Trempealeau County WI Archives News.....Lynch Law March 15, 1890
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/wi/wifiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ken Wright wright@prestontel.com January 29, 2011, 11:46 am

Clinton Daily Herald March 15, 1890
Clinton Daily Herald, March 15, 1890

LYNCH LAW

Whitehall, Wisconsin, March 14, 1890

Ole C. Sletto, Ole J. Hansen and Bertha M. Oleson were yesterday found guilty 
of murder in the first degree for complicity in the lynching of Hans Jacob 
Oleson, on Sunday, November 24, 1889. The prisoners listened with ashen faces 
as the clerk slowly read the verdict. When he reached and pronounced the 
word “guilty,” laying a light but perceptible emphasis thereon, the widow of 
the murdered man sank back in her seat with a choking gasp. For a moment she 
covered her face with her hands, and then hurriedly looked around as if a 
possible escape had occurred to her. She had heard no further than the 
word “guilty.” Her son and Ole Sletto received the verdict almost stolidly, 
the former betraying little if any excitement. Young Hanson heard the clerk to 
the end and then began to shift uneasily in his seat, but in a few moments he 
too resumed an appearance of composure. The three prisoners were in a few 
minutes taken back to their cells, the woman uttering occasional low cries of 
terror at the fate to which she expects to be conducted.
Among the spectators the verdict was freely commented upon and the majority 
were totally unprepared for such a result. It was the general opinion that 
Sletto would be convicted of murder, but it was thought that Mrs. Hanson and 
her son would escape with a lighter punishment. On the whole, however, the 
verdict has given satisfaction. The jury was discharged and the sentence of 
Ole Sletto, Bertha M. Oleson and Ole J. Hanson, with Charles Johnson, the 
confessed murderer, was deferred. Immediately after the verdict had been 
returned and the succeeding excitement had in some measure subsided, the 
parties arrested and held on the double charge of riot and lynching Oleson, 
twenty-five in number, were arraigned in court.
Mr. Frawley, attorney for Charles Johnson, the man who led the mob, and who 
had already confessed to being guilty of murder in the first degree, addressed 
the court saying his client wished it be understood that the rioters were led 
by him and that it was at his instigation that the crime was committed. He 
therefore asked for the clemency of the court on their behalf. Judge Newman 
immediately passed sentence upon the rioters, fixing the penalty at $100 and 
costs of prosecution, or six months in the county jail, except the case of 
Elbert Oleson, who has been already three months in jail.
Sunday night November 24, a mob of thirty or thirty-five men marched to 
Oleson’s house. A committee consisting of John McKivering, Dick Martin, James 
Nelson and Henry Hanson was appointed to bring the old man out. He was dragged 
from his bed in the night robe, but was allowed to dress in the snow. The mob 
showed him a rope with a noose in it. “Will you leave the country to escape 
hanging?” was asked. “No” he answered. “This is my home and I am going to stay 
here til God calls me away.” The leader threw the noose around his neck and 
hoisted him to the limb of a tree. Then they let him down and asked him if he 
would leave. He said “No.” They pulled him up again and then again let him 
down. He said he was sick and they carried him back to the house and gave him 
a drink of water. While he was drinking the crowd voted to hang him for good. 
Twenty men pulled the rope and the victim was left swinging from the tree. 
Some of the lynchers went inside and had supper with Mrs. Oleson and the 
family and two of the leaders stayed the night. The only reason given for the 
lynching was Olesen’s general unpopularity. He was doubtless half demented and 
he had threatened to kill several men. He frequently beat his wife, and a 
witness testified at the trial that she said when he was strung up: “That is 
good enough for you, Hans, you have done that to me lots of times.”




File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wi/trempealeau/newspapers/lynchlaw41gnw.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/wifiles/

File size: 4.4 Kb