1. Robert Prager, his name apparently written on the photograph he intended to send to prospective mail-order brides. Courtesy of the author.

2. Lumaghi Coal Company Mine No. 2 was one of five large mines operating in the Collinsville area in 1918. All told more than two thousand men worked as miners in the area, more than half the male workforce. Collinsville Historical Museum.

3. Men at Consolidated Mine No. 17 prepare to take the steam hoist into the mine. Collinsville Historical Museum.

4. U.S. Committee on Public Information chairman George Creel. Library of Congress.

5. Posters were created that targeted workers in all critical occupations. Library of Congress.

6. Many CPI posters demonized Germans, represented here in a likeness of Kaiser Wilhelm II wielding his bloody sword over prostrate women and children. Library of Congress.

7. Collinsville women of the Red Cross knitted clothing items, made comfort kits for soldiers, and turned linen into bandages. The group had over 1,800 members by late 1917. Collinsville Historical Museum.

8. Men working at the St. Louis Smelting and Refining Company in Collinsville. Blacks were hired to work at the smelter but were not allowed to work in the better-paying coal mines. Collinsville Historical Museum.

9. The Collinsville works of the St. Louis Smelting and Refining Company, where a unionization battle in 1917 handed Collinsville coal miners one of their few defeats. The managers’ homes appear in the upper right corner. Collinsville Historical Museum.

10. Madison County sheriff Jenkin Jenkins, a former Collinsville coal miner turned politician. Edwardsville Intelligencer.

11. The federal government blamed most Great War–era labor strife on German sympathizers. Library of Congress.

12. A notice in the Collinsville Advertiser from December 1917 warns residents to remain leery of Germans and Austrians. Collinsville Advertiser.

13. CPI posters directed at new immigrants urged them to show their patriotism by purchasing war bonds. Library of Congress.

14. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch cartoon depicting Kaiser Wilhelm II and Uncle Sam from March 30, 1918, six days before the lynching. St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

15. The ABC Bar at Main and Center Streets and owner William Horstman, one of at least nineteen saloons in uptown Collinsville in 1918. Collinsville Historical Museum.

16. Main Street near Center Street in Collinsville, an intersection that would be jammed with a mob of more than two hundred drunken men before Robert Prager was taken from city hall late on April 4, 1918. Collinsville Historical Museum.

17. Collinsville’s city hall and fire station. Courtesy of the author.

18. Collinsville mayor J. H. Siegel. City of Collinsville.

19. Dear Parents! I must this day 4-4-18 die. Please pray for us, my dear parents. That is my last letter or sign of life of mine. Your dear son and brother, Robert Paul. St. Louis Star. Translated by Carmen Freeman.

20. Robert Prager. St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

21. The hanging tree atop Bluff Hill as it appeared the morning after the lynching. It was removed to make way for power lines in 1962. The land is now part of St. John Cemetery. St. Louis Star.

22. The third Liberty Loan campaign officially began one day after Prager’s lynching, and in Collinsville suspected pro-Germans were challenged on the street about whether they had bought war bonds. Library of Congress.

23. Collinsville Herald editor and publisher J. O. Monroe and one of his sons at the newspaper office. Collinsville Historical Museum.

24. This advertisement to promote the purchase of war bonds ran in both the Collinsville Herald and the St. Louis Times in April 1918, with the cost underwritten by local businesses. The tone and tenor of the ad reflect the intolerant mood of the era. St. Louis Times.

25. The defendants from top row left: William Brockmeier, Joe Riegel, John Hallworth, Charles Cranmer, Richard Dukes Jr., and their single guard, Deputy Sheriff Vernon Coons. Front row: Wesley Beaver, Frank Flannery, Cecil Larremore, James DeMatties, Enid Elmore, and Calvin Gilmore. St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

26. The same photograph as it appeared in the May 15, 1918, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, with flags cut from the picture. St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

27. Madison County state’s attorney Joseph Streuber. Edwardsville Intelligencer.

28. Illinois assistant attorney general C. W. Middlekauff, who assisted State’s Attorney Streuber with the prosecution. Library of Congress.

29. Judge Louis Bernreuter. Edwardsville Intelligencer.

30. Defense attorneys James Bandy, his son Harold Bandy, and Thomas Williamson. St. Louis Times.

31. During the last week of the trial, ninety-seven “selected” Collinsville men would depart for army training, including this group of nineteen posing with draft board member C. H. Maurer, top right, on May 29, 1918. Collinsville Historical Museum.

32. Robert Prager’s headstone in St. Matthew Cemetery in St. Louis. It was replaced in 2006 by St. Louis Odd Fellows. Courtesy of the author.