The north Iowa times. [volume] (M'Gregor [i.e. McGregor], Iowa) 1856-1857, 1857-09-23

Homicide.


A raft owned by S. b. O,mstead of Fort
Ripley, Min, and destined for Olmstcads
Steam Saw Mil at McGrccor. reached this
place on Sunday morning, and the contractor in
charge of it Immediately reported to TIE an.
'horties that Il dead body was On board Of the
raft. He was thought to have come to lis dealt,
the night preceding Saturday in con5courncc
of a llow inflicted by one of the hands employ
cd. Justice Hsrlbut summoned jury COM
posed of Mayor Jones, Geo. L. Bass and John
Chambers, who proceed to the raft and the BODY
was submitted to a legal examination. We
took down the testimony of the witnesses call
cd, and rep 1T tie following as the SUI stance:
The name Of the deceased was William
Norris, Morrison or Morissey-;hc Witnesses
were in the habit Of calling him ''Bil' He
was supposed to be from ireland. On Saturday
about II o'clock The deceased and SAM LIE,
another hand, while under the influence of
liquor. commenced quarraling about an old
difficulty they previously had at Walashaw-
Lee used hand language towards deceased, and
| the latter PROPOSED fighting it out, when Lee
apologized and The matter dropped for short
time. Deceased commenced qaarrclling again
and Lee becoming mad seized handsrike and
| struck deceased a blow on the head which fcllcd
him, deceased was sitting upon his oar at The
| tmel Lee struck second time but did not lit
him. Deceased got Up and made at Lee bat
| they were separated and the commander took
deceased to bis bunk and babe him lie down
The witnesses stated that they did not SUPPOSE
he was 80 mitch hurt as he was drunk, and hence
they paid but little attention to him. About all
hour after the blow was inflicted deceased call
cd for water which was brought by one of the
witnesses but deceased had fallen back on his
| couch and all the effo:t of himself and LEE
could not rouse him to consciousncss--he seem
ed to be in sort of swoon. He lay there in
sensible till towards evening when Lee washed
his face, got his own blankets and fixed un the
deceased as comfortably rs he could. The
witness WHO lay next to the deceased was tired
and slept soundly, but he was disturbed some
by J. EE's rcstlessness in whiting On tic sick
| man. Witness stated that in the morning he
reached the deceased and upon shaking I'm he
| proved to he DEAD! LEE was missing and 9th
or witnesses testified that they heard some one
| SO ashore about daylight. The blow was struck
in Crooked Slough below Lansing on the Wis
consin side of the channtl. The Raft tied IN
on Saturday night about enc mile below the Red
House Lending, and there LEE left the River.
LEE is described as feet Q, weighs about
| us, is smooth faced, brown hair and eyes, rather
| full faced and atnu! % years Old The deccas
| ed was about the sane size and age, hair also
! brown and a heavy beard on the chin. Wit
ness S thought deceased was recently from La
Faycitc, indiana. He was quarsclsome when
dunk-LEE was p-aceably inclined.
| DR.. Akin examined the Eody, cut tic skin
fiom the temple and showed The jry a Sc ere
| fracture of the skull-suffcent 10 cause his
death. TIE Jury reported that deceased came
to his death from blow inf ctsd ly one SAM.
UxL LIE.
LEE is yet at large.
P.S-Sinee the above was in Type we lean
that LEE was in McG:csor on Sunday evening
just after dark. Some of his acquaintance OF
the raft saw him and advised him to surrender
hin self to the authorities. While yrctending
to deliberate on the subject, he sprang from the
conn am and under cover of night, made his
escape. lie has not since been head of.