Peter Klein
Cincinnati Enquirer, 17 March 1879, page 5
LYNCHED IN THE SNOW
One week ago last Friday Mrs. Carrie Truesdell, the honored wife
of a respectable citizen of "the Highlands" in Campbell County, Ky. was attacked
while alone in her house, beaten, robbed and outraged by an unknown man-a brute
in human form. Day before yesterday the man was arrested in this city. Night
before last, in his silent cell in the Newport jail, he made a full confession
of his crime to an Enquirer reporter. Yesterday this confession
was published and read by thousands of indignant citizens of Campbell County,
friends and neighbors of Mrs. Truesdell, and last night these citizens, nerved
to desperate action by the though of the like danger by which their wives and
daughters were surrounded, gathered nearly a thousand strong before the jail
where he was confined, forced the officers in charge to deliver the guilty man
to their possession. (They) marched him for miles through the driving snow storm
and darkness to the home of his victim, obtained from her a renewed assurance of
this identity, and then within almost a stone's throw of the scene of his crime,
and in hearing of his suffering victim, hanged him by the roadside to a gallows
furnished by nature for such unnatural brutes, hanged him until he was dead.
Then they quietly dispersed, leaving the accused carcass swinging in full view upon the roadside, a warning to all who pass, a terrible example of retributive justice as dealt out by the people for the most terrible of crimes.
THE HISTORY OF THE CRIME
Its fresh in the minds of the readers of the Enquirer. Mrs. Truesdell is the wife of a respected farmer of the Highlands. On the day mentioned, Peter Klein according to his own confession published in yesterday's Enquirer, went to Mrs. Truesdell's residence about seven o'clock in the morning. He asked Mrs. Truesdell where a man named Myers lived. He was told by the lady that she was a newcomer in the neighborhood and did not know, but if he would inquire further on, he would probably be able to find out. Kelin went away, but returned in about half an hour afterward and asked where her husband was. Mrs. Truesdell told him he was in the field working, but that he would be in the house in a short while. Klein said this was not true; that he met him going to town. He then asked the woman for a drink of water. She attempted to get it for him, when he struck her in the head with his fist and knocked her down. Then ran up to where she was lying and struck her in the stomach.
After these exhibitions of brutality he dragged her into a small room in the house and raped her. After outraging her he tied her ands at full length to a bench and her feet to a door now and then robbed the house of two watches, a chain, a Mexican dollar and a small amount of change. After ransacking the house, he went to where the poor woman lay, bade her good bye and told her to get loose if she could. One of the watches and the chain were found on him after he was arrested.
A CINCINNATIAN
One of our reporters paid another visit to the prisoner later yesterday afternoon. Klein said he was of German parentage and American birth; that he was born and raised in Cincinnati and lived here all his life except about three years and a half, when he lived in Ohio, about one hundred and thirty-five miles from Cincinnati; He was a brick molder by occupation but hadn't worked for a week or so. He lost his wife in 1864 and had no children and that his mother and father are dead. He never did any work on the Kentucky side of the river and didn't know much about what he went over there for as he had been drinking.