. Wm. H. Richardson, being duly sworn, deposes as follows: Somewhere between one and three o’clock this morning, I was in bed in the back room of the Sheriff’s office. I was not called up. The parties who came into the office forced the front door of the office, and three ca into the back room between the door and the bed, and without saying anything at all as to good morning or good night, they demanded of me the keys in the words, “We demand of you the jail keys.” I told them I didn’t hve the jail keys. They then asked where they were, and I told them they were in the desk in the front room. They asked whereabouts in the desk. I told them in the top of the desk in the front office. They went out, leaving a guard in the middle room and also on the sidewalk. As soon as they got through t the jail they brought the keys back to the office. I got up and looked through the two holes in the door and saw a light in the square, and what they done we can see this morning. Did not know any of them, nor did I recognize any of their voices. I never heard any hallooing as if any one was in distress; only heard light talking in the street. Heard no gun fire, and all the persons I could see by the lamp were a-foot. W.H. RICHARDSON Henry J. Crawford, being sworn, deposed as follows: I am night police of the city of Monroe. I was near the bridge at the Catholic church this morning, between quarter to one to half-past two o’clock. I saw about six or seven persons about that time. I think I know one person that passed by me. I heard no noise or confusion last night – not more than usual. I was no nearer the jail last night than as above mentioned. I did not see the hanging of the parties now lying dead. Question by juror: I was arrested and held in custody last night. They told me to stay where I was and not go any further; I stayed. I could not tell whether they were white or black. I did not know their names, neither do I want to form their acquaintance. They never said anything to me, but walked off, and I found myself alone. Then I walked off on my beat. H.J. CRAWFORD. An inquisition taken at Monroe, La., on the 30th day of July, A.D. 1878, upon the bodies of Jim Beaty, Ples Phillips, Tom Ross and Henry Atkins, there lying dead: The jurors whose names are hereunto subscribed, having been sworn to enquire on behalf o the State, when and by what means said Jim Beaty, Ples Phillips, Tom Ross and Henry Atkins came to their death, upon their oath do say, that the said parties came to their death by hanging, and that the same was don by parties unknown to us. In testimony whereof, the coroner and jurors of this inquest have hereunto subscribed their names, the day and year above stated. JOHN E. VINSON, L.F. McCLENDON, J.L. GRAVES, H.C. DOWNS, W.P. VINSON, Jurors: L.W. SURGHNOR, Coroner. MONROE, July 30, 1878. This certifies that I was this day (July 30, 1878) called by L.W. Surghnor, Coroner of the Parish of Ouachita, to examine the bodies of four colored men lying dead in the court house square of the city of Monroe; and that on examination I found that the said men came to their death by suffocation produced by hanging. THOS. Y. ABY, M.D. The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, August 9, 1878 Page 2, Column 3 THE COURTHOUSE SQUARE TRAGEDY The hanging of the four negroes Monday night of last week, in the Courthouse Square, remains, as it was at the date of our issue of last week, a profound mystery. Nothing has reached us to indicate, in the least, who the individuals were who did the hanging, or how many they were in number. Nor have we heard anything to show from what direction they came, or what road they took in leaving. In fact, it appears that the whole city was taken by complete surprise, and it is, perhaps, no wonder, since no unusual noise or stir was made, and so quiet was the execution that persons who were asleep in buildings fronting or very near the square were not even aroused from their slumbers. The two negro women who were confined in the lower cell of the jail solemnly assured us that they heard nothing of the taking of the men above from their cells. One says she heard some noise in the front room, where there is some corn housed, but thought nothing of it. She heard no cries or other noise. Considerable curiosity is witnessed by us daily to se the particular tree of the twenty water-oaks in the square upon which the four men were hanged; and as it will become historic, we will supply an omission in our account of last week by indicating its location. The tree is about 30 inches in diameter, and stands about 80 feet from the steps of the fence next to the river and very near the walk. About 15 feet from the ground a limb, a foot in diameter, puts out, pointing nearly due south. It is on this limb the men were hanged, and it is the only limb of the twenty trees suitable for the execution of four men together, as heavy as these were. The men were hung in pairs – when one was cut down, both fell. This particular limb, some two years ago when the trees in the square were trimmed, was specially pointed out to the trimmer by the Sheriff to be cut off. Old Jim Smith, the freedman who had the job, out of perversity, or it might appear by direction of fate, disregarded the directions of the Sheriff, and left the limb, after carefully cutting away some of it’s lateral branches. It was Tom Ross and Jim Beatty, two of the hanged men, who made the strange exit from the jail in May last, noticed by us at the time. Tom and Jim were chained together by the ankles, with a chain five feet in length. The grating in the ceiling, for ventilation, was torn out, and a hole made not larger than a medium – sized pane of glass. The ceiling is about ten feet from the floor. Two other men were in the cell. Beatty and Ross got out through the hole chained together, but the blanket rope provided for the descent from the roof, broke with their weight, and they fell 25 feet to the ground. They climbed a high fence, Jim with a broken leg and Tom with a bruised face, the results of the fall, but were unable to make good their escape. The manner of their exit while chained together and through such a small hole in the ceiling ten feet from the floor, was not understood, until one of their companions explained that Beatty passed through the hole head foremost, while Ross was held on the shoulders of the two other inmates. Beatty then caught Ross by the feet and drew him through the hole feet foremost. It was a desperate risk, but they were impelled by indictments for murder, at the time, and by fear, no doubt, of the consequences. The bodies of the four, after the Coroner’s inquest (the proceedings of which we published last week) were placed in plain pine boxes and were buried in the City Cemetery. # # #