Even if you are from Cincinnati you may not of heard of the 1884 riot. Not the first, or last. riot in the city, but it was the deadliest.
The day before Christmas 1883 William H Kirk, a former sand dealer who had recently started dealing in horses, left his home in Cincinnati with over $245 (almost $7,000 today) in his pocket, bound for Cheviot to buy a horse. While preparing to leave his stable, he was killed. After having his head beat with a hammer he was strangled with a noose. The killers hid the body in some straw while they went to rent a wagon to move the body. After transporting the body to a ravine in nearby Cumminsville it was dumped, but failed to fall all the way into the river. Two days later the body was discovered. Finding straw on the body the sheriff figured the murder had been committed in Kirk's stables. Returning to the stables he learned Kirk had two young hired hands. He rounded them up and took them to the jail to question. His men investigated what they had been doing since the murder.
Joseph Palmer was actually only 17 years old and was a Bell Boy besides working at the stables. The newspapers thought he was older. He was a Mulatto.
William Berner had turned 17 on the day of the murder. He was a first generation German-American. His family had a grocery business in Cincinnati. He is pictured here later in life.
The Sheriff discovered both boys had been flashing large amounts of money to their friends right after Christmas. Also, they learned the boys had rented a wagon from Charles T Hayman the night of the murder and returned the same day. When separated and pressed with the information they started to crack.
Without admitting which one did the killing the boys were arrested for murder. Palmer was to be put on trial first. His lawyer asked for a change in venue, but it was denied. The trial was short with Palmer's confession put into evidence. He was quickly found guilty and sentenced to be hanged in October. On to Berner's trial for another quick conviction.
Berner's father had money and hired a top attorney of the day named Thomas C. Campbell. Campbell went through 500 possible jurors before he got the 12 he wanted. Campbell put several witnesses on the stand for the defense and even a neighbor that had been an early suspect of the murder. He questioned the police interrogators about failing to let Berner have food or water until he confessed. Even Palmer would not testify against Berner. Berner now claimed he had only been present at the murder. Mercy by the jury was asked even though Berner had confessed to helping kill Kirk.
The jury came back with a verdict of guilty of manslaughter. The sentence was twenty years in prison. Campbell had done his job. Spectators were stunned. Even the judge, S. R. Matthews, blurted out "This is a damn outrage!"
A reporter had slipped into the jury deliberation room when they were at lunch during the trial. He reported there were playing cards and gambling chips on the table. He thought the jury was not taking the case seriously. On the jury was 21 year old Louis Harmyer (sometimes misspelled as Harmeyer) that worked in the printing department of Russell & Morgan.
After the verdict was read the spectators became restless and agitated.
Mr. Harmyer left the jury box and went to collect his pay for doing his duty. To his surprise all the money had been garnished by a tailor for a clothing bill he owed. This was not Harmyer's only surprise.
The local papers report this travesty of justice and printed the names and addresses of all the jurors. The next day many of the jurors are attacked. James Bourne, one of the jurors, had spent the previous night at the Bremen Street police station after being threatened by a mob. Returning home on the morning of March 27, a crowd threatened to hang him, but was dispersed by the police. Later he was severely beaten and was again taken to the police station for his own safety. Another member of the jury, Charles Dollahan, was pelted with rotten eggs and dared not return home. A crowd tore the blinds from the house of L. Phillips on Liberty Street, and threw dead cats and rotten eggs through the windows before they found out it was the wrong L. Phillips.
Louis Haymyer returned to work at Russell & Morgan to find he was being hung in effigy in the print shop. He was then informed that he was fired. A few days later he was thrown out of his German fraternal organization called The Turners.
After the verdict was read the spectators became restless and agitated.
Mr. Harmyer left the jury box and went to collect his pay for doing his duty. To his surprise all the money had been garnished by a tailor for a clothing bill he owed. This was not Harmyer's only surprise.
The local papers report this travesty of justice and printed the names and addresses of all the jurors. The next day many of the jurors are attacked. James Bourne, one of the jurors, had spent the previous night at the Bremen Street police station after being threatened by a mob. Returning home on the morning of March 27, a crowd threatened to hang him, but was dispersed by the police. Later he was severely beaten and was again taken to the police station for his own safety. Another member of the jury, Charles Dollahan, was pelted with rotten eggs and dared not return home. A crowd tore the blinds from the house of L. Phillips on Liberty Street, and threw dead cats and rotten eggs through the windows before they found out it was the wrong L. Phillips.
Louis Haymyer returned to work at Russell & Morgan to find he was being hung in effigy in the print shop. He was then informed that he was fired. A few days later he was thrown out of his German fraternal organization called The Turners.
