The object of this gathering was the punishment of one William Fletcher, a white Unionist and Radical, who had the temerity to vote the Republican ticket, advocate the supremacy of the Government, and aid the officers thereof in the enforcement of the laws. These were crimes in the eyes of the Ku Klux Klan sufficient to warrant their taking the offender in hand. The customary warning was not sent in this case, but a friendly hand penned a note to Fletcher, informing him of the danger, but this, unfortunately, never reached him.
At the time of the assembling of the band, as above stated, the “Night Hawks”[1] of the Camp came up with the intelligence that Fletcher was then in a grocery store kept by a man named Flanders, and that it would be better to decoy him out of there, and get him on the road towards the woods, where he could be the more easily mastered.
Fletcher was a cool, resolute and brave man, was supposed to be well armed, and the members of the Klan knew that unless some strategy was used with him, some of their number must suffer the consequences. One of the Klan, named N. G. Scott, was accordingly detailed to decoy Fletcher away. Scott removed his disguise, and started for the store, followed at a convenient distance by several members of the band. He was successful in his undertaking, and in about twenty minutes he and his intended victim were walking down the road, in the direction of the ambuscade.
In a moment more, the Klan sprang upon and overpowered Fletcher. Pistols were presented at his head, threatenings of death were made if he uttered a cry; a towel was tied tightly across his eyes as a bandage, and he was led away to the woods on the north side of Cross Plains. Upon reaching the woods, his coat and vest were removed, and he was stood up with his face pressed hard against a tree. His arms were drawn around the trunk of the tree, and tied together, and his legs were firmly secured by ropes.
John Yeateman, who had charge of the proceedings of the Klan that night, then stepped forward, and told Fletcher to say his prayers, as he had but a short time to live; that it had first been the intention to give him a whipping and let him go, but that they had now decided to whip him to death.
Fletcher replied by asking if there was no mercy to be accorded him, and inquired to know for what he was to be killed. The only answer to this was that they never gave mercy to the “infernal radicals, who wanted niggers to rule the country.” This remark was followed by his shirt being torn completely off his back.
Meantime the “executioners,” who had gone for the “rods,” returned, and upon the order of their leader fell to their work, cutting the back of the poor victim most dreadfully, and causing him to lose all his stoicism at last, and shriek from the effects of the blows. The “executioners” becoming exhausted, Yeateman himself seized a knife, and cutting away the garments that encased Fletcher’s lower limbs, took a “rod,” and commenced beating him about the loins with great ferocity.
Fletcher fainted under the punishment, and as his screams had ceased, Yeateman desisted, remarking, “There’s one Radical vote less, by ——.”
The band continued consulting together for some time, when, Fletcher being heard to groan, one of the Klan, named James Bierd, said: “He ain’t finished yet; I reckon he’d better have the whole of it.”
Yeateman then approached the miserable victim, and having succeeded in arousing him to consciousness, asked: “Have you anything to say before you die?”