The doorbell at the home of Joseph Adams, 300-pound mayor of West City, Ill., rang one evening. Mayor Adams went to the door, opened it, and was shot dead by two young men. The bullets were poisoned, to make doubly sure that the wounds would be fatal.
In 1926, Charles Birger, lean gang chieftain of Williamson county, in which lies bloody Herrin, had paid the two young men $50 apiece to kill Mayor Adams. His conviction for first degree murder was regarded as having finally put an end to Herrin atrocities. Last week final appeals failed. He was to be hanged...
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