The Hanged Prussian

[porphyry]

On April 3 of 1918, Robert Prager, an American citizen of German origin, denied work as a coal miner in Maryville, Illinois because the other miners thought he looked like a spy, spoke out at a socialist meeting against Woodrow Wilson. The next day he was kidnapped by a mob from his house at 208 Vandalia Avenue in Collinsville, wrapped in an American Flag, made to kiss it, and to run up and down the street waving two hand-held flags. He was taken into protective custody by the police. The next day there was a demosntration against him in front of the City Hall in Collinsville, and the mayor ordered all the saloons closed to calm things down. Hundreds of people who had never heard of him in this way came to learn of him and hate him at once. That evening a mob of between 300 and 400 people broke into the city hall, and marched Prager out to Mauer Heights on the St. Louis Road and hung him from a tree.

This act caused a sensation and was widely reported. Here are some contemporary newspaper reports:

http://web.viu.ca/davies/H324War/Prager.lynching.1918.htm

I had never heard of this incident, but ran across it by accident looking around the web for Ponsonby's book on WWI propaganda. The strange thing is that the street we just moved onto is known as the Mauer Heights neighborhood. So he was hung on the corner one block from where I am sitting to type this. I would say that the tree was long ago cut down.

Comments

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Apart from its horrific content, the other shocking thing is that I actually knew something you didn't!

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

This is a good example of how Wilson's Red Scare was far, far worse than anything that happened in the so-called "McCarthy Era." But of course, the Hollywood Blacklist affected celebrities, and it's far worse for an important person to have his career derailed than for a nobody to get murdered ...

[benicek.livejournal.com]

Grim stuff.

I can't think of anything witty to say about this.

[vonjunzt.livejournal.com]

A shocking and interesting piece of local history. I would wager you felt learning that much the same way I felt when I learned that every day as I walked to the University of Texas I walked past the site of one of the Servant Girl Annihilator slayings.

One of the book topics I've long toyed with would be a piece called American Massacres. It would be a social history of different massacres around the U.S., explaining how they came about and why the perpetrators often went unpunished. I've thought of including not just Indian massacres but also incidents like Ludlow, Mountain Meadow, Tulsa, and the like. I'll probably never write it, of course, but this sort of incident, though not technically a massacre, would belong in there.

!

[jouis-sens.livejournal.com]

Rarely was an exclamation point ever so entirely warranted. I can't believe you live on the very street. I'm glad you pointed this entry out, I do enjoy coincidences (which have been oddly scarce of late). I'd been working a piece on Wilson's CPI over the summer and there you were, reading Ponsonby. Then the healthcare=socialism=communism=Hitler insanity hit, unexpectedly justifying my endeavor, but ruining my August. America has quite the knack for spoiling my fun.