If you had enough money in Cincinnati back in the late 1800s, you could buy your way out of legal troubles, even a charge of murder. Your lawyer would either bribe your judge or bribe or intimidate the jury members. It didn't matter which as long as you got off.
The lawyer for a German immigrant named William Berner, who was on trial for murder, tampered with Berner's jury. Berner and an accomplice were accused of murdering and robbing their employer, a livery stable owner. The accomplice was African-American so he was quickly tried and hanged. Bermer had more options.
Berner's lawyer went through 500 potential jurors before finding twelve he knew would give him the verdict he wanted. The trial dragged on for almost three months and on March 26, 1884, the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter, despite hearing testimony from seven witnesses who had heard Berner say he was planning to kill his boss.
The judge gave Berner the maximum sentence of 20 years and said the jury's decision was "a damned outrage". The newspapers published editorials condemning the verdict. This sort of corruption had been going on for years in the boom town of Cincinnati, but the Berner verdict was the last straw. The next day, Thursday, mobs began tracking down members of the jury. They beat those they found. One jury member was fired from his job. The rest went into hiding. Mobs don't always think clearly. The mob went to the house of a jury member named L. Phillips and started throwing rotten eggs and dead cats through his windows until they discovered they had the wrong L. Phillips.
Things really heated up the next day, Friday. A large mob gathered at the Music Hall and headed to the jail adjacent to the courthouse to lynch Berner. The jailers let some of the mob in to see that Berner had already been sent to the penitentiary in Columbus. To top things off, Berner had escaped along the way. By this time a regiment of the Ohio Militia had arrived, but remained at their armory a half block from the courthouse.
As the evening went on the mob grew to 10,000. Some of them broke into the jail again. Finally the militia got involved. When a militiaman shot a protester things really got out of hand. The mob tried to set the courthouse on fire. By the time thigs settled down, five people were dead including one police officer, with many more wounded.
Saturday was payday and the bars were busy. The newspapers, which had intially supported the protesters, were now blaming the riots on socialists and were calling the riot class warfare. The governor was asked to send more militia, but he moved slowly. Some of the jail guards refused to show up for work. Some of the militia even joined the rioters. The defenders of the jail and courthouse blockaded the surrounding streets, but the rioters managed to set fire to the courthouse again and prevented the firetrucks from reaching the fire.
Late that evening several hundred more militiamen arrived with a Gatling gun, and the crowd dispersed. There was some sporadic rioting around town on Sunday, but by the time Federal troops arrived later that day, there was little for them to do. The final toll was 56 people killed and over 300 injured. Berner, the cause of all this, was found on Saturday afternoon, holed up in a house playing cards. He was sent to the penitentiary to serve his twenty years.
In the aftermath, there was some sympathy for the riotors. Over in Paris, Victor Hugo compared the riots to the storming of the Bastille. The political bosses of the city lost their power. A new courthouse was built. In its lobby there's a statue of John Desmond, a captain of militia who was shot dead while defending the old courthouse.
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| Justice perverted |
A small piece of justice: Thomas C. Campbell, Berner's lawyer, died from exposure in the West Indies due to a shipwreck.
ReplyDeleteYou know, you mentioned some sensibility of economy pervaded the rioters in the beginning of this fiasco about at the stage where, "The mob went to the house of a jury member named L. Phillips and started throwing rotten eggs and dead cats through his windows until they discovered they had the wrong L. Phillips."
ReplyDeleteEggs weren't cheap in Cincinnati in the 1800s, given the hen strike of 1805 that devastated egg production throughout Ohio, so the rioters only threw rotten eggs. Fresh eggs would've naturally carried a stronger message, but would've cost more, and given the rising costs of riot gear: pitch forks and torches, corners had to be cut. It just made sense.
In addition, the plain economy of using dead cats to throw was paramount, for the expense of throwing live cats would've absolutely halted the riot, right then and there. Their usage was sound; I mean there's some weight about a dead cat thrown through your window, that a live cat does not accompany given live cats always land on their feet and spring away from danger. No, no, no dead cats carry the symbolism of a bad omen, exactly what the rioters -- and Mark Twain -- wanted to express through their actions. What symmetry!
Thanks for sharing.
Mr. Chairman, I have been remiss in keeping up my "Almanac" reading, and am now working my way backward until I reach the place where I last commented, or drop face down from exhaustion in the almost-here snow. Your buddy WWriter seems to be in competition with you for the spotlight in that his comment vies for length with your post. But who's complaining? A delight to read both! JP Savage
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