Ray County, Missouri Richmond Conservator transcription; January 7, 1897 (page 1) 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, January 7, 1897 (page 1) Were Probably Innocent Startling Developments in the Ray County Lynching Kansas City Journa Prosecuting Attorney Aull, of Lafayette county, who was in Kansas City yesterday, said he had made good progress in securing evidence against the Ray county citizens who took Jesse Winner and James Nelson out of the Lexington jail and lynched them, for the murder of Mrs. Winner and her three children. Mr. Aull announced just after the lynching that he proposed to bring the lynchers to justice, and has worked hard to get the evidence to make a case. To some friends in the city, Mr. Aull said he had secured evidence that convinced him that Winner and Nelson did not commit the murder: that it was committed by other parties who protected themselves by aggravating the feeling against the suspects, and actually took an active part in the lynching of the two men. He will procure indictments at the coming term of court against about fifty leading Ray county citizens and will do his utmost to secure their convictions. The head lines to the above would indicate to a casual observer that the county attorney of Lafayette county had stumbled upon some great chunks of startling facts concerning the Winner - Nelson lynching, and may be he has, but we have our doubts exceedingly. We don’t know what line of theory Mr. Aull is working on that Winner and Nelson were innocent of the murder of Mrs. Winner and her two children, unless it be, that he takes it for granted that when Winner and Nelson protested their innocence in the face of an angry mob they told the truth. The general impression on this side of the river, and not in the neighborhood where the murder was committed, is that two of the guilty parties paid the penalty when Winner and Nelson were hanged. This impression was not formed because of the affidavit of Maggie Catron, but because of the general character of the two men, prior to any statement made by her. All good people of Ray county who believe that the enforcement of our laws ought to come through the regular process of our courts, deprecate such occasions as the Winner - Nelson lynching, but they are powerless to prevent such things, not knowing how or where they will occur. There is one thing, however, stated in the above from the Kansas City Journal, that we take the liberty to contradict, and that is that Mr. Aull has the names of fifty leading citizens of Ray county who were members of the mob. We brand this statement as false for the simple reason that we know to the contrary, and if any indictments are returned they will prove to the contrary. We know the opinions of the law abiding people of Ray county and we know that they thought the guilty parties, whoever they were, ought to suffer the extreme penalty of the law, but they were opposed to lynching, especially when there was no positive evidence of the guilt of the parties charged with the crime. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by County Coordinator USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogical information on the Internet, data may be freely used for personal research and by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for profit or any form of presentation, must obtain the written consent of the file submitter, or their legal representative, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------