Platte City: Man Taken From Jail, Lynched

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Murderer Lynched.

Kansas City, Mo., Aug. 2. - George Johnson, who killed J. W. Moore, a farmer, June 20, was taken from jail at Platte City this morning and lynched. Johnson had been in jail in Kansas City for safekeeping, but was taken to Platte City yesterday to be in readiness for his trial which was set for today. Johnson shot Moore from ambush.

--The Marion Weekly Star, Marion, Ohio, August 7, 1909, page 9.



Lynch Law In Missouri.

Platte City, Mo., Aug. 3. - George Johnson, white, who on June 20 murdered John W. Moore, a farmer, was lynched here.

Feeling ran so high at the time of the killing that Johnson was taken to Kansas City for safekeeping and he had just been returned to Platte City for trial. About daylight two men took a third man to the jail, representing him to be a prisoner. When the sheriff opened the jail door the three overpowered him. Fifty other men quickly appeared and battered down the door of Johnson's cell. He was taken to a tree opposite the jail and strung up.

--Weekly State Spirit and Dakota Huronite, Huron, South Dakota, August 12, 1909, page 4.



HADLEY ORDERS A RIGID INQUIRY

GRAND JURY MAY TAKE UP PLATTE CITY LYNCHING.

A Reward of $300 Offered by the State for the Arrest and Conviction of Mob Members.

Kansas City, Aug. 3. - A dispatch was received last night from Jefferson City saying that Governor Hadley had telegraphed from Estes Park Colo., to Jacob Gmelich, acting governor, instructing him to offer a reward of $300 for the arrest and conviction of the members of the mob that lynched George Johnson at Platte City, Mo., early yesterday morning. The Governor has also telegraphed the authorities at Platte City ordering a thorough investigation of the lynching of Johnson.

Platte City, Mo., Aug. 3. - George Johnson, who was lynched early Monday was buried in the afternoon in the Potter's field and with his burial Platte City has chosen to forget that there ever was a lynching here. If there is an investigation, no matter how "searching" it may be, the indications are that little will come of it. Platte City liked J. W. Moore, the murdered man; it hated George Johnson with all the hatred that a crime in a small town can cause. And therefore when Platte City awoke this morning to find the body of Johnson swaying beneath the big tree at the Wells Bank corner, it had only one remark to make:

"It's horrible, this lynching." Then, sotto voce: "It served him right. He ought to have been hanged."

No Feeling of Regret.

And so last night there was no indignation in the voices of the men who happened to mention the hanging in the evening conversation. A mob hanged George Johnson, murderer. Well, he would have been hanged anyway if he had not taken a change of venue from Platte county, and so really what's the difference? That's the sentiment of Platte City and that's the reason that Platte City has paid little more than morbid attention to the fact that a human being was dragged from the jail without time to prepare himself for death and made to die by slow strangulation.

--The Chillicothe Constitution, Chillicothe, Missouri, August 3, 1909, page 1.