The Story of W. D. French
The Story of W. D. French An angry group of men weren’t about to let this guy avoid punishment It was probably pretty obvious that something was up. After all, it’s not often that a man would dress like a woman and walk into a Greeley hardware store. On Dec. 28, 1888, the man, wearing a veil over his face, entered the store and wanted to buy 50 feet of rope. The hardware store owner knew what was going on. He refused to take money for the rope and reportedly said, “Take this and forget it. If you need any more, come back.” But more rope apparently wasn’t needed. A gang of masked men broke into the jail that night, and lynched W.D. French, leaving him hanging from a downtown tree branch for the townspeople to find the next morning. It was Greeley’s first and only lynching. W.D. French, 41, was the town bully. He had been arrested once for cattle rustling, he carried a gun to intimidate people, and was suspected of murdering his wife the year before. He had beaten people and stole ...