A Touch of Irony

[Gene C]

Here is an interesting link about the riot

http://sangamoncountyhistory.org/wp/?p=1486

From the above article

"Mabel Hallam, the wife of a streetcar conductor, whose Aug. 13 report that a black man had sexually assaulted her in her home on North Fifth Street kicked off the riot, recanted her identification of Richardson on Sept. 1. It later developed that she had not been assaulted at all, but had been entertaining a white lover."

She was never punished for the false report, although the Hallam family moved out of Springfield a few months later.