WALLACE MITCHELL HUNG FOR MURDER OF OSCAR JOHNSON
Syracuse, Kan., June 27 - Wallace Mitchell the
self-confessed murderer who was brought here yesterday from Colorado, was taken from jail early this morning and
hanged on the spot where he committed his crime.
Mitchell had his preliminary trial before Justice
Waggoner yesterday afternoon, pleaded guilty to the murder of Oscar Johnson and the attempted murder of August
Johnson repented the story of his crime with the utmost sang frold and as if it was an every day occurrence and
at the conclusion of the testimony was remanded to jail until the September term of court. The cold blooded recital
of his fiendish deed had an exciting effect on the people and everywhere on the streets knots of men gathered with
his confession as the theme of conversation and it was easy to be seen that a storm was brewing and that summary
justice was likely to be visited on the guilty man.
After dark matters came more to a focus, and about
midnight a body of men numbering a hundred or more gathered around the water tank and under the lead of an elected
captain went to the jail and demanded admittance of the sheriff. This he refused, and declared his intention of
protecting his prisoner at all hazards.
Everything Done Quietly
The citizens seemed loth to make any assault on
the sheriff but were none the less determined to have their man and two men were again sent to demand the keys,
but the sheriff was gone.
Part of the lynchers started in hot pursuit while
others went for railroad iron to batter in the doors.
The sheriff however was soon overhauled, but another
delay occurred as he had thrown the keys away. After a short search they are found, the doors unlocked and the
culprit brought out.
Mitchell was taken directly to the place where
the murders were committed and given all the time he desired for prayer and confession. He entirely exonerated
Oscar Johnson, the uncle from complicity in the murder and said the sheriff of Las Animas county, Colorado had
helped him to make up the story. He then made his last prayer, and at about the hour he killed the boy - 1:30 a.m.
he was hanged to a telegraph pole.
The crime was the murder of a boy 12 years old
and the attempted murder of his father for money and then an endeavor to implicate another man in the hideous crime.
Mitchell's friends telegraphed today that they
did not want his remains, and he will be buried here tomorrow. (Kansas City Times, June 28, 1888, page 1, transcribed
by Peggy Thompson)
OFFICERS SHOT BY
CAR THIEVES ARE IMPROVING
Hope Held out for The Recovery of Hamilton County
Sheriff and Deputy
One Man is Held
But the Other Desperadoes Escaped; Fleeing South
of Syracuse
Syracuse, Kans., Sept. 12, - Hope is held today
for the recovery of Sheriff Govan C. Mills of Hamilton County, and his deputy, Ray Kumpf, who was shot by car bandits
when the officers attempted to take a gang of three men into custody for investigation Saturday night. Both of
the officers were shot once, near the heart.
Kumpf, was believed to be out of danger. Sheriff
Mills is expected to recover unless complications set in. One of the trio of bandits was captured but the others
escaped.
A report had reached the sheriff that four men
were acting suspiciously in a car parked on a side street in the western part of Syracuse. Mills took Kumpf and
went to investigate. The deputy was unarmed. As they approached the car, three of the men grabbing their guns,
while the fourth stood back.
Didn't Draw Gun
Sheriff Mills dropped to the ground, wounded in
the left breast before he could draw his gun.
The men fled before a hastily organized posse headed
by Louis Henderson, undersheriff. When about twenty miles from Syracuse they stopped and made the man who had stood
by during the shooting get from the ar. He was picked up by officers who say that he was a passenger the men had
allowed to ride to Syracuse with them when they found him walking along a road. He gave the name of Raymond Norris.
Officers believe that he was telling the truth.
The men were driving a Chevrolet car which had
an Indiana license tag. Before Norris was put out of the car, they told him they intended to steal another. (El
Dorado Times, Monday, September 12, 1927)
