DENVER (KDVR) — A vigil was held on Saturday night for a 15-year-old who was lynched outside of Limon on Nov. 16, 1900.
Preston John Porter Jr. was a black 15-year-old who worked as a railroad worker in Limon in 1900. Porter Jr. was accused of sexually assaulting and murdering a local white girl, Louise Frost, who was discovered in a ravine with stab wounds by a search party. She later succumbed to those wounds. Her father, R.W. Frost, was a prominent rancher in the area.
How Travis Hunter could win the Heisman Trophy
Porter Jr. confessed to the crime to Denver investigators who reportedly used extreme coercion to provoke a confession, including telling the 15-year-old his father and brother would be lynched if he did not confess. There has never been any evidence connecting Porter Jr. to the crime , according to History Colorado and the Colorado Encyclopedia.
On Nov. 16, 1900, a mob of white people angry with the crime, abducted Porter Jr. in Limon before chaining him to a vertical steel rail, hanging a rope around his neck and burning him alive.