but he suffered from severe rheumatism and was nearly blind, so he could not go with them. Instead, he fled under a bed, but the mob found him, hit him in the face and dragged him outside, where people threw bricks and stones at him. Donnegan pleaded with them to "have mercy on him," noting that he "hadn't done anything to them" and, at one point saying, "Even I've worked on some of your shoes." The mob ignored his pleas and senselessly beat him. As he staggered around, after the beating, his throat was slashed with a razor. His throat was rumored to have been cut by a 10-year-old boy; however Abraham Raymer, a very short, non-naturalized immigrant, who was childlike in appearance, was later suspected of being the culprit. After his throat was cut, someone yelled, "Drown him in the water trough!" while others screamed, "Lynch him!" Donnegan was dragged over to a low tree, across the street from his home, in front the Edwards school yard, two blocks away from the Governor's office. One of the mob members grabbed a nearby clothesline, which was then looped around his neck four times, and once around his face and mouth, before it was tied around the tree, from which he was then hanged. However, because the tree was short, his feet were only partially suspended off the ground. Once Donnegan was hanged, some of the mob went back over to his house, and attempted to set his home on fire; however, militiamen arrived to the scene, and the perpetrators ran away. The militia found Donnegan still alive. His awkward position kept him alive, until the police came. They found him with his "neck severed...breathing through the holes in his windpipe." When they cut him down, they could not remove a piece of the clothesline from his mouth, as it had gotten locked in his jaw, which had become "firmly set." Donnegan, who never regained consciousness, had the 8-inch gash across his neck sewn up by Captain H. H. Tuttle. The mob had also broken skin in several places, which the militia physician attended. He was eventually taken to St. John's hospital, where he died the next morning. Two days after he was lynched, Donnegan's niece, who fled to Chicago after he was lynched, would say of his murder: Aftermath Following the attacks, 10,000 tourists traveled to Springfield to see the