Corruption was a serious problem in Cincinnati at that time, with local leaders notorious for controlling elections and manipulating judges and juries. At the time of the trial the city was still reeling from a devastating flood the previous month when the river crested at 71.9 feet A full-page article published in The Cincinnati Enquirer on March 9, 1884, said: "Laxity of laws gives the Queen City of the West its crimson record. Preeminence in art, science, and industry avail nothing where murder is rampant and the lives of citizens are unsafe even in broad daylight."
The Berner verdict pushed the people over the edge. A mass meeting was called at the Music Hall to demand justice.
The Cincinnati Music Hall Was The Only Place To Accommodate The Large Mob
As the crowd swells to an estimated 10,000 people they headed to the jail that night to right the wrong. Unknown to them the Sheriff was ahead of them and had moved Berner to another location. After attacking, and breaching the outnumbered jail staff, the mob learns Berner is gone. Many of the jail guards had failed to report for duty foreseeing the coming trouble. The next day they returned and attacked again and invaded the courthouse and burned it down.
Burning of the Jail and the Courthouse
The Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper supported the rioters in its Saturday morning edition, with a headline saying "At Last The People Are Aroused And Take The Law Into Their Own Hands, Enraged Community Rises In Its Might"
Colonel C. B. Hunt, commanding the First Regiment of the Ohio Militia with four hundred men, had prepared for trouble, ordering sections from each company to stay on guard at their armory on Court Street, half a block from the courthouse. They were also in the tunnel between the jail and the Courthouse where a gunfight took place. Some of the 1st Regiment soldiers even participated in the riot. The out of town soldiers, who did obey orders, were unable to reach Cincinnati in time to prevent escalating violence by rioters who had been paid that day, and had spent their money in the bars.
Gunfights soon broke out at the barricades. People were shot and killed on both sides.
The public reaction in some quarters was sympathetic to the rioters. The Commercial Gazette published an editorial saying: "The time has come for taking an account for salvage for three days of destruction and terror. First, we have saved our jailful of murderers. We have killed 45 innocent men and wounded or maimed 45 more, all to save our jailful of murderers..." The editorial went on to describe the riots as a "just, popular impulse against the prostration of laws before criminals"
The public reaction in some quarters was sympathetic to the rioters. The Commercial Gazette published an editorial saying: "The time has come for taking an account for salvage for three days of destruction and terror. First, we have saved our jailful of murderers. We have killed 45 innocent men and wounded or maimed 45 more, all to save our jailful of murderers..." The editorial went on to describe the riots as a "just, popular impulse against the prostration of laws before criminals"
The final numbers of wounded and killed vary. It is estimated that 45-56 people were killed and over 300 were wounded. Several hundred were arrested. A statue of John J. Desmond, a lawyer and captain of militia who was killed while trying to protect the courthouse, now stands in the lobby of the current courthouse. Prosecution of the jailed rioters was very lax.
Palmer went the gallows always admitting his guilt after a failed appeal for a reduced sentence. But, the execution was botched. Palmer's neck was not broken in the fall at the gallows. Being a very physically fit, and strong, young man it took him 26 minutes to die said the papers. His death certificate states he died from strangulation.
Berner went on to prison for manslaughter after his appeals by Campbell. But, after being a model prisoner, he was released after 11 years. He then went to work in nearby southeastern Indiana at a mill his father owned for a short time. In 1903, he was denied a liquor license in Dillsboro, Indiana. Some locals had even tried to blow up his saloon there with dynamite. And later that year he was fined for running a "speak easy." He did not even try to keep a "low profile."
After marrying, he moved to Indianapolis and managed the Hotel Ohio. Later he became a parking lot attendant before moving to the small town of Milan in southeast Indiana. He died there in 1941 at age 75.
Berner went on to prison for manslaughter after his appeals by Campbell. But, after being a model prisoner, he was released after 11 years. He then went to work in nearby southeastern Indiana at a mill his father owned for a short time. In 1903, he was denied a liquor license in Dillsboro, Indiana. Some locals had even tried to blow up his saloon there with dynamite. And later that year he was fined for running a "speak easy." He did not even try to keep a "low profile."
After marrying, he moved to Indianapolis and managed the Hotel Ohio. Later he became a parking lot attendant before moving to the small town of Milan in southeast Indiana. He died there in 1941 at age 75.
[ Being a life long Hoosier (Someone from Indiana) I have to include this trivia fact. The high school basketball team from the small town of Milan won their only basketball state title in 1954. With only an enrollment of 161 students they defeated the mighty Muncie Central Bearcats that had an enrollment of 1,662. Their story was immortalized years later by the movie "Hoosiers". ]