Ray County, Missouri Richmond Conservator transcription; December 10, 1896 (page 4)

This is a transcription of the newspaper articles relating to the triple murders of Mrs. Jesse Winner and her two young children



Richmond Conservator, Thursday, December 10, 1896 (page 4)

Winner and Nelson Lynched

Taken From the Lexington Jail Sunday Night, Brought Across the River and Swung Up Side by side on
a Burr Oak Limb

Great Crowds Visit the Scene of the Hanging

The General Impression Prevails that the Heinousness of the Crime Justified the Hanging

Jesse Winner and James Nelson, charged with the murder of Mrs. Winner and her two children, and
who were taken to the Lafayette county jail to guard them against lynching, were taken from the jail at
Lexington Sunday night by an armed mob, brought across the river and hanged side by side on the limb
of a burr oak tree, a few feet from the road and about a quarter of a mile from the river on the road
leading from Lexington to the Junction.

The news of the lynching reached this place early Monday morning, and every available vehicle was
quickly filled and a a large number of our people went to the scene of the hanging. There was a large
crowd already assembled when the writer arrived, and the spectacle which greeted us, presented a
most gruesome sight. There suspended from a limb a little larger than a man’s arm, with their faces
toward the road, were the lifeless bodies of Jesse Winner and James Nelson. The hands of both men
were securely bound behind them. Nelson was hanging nearest the road and Winner just back of him.
The knot on the rope around Nelson’s neck rested immediately upon the joint of the spinal column
where it joins the head, forcing his head forward. His feet were resting upon the ground. The knot in the
noose around Winner’s neck pressed against the jugular vein under the left ear, his knees were bent
and his toes resting upon the ground which exhibited signs of a severe struggle before death ensued
from strangulation. The expression on the faces of the men showed that they must have died horrible
deaths. The bodies remained hanging where they died until about noon, and during this time hundreds of
people from both sides of the river visited the scene to view the ghastly sight, among them a number of
the gentler sex, drawn there by a morbid curiosity. The ropes used were evidently taken from halters,
one of them being spliced with a smaller rope. Pieces of the tree upon which the men were hung were
broken off and taken away as mementoes, while the pieces of rope commanded a premium. About
noon County Coroner Dove arrived and had the bodies cut down and carried to Lexington Junction,
where a jury composed of the following named citizens was duly empanelled and sworn: G. W.
Duncan, Jas. Couch, William Douglass, A. E. Williams, W. H. Teagarden, and J. W. Hedrick. The first
witness was Chas. Hedrick, who being sworn testified as follows: At 7:30 this morning I heardthat two
men had been hung. Geo. Crispin and wife and myself went down to the scene and saw two men
hanging. I did not know them. Dave Heathman of Lexington and Preston Smith were the only persons
present that I knew. We only staid a few minutes.

Clark McGaugh testified: Came down town at 6:30 and went to the saloon. Denny Carver told me that
two men had been hung about a half mile this side of the river. Then went home and got breakfast and
returned to town and met the train from the river. Mr. Mackin, the Santa Fe agent, had been to the
river on the train and had seen the two men hanging. I asked him about it and he told me and I started
in a wagon to go down, but got down and went on a hand car. When we got there we found two men
hanging, with 30 or 40 men standing around. Did not hear any surmises as to who had lynched the men.
Came back home on the Lexington transfer.

Lon Mitchell, sworn, said: Came to the place of hanging between 9 and 10 o’clock. The two men now
lying before me were hanging by their necks from a tree. One of them I had seen before, the other I did
not know. The one I knew was Winner. Saw him at Abe Endsley’s in the spring. Saw nothing which
would cast suspicion on anyone. Was told of the hanging first at James Couch’s.

The coroner’s jury returned a verdict which in substance is as follows: We the jury find that Jesse
Winner and James Nelson, whose bodies now lie before us, came to their death by hanging, at the
hands of persons to the jury unknown.

At the inquest the following articles were found in the pockets of Jesse Winner: A brass watch and
chain, a funeral card, piece of tobacco, handkerchief, pocket book containing 15 cents, smoking
tobacco, a letter and a memorandum book. After the inquest the bodies were brought to this city and
placed in the circuit court room at the courthouse. Shortly afterwards Mr. Harvey Nelson and wife,
father and mother of James Nelson, who had but a short time before learned the sad fate of their son,
called at the courthouse and asked that the body be turned over to them, which request was granted,
and they took it to Nelson’s home in the western part of town, from whence the remains were taken to
New Garden cemetery in the western part of the county Wednesday for burial. The body of Winner
remained in the court house until Tuesday afternnon, when it was taken to the county poor farm and
buried - thus tragically ends the lives of five persons within about five weeks. The general impression
prevails that if Winner and Nelson were guilty of the terrible crime with which they were charged, and
there seems to be but little doubt of their guilt, that while lynch law is always to be deplored, the heinous
crime justified the tragic end of those who committed it.

