SAVED FROM THE DOW CITY LYNCH MOB

Continued from: Shoot Out at Dow City

From the Autobiography of Pat Crowe:

"Hold on! If you kill these men, you've got to kill me, too!"

The crowd fell back. The big, determined chap facing them was Al McCracken, former chief of police of South Omaha, well and favorably known in Dow City and many other Iowa towns. After he had lost out in politics and retired from police work, McCracken went on the road selling harnesses for an Omaha firm. The man with the rope knew McCracken, and so did a score of others who were bent on executing summary justice. They knew that he was a man of his word. And McCracken followed up his declaration by saying:

"You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. I know this man”, indicating Pat Crowe, "and I know his brother-in-law, who is police judge in South Omaha and has been for years. And I know his brother Steve, and his brother Johnnie. Crowe isn't one of the men who broke jail in Ida Grove."

"How do you know?" demanded one of the mob.

"Because," flashed McCracken, "I saw him in Omaha, only the other night and long after those five fellows had been jailed in Ida Grove. He wasn't in jail then, so he didn't have to break out of jail."

"That's right," chimed in Pat. "I've never been in Ida Grove in all my life. I thought me and my partner here was being stuck up!"

The crowd was balked but only temporarily. McCracken took command as if he was still in his own bailiwick of South Omaha.

"Marshal," said he sternly, "I hold you responsible for the lives of these two men. If they're killed, I'll kill you, here and now. You and your deputy take them to the calaboose. Lock them up."

Inside of the Dow City Jail

"The calaboose ain't very strong," muttered the marshal, "and desprit men like them might break out of it. I wouldn't put it past them to break out."

"Put guards over them," said McCracken crisply. "I'll be one of them, until they're identified. If they've committed any crime, anywhere, they should be taken to the scene where they've committed it and be tried according to law. I'm betting my own life," he continued, turning toward the still restive crowd, "that the sheriff from Ida Grove won't identify either one of them as a jail break, so that's that. Anyone want to call that bet? If so, call it!"

An ominous click sounded in the pregnant stillness that fell over the awed mob. It was McCracken, cocking his big revolver. Almost every one in the new West of those days carried a pistol. He thrust it toward the countenance of the foremost blackly scowling member of the mob.

(Photo illustrative only)

The bet was not called. McCracken aided the marshal and his deputy in taking the two prisoners to the calaboose. He kept the mob at bay with that wicked pistol of his. The sheriff arrived, after being summoned by telegraph, from Ida Grove.

"Those two men were not in my jail," said he.

McCracken nodded. Then he took out a notebook and wrote rapidly in it for a few minutes. After which he turned to the marshal.

"I have written down the names of about thirty citizens of Dow City in this book, whom I saw in that mob this morning. If anything happens to these two prisoners after I leave, a lot of people around this town are due to be tried for murder! And you'll be tried for abetting it," he concluded.

That was enough. The marshal and his deputy and other guards patrolled the calaboose with rifles and pistols bristling from their belts, more to keep away the irate citizens than to confine the prisoners, heavily manacled within it. After the redoubtable McCracken had procured his grip and sample case of single and double work and buggy harnesses, he started for the depot. The telegraph operator met him.

"Where's the marshal?" he asked.

"Over at the calaboose. Why?"

"Them two fellers is wanted in Denison on suspicion of having stuck up the night operator and robbed him and the office safe last night."

"Tell it to the marshal," said McCracken. "My train's due."

The marshal sent a description of the two men back to the chief of police of Denison. He came down on the next train and with him was the son of the day station agent, who had figured in the episode.

To be continued: Breaks Jail in Denison