Big Nose George
From birchyHistory
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Parrott was sentenced to hang on April 2, 1881, following a trial, but tried to escape while being held at a [[Rawlins, Wyoming]] jail. Parrott was able to wedge and file the rivets of the heavy shackles on his ankles, using a pocket knife and a piece of sandstone. On March 22, having removed his shackles, he hid in the washroom until jailor Robert Rankin entered the area. Using the shackles, Parrott struck Rankin over the head, fracturing his skull. Rankin managed to fight back, calling out to his wife, Rosa, for help at the same time. Grabbing a pistol, she managed to persuade Parrott to return to his cell. | Parrott was sentenced to hang on April 2, 1881, following a trial, but tried to escape while being held at a [[Rawlins, Wyoming]] jail. Parrott was able to wedge and file the rivets of the heavy shackles on his ankles, using a pocket knife and a piece of sandstone. On March 22, having removed his shackles, he hid in the washroom until jailor Robert Rankin entered the area. Using the shackles, Parrott struck Rankin over the head, fracturing his skull. Rankin managed to fight back, calling out to his wife, Rosa, for help at the same time. Grabbing a pistol, she managed to persuade Parrott to return to his cell. | ||
| − | News of the escape attempt spread through Rawlins and groups of people started making their way to the jail. While Rankin lay recovering, masked men with pistols burst into the jail. Holding Rankin at gunpoint, they took his keys, then dragged Parrott from his cell. | + | News of the escape attempt spread through Rawlins and groups of people started making their way to the jail. While Rankin lay recovering, masked men with pistols burst into the jail. Holding Rankin at gunpoint, they took his keys, then dragged Parrott from his cell. The 200-strong [[lynch mob]] strung him up from a telegraph pole. |
| − | Charlie Burris suffered a similar lynching not long after his capture; | + | Charlie Burris suffered a similar lynching not long after his capture; having been transported by train to Rawlins, a group of locals found him hiding in a baggage compartment and proceeded to hang him on the crossbeam of a nearby telegraph pole. |
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| + | [[6 Aug 1880]] Special to the Omaha Tribune: George Parrott...was brought here this morning, down the Missouri River, from Miles City, Montana, where he was recently captured by Deputy United States Marshal Irwin, who got the drop on him.. Sheriff Rankin, of Rawlins, Wyoming, who has Parrott in charge, left for home with him on the noon train. The chances are that the friends of Widdowfield and Vincnet, at Carbon, will treat him to a lynching, as they did Dutch Charley....His arrest...will probably break up the ...outlaws... who, it is thought...were preparing to raid the Union Pacific and other roads, and to rob stage coaches. | ||
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| + | [[22 Mar 1881]] Cheyenne, Wyoming: George Parrott, alias Big Nose George, of the Elk Mountain murderers, and an infamous road agent, who is under sentence to be hanged on [[2 Apr 1881]], attempted to break jail this evening at Rawlins. He got his shackles off with which he attacked the jailer when he entered the corridor to lock the prisoners in their cells for the night. The jailor's wife, hearing the conflict, had the presence of mind to lock the outside door, locking the jailer in with the prisoners. The alarm was then raised and a number of citizens hastened to the jail, released the jailer and secured the prisoner. He will be doubly ironed and strictly guarded until the day of his execution. This action of George is surprising since he has always manifested a contrite spirit and did not desire a trial, pleading guilty to the indictment and desiring to be hanged soon. When the sentence of death was passed on him he wept like a child and broke down completely. He also said his health was failing and in consequence these facts he gained much sympathy, but now threats of lynching are made and all desire now to see him suffer death. | ||
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| + | (later) A special to the Cheyenne Leader says that Big Nose George was taken out of jail by a party of masked men at 10:55 to-night and taken to a telegraph pole opposite the railroad machine shops, where a rope was thrown over a crossbeam of the pole and Big Nose was made to climb up a ladder, when a rope was placed around his neck and the ladder then pulled out from under him, letting swing between heaven and earth. His last words were: "I will jump off, boys, and break my neck." | ||
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| + | Details added by the Omaha Bee on the 24th: Dutch Charley was captured in Wyoming on a Union Pacific train shortly after the murders. He was lynched by a mob. Parrott was captured "near" Miles City, and after narrowly escaping lynching was brought to Carbon County, tried and sentenced....About 7:30 he tried to escape, injuring jailor Robert Rankin. Had obtained a file from another prisoner. Mob hung him about 10 rods from the train depot. He was placed on a barrel which was kicked out from under him, which only stunned him, he was cut down and made to climb and jump off a ladder. The fall failed to break his neck and his hands became untied, so he climbed 6 feet up the telegraph pole and begged to be shot. Eventually he lost his grip and died. The body was cut down by the coroner, inquest to be held. | ||
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| + | Sentenced by Judge Peck in Rawlins on [[15 Dec 1880]]. Attemped to turn Union Pacific passenger train into a chasm 150 feet deep at Big Springs, in 1878. Sim Wan was captured at the end of July | ||
==Desecration of remains== | ==Desecration of remains== | ||
