Lynch Law in America.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 43, 29 March 1884, Page 3

Lynch Law in America.

Fort Worth (Tex.), January 23.— Joe Fowler was taken from gaol at Socorro, N. M. this morning by a mob of masked men and hanged. Fowler was a rich cattle-man, but a desperate character. He had been the murderer of eight men. He determined last fall to leave New Mexico on account of public opinion, and in November sold his ranch to Captain Reed of this place for $52,000, went on a drunk, and next morning at 6 o'clock was flourishing a pistol around in the office of the Grand Central Hotel at Socorro, when a man named Koyle imprudently undertook to disarm him. After being disarmed, Fowler took out a pocketknife and stabbed Koyle, killing him instantly. Fowler was placed in gaol. He was subsequently tried, and condemned to be hanged on January 4th. An appeal to the Supreme Court was taken and the hearing postponed to the next term of the Court. The prisoner was kept under a military guard until the 20th inst., when he was turned over to the Sheriffs keeping. On the 2lst his friends put a guard over him, but these were arrested for carrying concealed weapons. At 1 o'clock this morning a mob surrounded the gaol and took him out and hanged him to a tree west of the gaol. He begged hard for his life, and then asked to be shot. He was pulled up and left till 8 o'clock this morning, when the body was cut down by the Sheriff. During the lynching Fowler's friends attempted a rescue, which, failed.