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ROASTED TO DEATH
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Jim King, Mrs. Bell's Murder
Captured and Burned.
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OFFICERS POWERLESS
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To Prevent the Lynching, and Tyler's
Public Square Was the Scene
of the Burning.
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HIS PLEADING FOR MERCY
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Fell in Vain Upon the Ears of an Angry
Populace, as the Fumes of His
Burning Flesh Ascended.
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     Tyler, Tex. Oct 29.—The News reporter visited the scene of the crime committed on the person of Mrs. Bell and obtained fuller details.
     Mrs. Bell had been on a visit to her mother, who lived a short distance away, and was returning to her own home about 5:30 in the evening, when she was met by her assailant, supposed to be a strange negro, who was seen immediately before and after the commission of the crime. The place was in a public road frequently traveled and in a thickly populated community, some houses being within a few hundred yards.
     The husband of Mrs. Bell was working in a field near by and the wonder is how the deed was committed in such a public place without her being able to give alarm. The story held by many is that the assailant attacked his victim without warning, threw her into deep cut worn in the road, cut her throat in several places, severing the windpipe and thus preventing her from screaming, which could have been heard by those in the locality. He then criminally assaulted her and afterward disemboweled her and otherwise mutilated her person.
     The appurtenance of the place indicates a very slight struggle, which goes to prove that Mrs. Bell was murdered as soon as she was attacked. The body of the murdered woman was found lying in the road while yet warm, only a few minutes after the deed was done by a colored man named Webb, who was returning from this city to his home. He gave the alarm to one of the neighbors. A posse of men of the community was at once formed and the pursuit begun. A courier was also dispatched to this city, who arrived here at 7:30. The news spread rapidly and in a very short time a large crowd had assembled to devise means for capturing the negro.
     The bloodhounds belonging to the state penitentiary at Rusk were immediately wired for and through the courtesy of Superintendent A. B. Leggett [sic] of the Cotton Belt a special train and a clear right of way was furnished to bring the dogs to the scene of the crime. They reached there 1:25 this morning and were immediately set upon the trail and are now following it and are supposed to be in close pursuit.
     A negro answering the description of the one seen in the locality was seen passing along the road with his clothing wet from his waist down. A place was also discovered at a little stream nearby where it is supposed he washed the blood of his victim from his person and clothing. A negro answering the same description and with [h]is clothing in the same condition was seen at Browning, a small village in the county, ten miles from the place of the crime, about 10:30 last night. The dogs are following this trail and at 5 o'clock this morning, when The News reporter left, they were still supposed to be only a few miles behind the criminal. If the negro is captured a lynching can not be averted.
     Mrs. Bell was the wife of a prominent farmer, Mr. Leonard Bell, and was the mother of one child, and, to add to the horror of the crime, wold have become again a mother in a short time. She was well known in this city, where she had many friends. The excitement is intense and no efforts will be spared to bring the criminal to speedy justice. The crime was the boldest, and most daring and in its details the most horrible ever committed in this county.

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CAPTURED NEAR KILGORE
And Turned Over to the Officers of Smith
County.
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     Longview, Gregg Co., Tex., Oct 29.—Jim King, the negro who is alleged to have murdered and outraged Mrs. Leonard Bell near Tyler, is a resident of his county, his home being near Kilgore. He was captured by the sheriff of Gregg county in a cotton pen near his home and turned over to the Smith county officers.
     Kilgore, Gregg Co., Tex., Oct 29.—At a point about four miles distant from Tyler was enacted one of those horrible tragedies, the very recital of which causes the hearer to shudder and calls for quick and certain vengeance.
     A Mrs. Bell, who had been visiting her mother a short distance from her home, on her return was met by a negro named Jim King. What occurred can only be told by the negro himself and the evidence by the dead body of the lady. The ground showed how she had struggled for her honor and the condition of the body told of a cruelty that has only been equaled by Jack the Ripper.
     After outraging the lady the negro deliberately cut her throat and taking the knife ripped her body open.
     A posse was quickly organized led by Deputy Sheriff Smith of Tyler, who with lantern in hand and aided by a hound, tracked the negro to within four miles of this place where they found the negro asleep in Wash Hilburn's cotton pen. The negro's clothing was still covered with blood which he had attempted to wash off.
     The party noticed in trailing that the sole of the negro's shoe was so worn as to make a peculiar track. The negro was taken to the road, made to walk where the track was found to be identical with the one trailed all the way from the dead body.
     The posse started back to Tyler with the negro, but the rapidly gathering crowd of excited citizens makes it very doubtful if he reaches there alive.
     

