patrons bought him drinks, and where he "drank himself into insensibility." He was awakened the next morning, around 6:00 a.m., near Reservoir park (where Lanphier High School now sits), when a group of young white men, led by Charles and Homer Ballard, grabbed him and proceeded to beat him until he bled "profusely" from his nose and ears: James' face was so badly beaten that he was rendered "incapable of speech," and did not "look much like a human being." The police decided to wait until the swelling around his mouth had gone down before "sweating him," noting that the "interior of his head still seem[ed] to be very badly muddled as the result of the beating. Police Chief Morris, expressed confidence that he would get a confession from James who, as best he could at that point, expressed ignorance about the entire affair, but was notably "very much frightened" about the murder charge against him. The arresting officer, J.T. Headrick, added that James had nothing in his pockets when he was arrested. Upon James' arrest, the Illinois State Register described him as being "about 21 or 22 years old, about five feet six inches in height and [weighing] about 140 pounds." However, two months later, during his trial, the same newspaper would describe him as being " heavily built." The newspaper went on to call him a "copper-hued mulatto," arrested wearing a black coat, blue denim shirt, light trousers and new patent leather shoes. His cap, found at Ballard's home, was said to be a winter hat made of brown wool. Conversely, the Illinois State Journal described James as a "typical southern darkey of medium size and of color not real dark." James was said to be positively identified by Sheriff Deputy, Harry Taylor, who identified the cap, and the piece of torn shirt, as belonging to James. He was also identified by Bob Oakley, a 38-year-old mulatto, and said to have been a former police officer, who was now a bartender at one of the black saloons. Oakley voluntarily called into the police station when he heard about what happened. Oakley stated that he had seen a "strange negro," possibly James, ordered out of Bill Johnson's saloon on East Washington street the night before. Oakley was shown the cap and piece of shirt allegedly found at Ballard's home and, "at once furnished a correct description of the little