St. Clair County
Remnants Of The Past

Lynching of Murderers at Osceola

St. Clair County Courier
21 January 2005

Lynching of three murderers at Osceola

(by Shelly Baugh, staff writer)

The most daring case of lynching on record in this state was performed last night at Osceola, the county seat of St. Clair County.
A mob of one hundred and fifty armed men proceeded to the jail in which were confined Smith, the murderer of Triplett, which even occurred but a short time ago and was published in your columns, and Parks and Pierce, who were confined upon a charge of murdering Charles Bohon and having failed in obtaining possession of the keys, broke open the locks with sledge hammers and then broke into the cells of the three murderers.
They were dragged from the jail and taken a very short distance away, with ropes around their necks for the purpose of hanging them.
On the way to the scene of the lynching, Smith made a frantic endeavor to escape, but had not proceed a dozen steps before he fell dead, riddled with bullets.
Park and Pierce were then hung without shrift and as soon as the lynchers were well satisfied of their death, the mob dispersed.
There is the most intense excitement in Osceola over the enactment of this terrible affair, but no one claims to know who were the perpetrators of the lynching. An inquest is in progress at this time and every effort will be made to inquire into the identity of the authors of the crime. There seems, however, to be a general feeling that in view of the size of the mob that there are too many citizens concerned in the affairs to permit the inquest to bring to light any information which will lead to the detection and arrest of any of the guilty parties.
The above article was published in Appleton City on May 13, 1880, and reprinted in The Daily Tribune in Jefferson City on May 15, 1880. Osceola resident, Richard Sunderwirth uncovered the article recently while doing some research on St. Clair County at Ellis Library on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia.
Upon further research by Courier staff, a letter from the “mob” surfaced, as well as a few other interesting and not so celebrated facts about criminal history in St. Clair County.
On May 19, 1880, the “moderators” of the lynching crowd came forward with the following letter with regard to the “hanging affray” in Osceola.
“We, the moderators of St. Clair, have hung Smith, Parks and Pierce, and we wanted Gilbert, but Parks and Pierce said that Gilbert was gone off on trial. He was hid back in the corner, and they denied his being there until we got in about fifty steps of where we hung them, when Parks said, “boys I won’t lie about it”, and said Gilbert was back in jail in the corner of the cell. It was too late to go back and catch him, for he was out and gone. He was not seen by any of the crowd that night, for we wanted him as bad as we did the rest of them. The reason we shot Smith was because he had a knife and tried to fight, when they shot him, and he started to run, when they shot him with a gun. We expect it was a lucky thing for Tom Emerson that he was shot, for Smith would have tried him and maybe killed him and got away. We have understood that Smith’s wife brought him a pair of trousers which had the knife concealed in them. We have done the work and we did it for the benefit of the honest people of St. Clair County, that try to make an honest living for their families. Criminals can be tried by the law and a decision given, and then run at large after costing the county three or four thousand dollars, at the people’s expense, and then the guilty go unpunished. We don’t want to hurt or damage anybody only the ones that we think are guilty. Our unjust demands are more than we can stand without heaping an overload on us. This county has been imposed upon by a certain class of men, and they are mostly lawyers, and we are getting tired of it, the law is not any account and purpose trying mob law. Moderators”
One of those terrible crimes for which human nature can scarcely understand and which causes a shudder of horror to pass through the frame was the murder of James Hughes by the Jacob Fleming in 1871.
Hughes was a crippled, ex-union soldier that had been severely wounded in the battle of Stone River. He was a hard working, quiet and inoffensive man. He came to St. Clair County from Ohio, where he left his wife and two children in preparation for moving them here as soon as he was settled.
Ordinarily, Hughes was a sober man who did not frequent the saloons, but on occasion, yielding to some unknown influence, he became somewhat under the influence of liquor, but not boisterous or quarrelsome.
