200 Prisoners Witness Hanging, Meant As Moral Lesson

Chicago, 1920
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200 Prisoners See Hanging As Moral Lesson

Murderer Goes to His Death on Gallows While Fellow Prisoners Look On - Governor's Order is Defied.

By United Press Leased Wire

Chicago -- Two hundred prisoners in the Cook County jail today witnessed the hanging of Raffalo Durrage. The men stood in their cells, with windows facing on a court and saw Durrage go to his death, as "moral lesson."

Jailer W. T. Daveis and Sheriff C. W. Peters arranged for the prisoners to see the execution despite protests from Chicago club women, social leaders and Governor Frank O. Lowden.

"The governor misunderstood the circumstances," said Jailer Daveis. "He thought we were going to allow all prisoners to witness the hanging. Instead we merely did not remove the prisoners who occupied cells facing on the court where the scaffold was erected." The prisoners stood in the windows and watched the trap sprung. A few turned away but the majority gazed at the spectacle without flinching. Durrage was convicted of murdering his wife and Omofrio Gargano.

In all former hangings, prisoners were removed from cells facing the court where the hangings are to be held.

The hanging was held an hour earlier than the time set in order to prevent court action allowing a stay of execution.

All telephones to the jail were disconnected to prevent word of a last minute reprieve being received. This action, Jailer Daveis explained, was taken as a result of a stay of execution being granted as the death march was about to start in a recent hanging here. The hanging took place before the prisoner witnesses had breakfast. The only word uttered as the body was taken down, was a shrill cry from one of the cells.

"When do we eat?"

--The Appleton Daily Post, Appleton, Wisconsin, January 2, 1920, page 1.

Comment: The hanging was an hour earlier than the time set and all the telephones were disconnected to prevent the possibility of a reprieve. If I'm governor, this is Jailer Daveis' last official duty as Jailer. By the way, it's probably Davies, but it has it with this spelling more than once.

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.