From our archives, 100 years ago

An angry mob of at least 15 men forced their way into the jail at Grangeville, Idaho, and pumped nearly a dozen bullets into Peter Mallick, a prisoner accused of brutally beating his wife.

Mallick was in jail because of an incident that had occurred on his homestead about two months earlier. He was accused of coming home drunk, dragging his wife from her bed, and brutally beating her with a revolver and kicking her until he was exhausted. Her shoulder was dislocated, three ribs were broken and her eye was “almost beaten out of its socket.” The wife, a graduate of the Lewiston Normal School, still had not recovered fully from the beating.

People were outraged by the incident and many threats had been made against Mallick’s life.

The night of Aug. 31, 1911, a mob of 15 masked men rode up to the jail, overpowered the guards, pushed their way to his cell and said, “Get ready to take your medicine.”

The prisoner woke up and said (in the paper’s expurgated version), “Take off your masks, you d——d ——-.” Someone counted, “One, two, three, fire!”

At least 11 bullets hit Mallick. He died instantly and the men rode away, unidentified.

Also on this date

From the Associated Press

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