West and Dever, Crawford Avalanche, January 9, 1896
Dublin Core
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Meet Death By Fire
MAN AND WOMAN BURNED ALIVE IN KENTUCKY.
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Mrs. T. J. West Cremated and W. A Deveres [sic] Bullet-Ridden-Prayer of a Little Child Has No Effect on the Band of Brutal Outlaws.
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Mob’s Awful Deed.
In Marion County, Ky., the other night a mob of about fifty men surrounded the house of Mrs. T. J. West and called for W. A. Deveres [sic]. Mrs. West came to the door and asked what was wanted. The mob fired on her and she ran back. The men continued to fire, and as Deveres [sic] did not make his appearance they applied the torch to the house. The blackened and disfigured corpses of the victims were found in the ruins of the woman’s home the next day. The tragedy was one of the most brutal ever enacted. Despite the pleadings for her father’s life of a half-clad, frightened child, and the prayers and tears of the ill and helpless woman, the mob went through with its work with cold-blooded, cruel deliberation, and only left when certain that both man and woman were dead.
Several months ago Deveres [sic], a middle-aged widower, and Thomas West, a prosperous farmer, began a quarrel which continued throughout the fall until West instituted divorce proceedings and declared Deveres [sic] must die. The men met in Lebanon. West snapped his revolver, which missed fire, and Deveres [sic] killed him on the spot. On the plea of self-defense the murderer secured bail and scandalized the neighborhood by taking his two daughters and moving into West’s house. The relatives of the murdered husband swore vengeance, and Saturday night it came. Close to 10 o’clock a band of men rode up to the West homestead and demanded admittance.
“Tom West is dead. Now it’s your turn,” the spokesman called, and Deveres [sic] awoke to find the house surrounded. Mrs. West rushed to a darkened window and began a wild appeal for mercy. A dozen bullets answered her cries, and the demand for immediate surrender was repeated. A hurried consultation was held inside the house, and then, white and terror-stricken, the little girl of Deveres [sic] was thrust out to plead with the mob. Clad in her nightrobe, barefooted and unprotected, she bravely walked out into the moonlight and sobbed out a prayer for her white-haired father’s life. “Get out. You’re liable to get shot yourself,” a ruffian said, and thoroughly panic-stricken the child fled to the cabin of a negro neighbor. Mrs. West then appeared at the door and made a last appeal for mercy. It was unavailing, and in another moment the house was fired.
The shrieks of the imprisoned wretches failed to move their torturers, who, after the flames reached the living-room, could see the man and woman in the agony of death by fire. Just before the roof fell the woman was seen to reel across the room and plunge headlong into the fireplace among the burning coals, and there she died. Wild with pain, Deveres [sic], at the last moment, made a dash for liberty, but a score of bullets stopped him half a dozen steps from the door. In the morning the little girl led her negro protector to the scene, and there the bodies, scorched beyond recognition, were found.Source
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