Indiana White Caps

White caps were groups involved in the whitecapping movement who were operating in southern Indiana in the late 19th century.

Lynchings continued against other criminals, but when two possibly innocent men were killed in Corydon in 1889,[1] Indiana responded by cracking down on the white cap vigilante groups, beginning in the administration of Isaac P. Gray.

His successor, Winfield T. Durbin, resumed the policy in 1900, two years after the Indiana General Assembly passed a strong anti-lynching law.

His plan worked, and when a lynching was threatened in the following year local police notified Durbin who called out the state militia to guard the jailhouse.

When the white cap groups attacked the jailhouse, the militia opened fire; killing one and wounding at least eleven.

[citation needed] In the years following the American Civil War, southern Indiana experienced several high-profile criminal events.

They sacked rural towns, murdered and robbed travelers, and carried out numerous acts of indiscriminate violence against people.

[2] Their murders caused an international incident with Great Britain, who demanded to know why they had not been adequately protected and threatened to cancel their extradition treaty with the United States.

Given the severity of the gang's crimes, and the near certainty they would have suffered the same fate after a trial, the state government did not take any action against the white cap group.

[3] In 1889, Governor of Indiana Isaac P. Gray was the first to begin attempting to put an end to the white cap's activities.

The measure proved ineffective though, because many of the local sheriffs were themselves members of the organizations and turned a blind eye to the activity.

During his term, the groups became increasingly active, leading to numerous incidents of vigilante justice and a rise in lynchings.

They also authorized the governor to call out the militia to protect prisoners, and granted him the power to remove local officials from office if they did not notify him of a threatened act of violence.

[7] Winfield T. Durbin succeeded Mount in 1900 and began a vigorous campaign to put an end to the white caps.

He removed from office numerous law enforcement officials and put the militia on patrol, and launched a host of investigations into local government.

In response, the militia, largely composed of young men not trained for such situations, opened fire on the crowd, which then dispersed.