Lon Lackey, who was arrested at the same time Winner was, and was taken with him to the Lexington
jail, was brought back here Saturday, the impression having prevailed that when confronted with the
affidavit of Maggie Catron who stated upon her oath that Lon Lackey told her that he (Lackey), jesse
Winner and James Nelson went out to the Winner home on Monday night, October 26th, and that Jesse
Winner murdered his wife, that James Nelson cut the throats of the two children, while he held the
horses, he would make a full confession, but he stubbornly denied the statement of Maggie Catron, and
when confronted by here, denounced her affidavit as false. Lackey was taken back to the jail at
Lexington Monday morning by sheriff-elect R. K. Green, passing within a few feet of where Winner
and Nelson were hanging. Lackey was the first to recognize the faces of the dead men, and as he did
so he caught Green by the arm, completely unnerved, and said: “For god’s sake, drive on,” which
request Green was not slow to comply with, as the sight startled him almost as much as it did Lackey,
and he lost no time in getting his prisoner safely across the river and in jail, and later on, accompanied
by sheriff-elect Fulkerson, of Lafayette county, took lackey to the jail at Kansas City, where he will be
kept until brought here to answer to the charge against him at the February term of the circuit court.

How They Were Taken From Jail.

From the Lexington papers we learn that the mob arrived at Lexington about 12 o’clock Sunday night,
and were so quiet in their action that they had secured the outside guards before they knew what was
going on. They then entered the jail and demanded the keys of jailor Goode, who refused to give them
up. They threatened to kill him unless he surrendered the keys, and he told them that they would have
to kill him as he would not give them up. The mob was prepared for this as they had with them all kinds
of tools and an ample supply of dynamite, which they declared they would use. The lock was broken
from the door, the men securely bound and taken from the jail; the river was recrossed at 1:30. The
men composing the mob made no effort to conceal their identity, and it is said many of them could be
easily recognized. It is also stated that the overcoat worn by the leader of the mob was left in the jail
and is now in the possession of the authorities of Lafayette county. The Lexington special to the Kansas
City times says:

“Prosecuting Attorney William Aull says: ‘I have evidence sufficient to identify some of the members of
the mob, and have the names of many others, also property belonging to some of them. If it is the last
act of my life, I expect to bring the perpetrators to justice, and shall request the assistance of the
attorney general and all the power that the state can lend to see that such conspiracies against the law
are punished and the conspirators brought to justice. They treated on officer like a brute, and showed
as little regard for law as they claim had the alleged murderers they were seeking. Had they come
Saturday night some of the them would now be in the hands of the undertaker or in the Lafayette
county jail. The officers did their full duty, but were helpless under the circumstances.’”

Mr. Aull would no doubt be fully justified in trying to find out who composed the mob and prosecute
them, but he will find it an uphill business, as it will be no trouble to prove that every citizen of Ray
county was at home and in bed while the mob was in Lexington. Nobody on this side of the river has
lost any property - Mr. Aull is on a cold trail.

Maggie Catron was visited on Monday afternoon and was found to be greatly excited over the hanging,
and after much persuasion told the following story of her connection with the murder:

“My knowledge has been mostly obtained from Lon Lackey since the murder was committed. On the
night following the preliminary trial here I stayed at my brother’s home and Lackey came down to see
me. I asked him what he knew of the murder, and he said he guessed he knew all about it. He said on
the night of the murder Winner and Nelson asked him if he didn’t want to make a moonlight trip out
north of town, to which he answered yes. He (Lackey) said they drove to the gate leading to the
Winner’s home, when the latter remarked that, as he was so close to home, he believed he would get
out and stay, whereupon Nelson also got out and told Lackey to hold the horses until he came back.
They were gone quite a while, when both came back, got in the buggy and started home. Then it was
that nelson spoke up and told Lackey what had been done, and made him swear to keep silent. I do
not know anything directly, only what Lackey has told me.”

During the interview the woman was extremely nervous and was frequently startled by slight noises and
seemed to be continually looking for someone, and upon being asked who she was expecting, said that
she had been frequently told she would be lynched by Nelson’s friends, and that she had sent for sheriff
Holman to give her protection.

It is reported that the Catron woman, when asked if she knew of any motive the men could have had
for the murder, replied: “One day Winner and his wife quarreled and Jesse knocked his wife down. She
arose and told him if he did not treat her better she would tell something that would lay him and others
of his kind in their graves. I suppose she was referring to the murder of old man Clark up at Excelsior
Springs.”

Winner was 28 years of age and Nelson 29. Nelson had a wife and two children. Both were coal
miners working at the mines at this place.

Harvey Nelson, father of James, was born in Alabama in 1845, and came to Missouri when quite small.
He married Artela Franklin Dickey, daughter of George Dickey, Esq. They are good law abiding
citizens highly esteemed by their neighbors. The widow of James Nelson is the daughter of the late
Robert Corkendale and a grand daughter of William Corkendale, Sen.

Everything is quiet again, but when Lon Lackey is brought back here for trial, we confidently expect the
excitement to again reach the boiling point, but it is pretty safe to say that sheriff Green will prevent any
further violence from mobs, as the people of Ray county are law abiding and peaceable and will insist
that the law be permitted to take its course.







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