Murder & Lynching in Willisville, IL

Need of Federal Legislation in Respect to Mob
Violence in Cases of Lynching of Aliens
By Charles H. Watson of the Chicago Bar

The killing of Albert Piazza by a mob on October 12, 1914, followed by the lynching of Joe Speranza, June 12 1915, has again called to the attention of the public the need of a federal law to cover cases of mob violence where the victims are subjects of a foreign power. Such need has been considered on several occasions but thus far no act yet proposed has been put to a test vote in Congress.

The need of such legislation and the utter inability of bringing guilty parties to justice in a state court may be seen by going into the facts of the two above named cases.

Albert Piazza, an Italian subject, was shot to death by a mob near Willisville, Illinois, on the evening of October 12, 1914. In order to consider the circumstances directly connected with the lynching, it will be necessary perhaps also to consider some of the facts that led up to the same, although it is not contended for a moment that any criminal act of the lynched party would justify in any sense an act of mob violence. Willisville is a little mining town of 1,500 or 1,600 people in southern Illinois, about 90 miles southeast of St. Louis. About one-half of its population is American and one-half foreign - very largely Italian. Sunday night, October 11, 1914, Albert Piazza and his brother engaged in a scuffle with two Americans, the brawl taking place on a public street in the central part of the town. Guns were drawn and Piazza's brother was shot and instantly killed and the two Americans were seriously injured and died in the hospital the following day. An inquest was held on Monday and the coroner recommended that Piazza, who had been placed in the village jail, be held to the grand jury. The coroner at once telephoned the county sheriff at Pinckneyville, the county seat, that he had recommended that Piazza be held to the grand jury; that there was a great deal of feeling on the part of the American people at Willisville; that the streets were filled with people and that there was a crowd around the jail and he feared there might be trouble. The sheriff asked the coroner to take custody of the prisoner and to take him to the county jail at Pinckneyville. Thereupon the coroner demanded from the acting mayor of the village the custody of the prisoner, relating to him the substance of his conversation with the sheriff. The acting mayor replied that he would not under any condition release the prisoner and that if anyone took the prisoner to the county jail, he would do so himself. The coroner being a man well along in years, did not care to engage in any difficulty and did not press his demand. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the acting mayor with three men, whom he had sworn in as deputy marshals, got a livery rig, when to the village jail, handcuffed the prisoner and put him in the carriage. There was some scuffling around the jail and a good deal of talking and some threats made but no real acts of violence. The road taken by the acting major and his deputies with the prisoner ran west from the village for a distance of a mile and thence north about a mile and a half to the little town of Percy. As the rig went down the road, the crowd that had gathered in front of the jail, started down the railroad track which forms the hypotenuse of the right triangle with the two mentioned wagon roads. When the acting mayor and his deputies and the prisoner reached a point about one mile south of Percy, the party was intercepted by a mob of some 25 to 35 men. The came out on to the road from behind a barn which was a short distance from the railroad. They surrounded the rig, asked that the acting mayor turn over the prisoner to them and demanded the prisoner to get out of the rig and run down the road north toward Percy. As he ran down the road, the members of the mob fired several shots into his body and he was instantly killed. It will be interesting to note that in going from Willisville which is in Perry County to Pinckneyville by way of Percy, the road goes through a corner of Randolph County and that the place where the lynching occurred was in Randolph county.

The following day the coroner's inquest was held at Percy and the state's attorney of Randolph county attended the inquest and questioned the witnesses. The acting mayor and this three deputies were on the stand and while they admitted that none of the members of the mob were masked, they stated that they did not know a single person. The result was that the coroner's jury brought in an open verdict. A very thorough investigation of the facts surrounding the whole of the occurrence above enumerated was made by the state's attorney of Randolph county and the writer, who made the investigation at the request of the Italian consul; also an operative of one of the well-known detective agencies was employed, who spent about a month on the case. The result of the information thus secured led to the indictment of the acting mayor of Willisville and four of the persons who were alleged to be members of the mob. The real information which led to the indictments, however, was furnished by a young man who confessed to be a member of the mob. He was before the grand jury and for a long time maintained that he had no information as to the acts of the mob or as to the members composing the mob, but after a series of questions by the state's attorney, he confessed that he was not telling the truth; that he himself was a member of the mob, explaining that he was along the railroad about a mile northwest of Willisville when the mob came along. He stated that the members were armed and that they threatened to shoot him if he did not join them. He detailed the acts of the mob from that time practically as they have been set forth, adding further that when the man had been shot to death, the mob went back across the fields toward the railroad; that they stopped in a little grove near the railroad track and that each party raised his hand and took an oath never to reveal the identity of the mob or to make any statement concerning their actions.

Governor Dunne acted very promptly and did all in his power to see that justice was done. He dispatched the adjutant general of the Illinois National Guard to Willsiville to get the people off the streets and to restore normal conditions. He also communicated with the state's attorney of Randolph and Perry counties, urging them to do their utmost to bring the guilty parties to justice, strongly denouncing the acts of mob violence and expressing the earnest desire that convictions might act as a deterrent and that mob law be made impossible in the state of Illinois. Later he called these officials tot the executive office and with the general counsel for the Italian consul discussed plans for prosecuting the guilty parties.

