Harlow's Weekly (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 5, No. 5, Ed. 1 Saturday, January 31, 1914 Page: 3 of 16
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. A Journal of Comment & Current Events
Vol. 5 OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA., SATURDAY, JAN. 31, 1914 No 6.
An automobile party of Oklahoma City
men took from the jail of Garvin county at
Purcell early Tuesday
The Course of morning a negro who
Mob Law killed W. A. Chaffin, man-
and Crime ager of the Kornflake com-
pany of Oklahoma City,
Sunday night, and later hung the negro to
a tree near Noble and riddled his body with
bullets. The negro had been substantially
proven to be the murderer by the inves-
tigations of the officers, had made a con-
fession, and was later adjudged such by a
coroner’s jury.
There is no evidence as to the men
who participated in the lynching, but it is
the general and apparently well-founded im-
pression that the party was made up of
men prominent socially and in business in
Oklahoma City.
It is not to be presumed from this fact
that the best element of the state of Okla-
homa is in sympathy with lynching. The
better element of Oklahoma does not favor
mob law, nor is it probable that the men
who participated in this affair would even
condone the act under ordinary circum-
stances. A condition exists that they be-
lieve demands drastic measures if it is to
be remedied. The law has not been taking
a speedy course; convictions and punish-
ment have been lax.
Whether or not it is a result of the fail-
ure of law enforcement to run a satisfactory
course, the increase in vicious crime has
been on a steady growth during the last
few years. Last month there were twenty-
two homicides in Oklahoma, from the best
information obtainable at the state health
department. During the past year the
number of homicides has ranged from six
up to this number monthly. The best in-
formation indicates that the increase is due
almost solely to hold-ups. There were five
hold-ups in Oklahoma City the night of
Chaffin’s murder.
Since Governor Cruce took the oath of
office he has not permitted hanging in the
state. Many believe that it is because of
his policy in this matter that crime is on
the increase. It is evident that this feeling
has had a bearing upon the lynchings that
have taken place in the state within the past
few vears. hollowing his commutation of
sentence of John Henry Prather, and four
other negroes, who shot a victim that they
had robbed after they had accomplished the
deed and he lay helpless on the ground,
mob law was put into effect in Bryan coun-
ty where a negro rapist was burned. This
was followed by an epidemic of lynching;
eight during the year 1911. Mob law abat-
ed in 1912, but has again become prevalent
during the last year. It has claimed an
average of one negro per month during the
past six months, a record that has seldom
been equalled, as far as statistics go. It
was only after the most determined fight
that the negro who killed two policemen at
Guthrie was saved from the mob a few
months ago, and it appears to be a common
impulse to apply lynch law wherever a ne-
gro kills a white person.
The reason is obvious. The people do
not believe that a penitentiary sentence is
a sufficient restraint upon the vicious negro
__life imprisonment is no more punishment
to him than temporary confinement is to
the white man. A large per cent of these
crimes are committed by qpgroes, and they
figure that the only way to reduce their
recurrence is to deal summarily with this
class of offenders. For this reason senti-
ment in Oklahoma City overwhelmingly
commends the act of the mob, especially
now that the horrible and unprovoked mur-
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Harlow, Victor E. Harlow's Weekly (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 5, No. 5, Ed. 1 Saturday, January 31, 1914, newspaper, January 31, 1914; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1600603/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.