Jacob Fleming, though comparatively young in years, was a notorious desperado. It is told that his hands frequently imbrued in the blood of fellow mortals. He developed into manhood during the late war and entered the Missouri Militia, thirsting for revenge on account of real or imaginary wrongs. He gave uncontrolled license to his passions n this direction and numerous murders, house burnings and other crimes are attributed to his agency and the encouragement of others. On a former occasion, Fleming took the life of a man in Osceola, shot at another in Roscoe and generally conducted himself in such a manner as to be a terror to all law-abiding citizens.
Fleming was married and had two children. His wife is said to have been an estimable woman who tried to reform him to no avail. There was serious talk of lynching him, but the occurrence never took place.
On June 17, 1871, Fleming fired two pistol shots into Hughes at an Osceola saloon owned by John D. Anderson.
The jury in Fleming’s trial consisted of men by the names of Mesrs, Dooley, Gardner, Prock, Hanks, Cole, Mitchell and Coroner Daniels who pronounced Hughes dead. Twelve days later on June 29, a vigilant committee numbering nearly 100 men rode up to the jail and demanded the keys. Of course this was refused. The vigilantes, however, came on business and ultimately forced the door open with a heavy hammer and proceeded quietly to Fleming’s cell. It is said that no words were spoken as the group took the prisoner from his cell and took up their march for the old brick yard.
Fleming was hung and witnesses say he was stoically silent and took his fate bravely. The vigilantes surrounded the gallows and remained until one of their number stepped forward, examined the body and pronounced him dead. Effectually disguised the men turned, sought their horses and retired.
On July 19, 1875 near Johnson City in Monegaw Township John D. Baucom was killed by John Berry. Berry claimed that Baucom had broken up the peace of his family in a manner that only blood could atone.
Mrs. Lucy Berry testified before the coroner’s jury that she did not see Berry shoot Baucom but she heard two shots fired and believed that Berry had shot Baucom.
E.C. Berry testified that he did not see Berry shoot Baucom, but Berry told him he had done so. He testified that the incident occurred at John Berry’s residence.
Dr. J.W. Wheeler, W.W. Washburn and H. Lear, being sworn, testified that they recognized the body as that of John Baucom. They made an examination of the body and discovered three wounds that resulted in his death. The first wound was in the mouth which knocked out five teeth and cut the top of his tongue. Another shot was in the breast above the region of the left clavicle. The third wound was approximately two inches below and about the same distance in front of the axilla, passing between the first and second ribs. This wound was believed by those who examined him to have severed the artery.
The jury, consisting of J.B. Burr, Foreman, James Ledbetter and the coroner, found that Berry was guilty of killing Baucom. The verdict required the arrest of John Berry, but he immediately fled the country, going into Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Arkansas, Texas and finally back into Illinois. The governor of Missouri offered a reward of $300 for his apprehension. In 1877 he was arrested in Illinois and brought back to St. Clair County and placed in jail to await trial.
The trial was docketed for the September 1877 term of the circuit court, but the defense asked a continuance and it was carried over to the March 1878 term. On March 7, 1878 the case was opened with jury members W.T. Anderson, William Wynkoop, William Gash, William E. Short, James P. Skillman, Thomas W. Wright, Samuel Culberston, E.S. Knowles, James Anderson, G.L. Burch, Charles Wilkerson and H.M. Cotton selected.
J.W. Silsby and E.J. Smith conducted the prosecution and Nesbit and Ferguson, W.P. Sheldon and Waldo P. Johnson appeared for the defendant. Twenty-five witnesses were examined.
The ability of the lawyers in the case and the stubbornness of the defense had attracted a large number of citizens of the county and the courtroom was crowded. Intense interest was felt in the case and it was evident that the public leaned to the side of the accused. If a man could not defend the honor of his family when assailed without being given years of penal servitude, what could be expected of the law in any case?
The case was given to the jury at 10 p.m. and after being out only half an hour they returned with a verdict of not guilty.
The excitement of John Berry’s trial had barely died when the people of St. Clair County were startled by the murder of Colonel Charles Sims and his wife.
Next week the Courier will feature this and other interesting bits of criminal history in St. Clair County.