The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United StatesWells-Barnett, Ida B.
History
The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States
Wells-Barnett, Ida B.
African Americans -- History -- 1877-1964; Lynching -- United States; Lynching -- United States -- Statistics
A telegram was sent to the chief of the police at Springfield, Ill.,
asking if one C.J. Miller lived there. An answer in the negative was
returned. A few hours after, it was ascertained that a man named Miller,
and his wife, did live at the number the prisoner gave in his speech, but
the information came to Bardwell too late to do the prisoner any good.
Miller was taken to jail, every stitch of clothing literally torn from his
body and examined again. On the lower left side of the bosom of his shirt
was found a dark reddish spot about the size of a dime. Miller said it was
paint which he had gotten on him at Jefferson Barracks. This spot was only
on the right side, and could not be seen from the under side at all, thus
showing it had not gone through the cloth as blood or any liquid substance
would do.
Chief-of-Police Mahaney, of Cairo, Ill., was with the prisoner, and he
took his knife and scraped at the spot, particles of which came off in his
hand. Miller told them to take his clothes to any expert, and if the spot
was shown to be blood, they might do anything they wished with him. They
took his clothes away and were gone some time. After a while they were
brought back and thrown into the cell without a word. It is needless to
say that if the spot had been found to be blood, that fact would have been
announced, and the shirt retained as evidence. Meanwhile numbers of rough,
drunken men crowded into the cell and tried to force a confession of the
deed from the prisoner's lips. He refused to talk save to reiterate his
innocence. To Mr. Mahaney, who talked seriously and kindly to him, telling
him the mob meant to burn and torture him at three o'clock, Miller said:
"Burning and torture here lasts but a little while, but if I die with a
lie on my soul, I shall be tortured forever. I am innocent." For more than
three hours, all sorts of pressure in the way of threats, abuse and
urging, was brought to bear to force him to confess to the murder and thus
justify the mob in its deed of murder. Miller remained firm; but as the
hour drew near, and the crowd became more impatient, he asked for a
priest. As none could be procured, he then asked for a Methodist minister,
who came, prayed with the doomed man, baptized him and exhorted Miller to
confess. To keep up the flagging spirits of the dense crowd around the
jail, the rumor went out more than once, that Miller had confessed. But
the solemn assurance of the minister, chief-of-police, and leading
editor--who were with Miller all along--is that this rumor is absolutely
false.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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