In order to see the necessity of a federal law to punish parties guilty of such acts, it will be necessary to take a look at the scene in the court room at the trial of the five parties that were indicted. At he request of the Italian consul the writer went to Chester, Illinois, the county seat of Randolph county, and assisted in the prosecution of the case. On arriving at Chester on the day preceding the trial, he found that Kilgrove, the man who had confessed before the grand jury and of course the star witness for the state, was nowhere to be found; that he was last heard of a few weeks before at Christopher, a town about 40 miles from Chester. A subpoena had been sent to the sheriff of the county in which Christopher is located, and the sheriff reported that although he had made a diligent search at Christopher, he could not locate the witness. As it was believed that considerable depended upon the statements that he would make, it was considered very important that the witness be found and the writer was therefore deputized by the sheriff of Randolph county and went at once to Christopher, where he located the witness an hour after his arrival. This shows the diligence that had been used by the sheriff of Franklin county and how lightly he must have regarded his duty in serving the subpoena that had been sent to him. The witness was taken to Chester the following morning in time for the trial. It must be remembered that a murder trial in a small place causes no little excitement and that the trial of five persons indicted for the murder of an Italian subject, the latter person having been supposed to have been guilty of a murderous assault upon two Americans in the brawl that took place at Willisville the night preceding the lynching, raised such excitement and interest to the highest possible point. Time will not allow to enumerate all the acts or occurrences that took place at this trial. Considerable time was necessitated in securing a jury that would be accepted by both parties. During the time the jurors were being questioned at a recess period in the afternoon of the second day, the witness Kilgrove asked to speak to the state's attorney. When he did this, several of the friends of the indicted parties who had been with the witness from the time of his arrival, endeavored to take him from the court room. The state's attorney appealed to the court, telling him that one of the state's witnesses was being molested and that force was being used to get him away from the court room. The court explained that it being at a recess period, he was without power to take any steps. The attorneys for the defense thereupon openly urged the witness to have nothing to do with the state's attorney and to make no statement and to stay with this friends if he wished to do so. The following day when the jury had been selected and the state was ready to proceed to trial, Kilgrove was nowhere to be found. The sheriff and his deputies made an exhaustive search but he could not be located. It is supposed the was secreted and taken across the Mississippi River into Missouri.

Regardless of the absence of Kilgrove, the state put on a number of witnesses showing the conditions that existed around the village jail at the time the acting mayor with his deputies took the prisoner from the jail; also that the acting mayor refused to turn over the prisoner to the coroner at the sheriff's request. The evidence also disclosed the fact that the acting mayor could have taken the prisoner by train to Percy-that a train was due about 40 minutes after he left with the rig. It further showed that a mob of 30 or 40 men left, started down the railroad tracks at the time the carriage started down the wagon road and that the four indicted men (all excepting the acting mayor) were in the mob; that two boys who had seen the mob going down the railroad tracks had climbed on top of a barn a half mile away, saw the mob leave the railroad tracks and conceal themselves behind a barn and corn shocks near the wagon road, about a mile south of Percy. The wife of a farmer who lived in the house just 167 yards from the actual scene of the shooting, stated that she saw the rig pass her gate; that just after it had passed, she saw a number of men run out from behind the barn and corn shocks out upon the road and immediately thereafter she heard shots fired. One this the state entered a nolle-pros as to the acting mayor, believing that a case could not be made out against him the absence of Kilgrove. Thereupon the four defendants entered a motion for a directed verdict. Extensive arguments were made by counsel for both sides, the state contending that in view of the facts as have been above set out, a chain of circumstantial evidence had been offered which was strong enough to justify the case going to the jury. The court, however, directed the jury to find the defendants not guilty. The court room in which this trial took place was a small room. At the time, upon the decision of the motion, it was packed with friends of the indicted parties. A special train had been run from Willisville to Chester and there were some 300 or 400 people in the court room and when the court gave its decision there was something similar to a riot and there were many cries of "Long live Judge B____!" This trial too place in the month of March and an election was to follow in June of the same year. The presiding judge of this trial was a candidate for re-election. On account of the divided population of Willisville and of the mining towns around there, the feeling against the Italians was very, very strong. A great deal would naturally from an opinion rendered by a trial court in such a trial. It may be parenthetically remarked that the trial judge has since been re-elected. In considering the circumstances that surround a trial in this kind of case, it must be borne in mind that regardless of the sterling qualities of a state's attorney, the state is very much handicapped for the reason that the trial must take place in the county where the acts of mob violence occurred; that there is no change of venue allowed to the state. In this case the state's attorney did all that was within his power to secure convictions and spent much time in personal investigation and this at the risk of the position he held, for it was apparent to the casual observer that there was feeling against him for the part he took.

It may be added that some time after the close of the trial Kilgrove returned. An attachment had been issued for him and when he came back into the county, he was brought into the court and the trial sentenced him to server 90 days in the county jail. He was the only man who was punished in any way for the shameful acts that disgraced the state.

Charles H. Watson of the Chicago Bar in the Yale Law Journal, Vol. XXV, November 1915, No. 1, Federal Legislation for Mob Violence, pp 561-566.