Someone burglarized the post office at Lawrenceburg, a small village in northeast Lawrence County, on the night of Friday, February 8, and the next day word was sent to Springfield that a man, thought to have been involved in the crime, was "lurking" around Yeakley in western Greene County and neighboring Halltown in eastern Lawrence. An officer from Springfield was dispatched immediately to bring the culprit in, but by the time he arrived, the suspect had fled.
The officer sent word back to Springfield, and the police chief and a third officer left Springfield to join the hunt. Upon reaching Nichols Junction in the wee hours of Sunday morning, February 10, the chief learned that a "demented man" had jumped from a train at that place Saturday morning and had gone in the direction of Halltown. The chief decided that the man who'd jumped from the train was probably the same man who'd been seen lurking around Yeakley and Halltown, and he and the third officer returned to Springfield.
Not privy to the intelligence gained by the chief, the citizens around Halltown, meanwhile, determined to rise up in arms and capture the desperado they thought to be in their midst. A report reached Halltown that a "suspicious character" had been given dinner at a farmhouse a few miles outside town, but the excitement did not reach a fever pitch until the supposed culprit was spotted near the town hall, where a public meeting was taking place. A horse was hitched to a rail outside the building, and it was thought the villain was planning to steal the horse.
The meeting broke up about the same time that word of the man's suspicious activity was being sent around to townspeople, and a crowd of vigilantes quickly formed and went in "hot pursuit" of the suspect, according to the Springfield Leader-Democrat. The mob, numbering ten to fifteen men, found their prey in the horse lot of a local townsman, which they took as proof of the man's criminal intent. Upon seeing the mob approach as if to apprehend him, the man took off running, and some in the crowd took a few shots at him. "Fortunately, whose aim (was) good "had only loaded their guns with bird shot, which did the man no serious harm."
At this point, the Springfield officer who'd been involved in the chase since Saturday appeared on the scene and persuaded some in the crowd to help him capture the unarmed fugitive without firing their weapons. However, in the excitement of the affair, some of the other men, not being acquainted with the Springfield officer, mistook him for the wanted man. One local leveled his gun at the officer and was about to pull the trigger, when the lawman finally succeeded in making his identity known.
The man the mob had been hunting was quickly taken into custody, and he proved to be the "crazy man" who'd jumped off the train at Nichols, not the post office robber. He was soon identified as J. M. Cross, "a demented preacher and teacher" from Tennessee. He and his family were on their way to Ezburn, Kansas, when Cross, convinced that the train was going the wrong way, bailed out on his wife and children at Nichols. He was taken back to Springfield, where he was examined by a doctor. He was considerably bruised from his jump, and a few of the bird shot had taken effect in the back of his head, but he was not seriously hurt.
Concluded the Leader-Democrat, "Cross seemed to be insane on religion, and while in custody kept up a continual conversation on religion."
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