Story Behind The Book
Based on the true incident of the burning alive of 21- year-old Fred Alexander in 1901 for suspected murder and accosting a white female Broadway resident, Eva Roth, at 6:30 PM on 12 January 1901. The principal of Leavenworth High, Dr Evans, witnessed and overblew the accosting. Alexander then came under suspicion for the murder of Pearl Forbes on election night, 2 Nov 1900. Sheriff Abernathy moved him from city jail to county jail to State Pen back to county jail. During this last transfer, a lynch mob of 12,000 people took him to the edge of town, chained him to a stake, tore down a wooden shed for its wood, stacked the wood around him and threw coal oil on it. After burning him alive, all 12,000 filed by his body. Fred was buried in Mt. Muncie Cemetary. Later on, a man killed a woman in Colorado with similar MO to the Pearl Forbes murder. The Lynch mob may have burned an innocent man.