BURNED AT THE STAKE
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King Roasted to Death on the Square in the
Presence of Thousands.
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     Tyler, Tex. Oct 29.—The negro who murdered Mrs. Bell has met his death at the stake. He was arrested near Kilgore early this morning and immediately brought to the scene of his crime. A large crowd assembled in anticipation after learning of his arrest, when brief speeches were made by Judges Duncan and Beaird, and afterward a committee of seven was appointed, on of which was M.A. Long of his city, the other six being from the neighborhood of Mrs. Bell.
     The duty of this committee was to see that the criminal's identity was clearly established.
     A few minutes after outlining the programme of procedure and the appointment of the committee the negro arrived in charge of a posse of about 300 men.
     Judge Duncan then examined the witnesses for the committee, a stenographer taking down the full proceedings. The testimony of the examined clearly established his guilt, the negro himself upon being interrogated confessed to the killing, but denied the raping.
     The committee in their report found him guilty.
     The crowd then brought him on to town, in the meanwhile having taken him out of the officers' hands with a determination to mete out to him a speedy and awful justice by burning at the stake.
     The officers were powerless to prevent this, and the place selected was the west side of the public square, where many loads of boxing oil barrels and such materials were piled up for the execution.
     Upon arrival in town the negro was driven three times around the public square in plain view of 4000 or 5000 people. Quite a crowd came from Mineola to witness the execution. He displayed wonderful nerve and composure through the trying ordeal and reviewed the preparations for his death in the same stoical manner.
     A most affecting and pitiful scene was witnessed after the condemned man mounted the scaffold. He was given an opportunity to pray, and kneeling down, put up a most earnest petition to his God for forgiveness for the terrible crime he had confessed.
     He was then chained to the iron rail that had been set up in a perpendicular position and was given time to make a statement before the tortures were begun. He commenced his statement in a firm tone of voice, when he was interrupted by the crowd that clamored for his punishment. With determined howls several persons stood ready to apply the torch to the immense pile of boxes that had been brought together beneath the scaffold.
     In a moment the flames shot up, followed by the piercing shrieks of the helpless victim. Pains were taken that the fire burned slow in order that the negro's torture continue as long as possible.
     As the smoke and flames ascended the cries of the negro became more piteous. He would first appeal to the audience and then to heaven. He would say: "Gentlemen, if you will let me down I'll never do this again."
     To this only came the hisses and the mockery of the sympathizing crowd. Gradually the strength of the fire was increased the the moans and cries of the victim became louder and more pathetic. He would say: "Please let me be cool just for a minute." Then again he would cry to heaven for mercy. His request for a little cold water was greeted with curses and menaces. Many burning missiles were thrown at him by various people in the audience. These he would dodge as if the pain he was undergoing was hardly perceptible. He grew weaker and weaker as the flames were allowed to increase. At last he made an effort to swallow the flame in order to end his suffering. This was unsuccessful. Then he tried to dash his brains out by striking his head against the iron rail to which he was tied, but his strength was so nearly exhausted that this did not avail him. After having been tortured in this manner for over an hour the iron bar was pulled down and a large fire was built over his and the crowd dispersed.

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GOV. CULBERSON INFORMED.
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     Austin, Tex. Oct. 29.—The first information Gov. Culberson received of the murder of Mrs. Bell at Tyler last night, except what appeared in the morning papers, was a telegram from John P. Smith, presumably the sheriff of Smith county, received at 6 o'clock this morning.

[Wikipedia note: the time was later corrected as 6 pm, October 29]

Mr. Smith telegraphed that he had captured the murderer and that the latter had been taken from him by a mob of 1000 men.

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EXCITMENT IN ATHENS
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     Athens, Henderson Co., Tex., Oct. 29.—The account of the horrible murder of Mrs. Leonard Bell near Tyler, contained in to-day's News, created considerable excitement here. Mr. Bell has three brothers living near here and are well-to-do farmers.
     A telegram was received here about 4 p.m. saying that the negro was committed the deed had been caught and that preparations were being made for a public burning in the square at Tyler. A special train was at once asked for by citizens here to carry the crowd that had assembled about the depot to Tyler to witness the execution.
     Sheriff Cooke [sic] came in on the 4:40 train and announced that the burning would take place about four miles from Tyler and would all be over before the Athens crowd could reach there, and the crowd at once disbanded.

— Dallas Morning News, October 31, 1895; also
— Galveston Daily News, October 30, 1895