Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1869-12-31
AN INHUMAN OUTRAGE.
A Rape Conn tied ON . Deaf and
Dumb Girl
TEE scoUNpREL IN CUSTODY.

We have to chronicle, this week, the com.
mission in our midst Of one of the blacklist
crimes in the calendar, and one which con-
sidering the helplessness and misfortunes OF
the victim, and other aggravating circum'
stances surrounding it, proves the brutal
perpetrator to be something less than hui
man. The facts as related to US by Sheriff
Davis, are as follows:
Emerson Raymond, a young man about
20 years of age, has for some time past been
in the employ and living in the family OF
Mr.. Daniel Thomas, who resides in Halle
ton Township, about ten miles north of this
city. A young girl named Rockwell, Of
about the same age, modest and intelligent,
but deaf and dumb. is also member of the
family in the capacity of help. On Wednes,
day of last week Mr.. Thomas and wife went
out to wedding, in the neighborhood, leav-
ing Raymond and the deaf and dumb girl
alone in the house. What followed, was re-
lated by the latter some days after the &C.
currence, and with evident reluctance indu-
ced by fear of the consequences with which
RAYMOND had threatened her if she disclos-
ed his crime.
1t appears by her account. that she went
up stairs to get pan OF -four, and that Ray
mond followed her. When there he seized
her, threw her violently to the floor, and in
the frenzy of his brutal lust jumped upon
her with his knees, bruising her limbs and
body in shocking manner. She made all
the resistance in her power but being but a
poor weak girl, and unable by reason of her
infrmity to cry out for help, was compelled
by sheer physical exhaustion to succumb to
his unholy desires.
Upon her return Mrs. Thomas discovered
that something was wrong, but was unable
to get from the girl any satisfactory explain
alton. The next day Miss Rockwell went
to the residence of brother-in-law (also
deaf mute not far away, and there to her
sister related the tale of her cruel and ont
ra ceous wrong. The brother-in-law imme
diatey wrote a letter to Mr., Thomas with
the facts above stated. Raymond, who in
the meantime had remained in the neigh
borhood, but not at Mr.. Thomas's, discov-
ering some indications that the secret was
out, decamped. By means of an inter
cepted letter the officers ascertained that he
was at the house of an acquaintance on
Crane Creek, in Blackhawk county, about
10 miles west of Fairbank, where he was
arrested yesterday, brought to this city and
lodged in Jail. He has his examina.
ton before Justice Little this morning.
1t is hardly possible to find an epithet
sufficiently expressive and severe with
which to invest the Terpetrator of such a
crime. The misfortunes, the deprvations
of speech and hearing, which would COM
mend the poor girl to the especial pity and
kindness of man, were made by this lech-
orous beast to aid in the accomplishment
of her hellish undoing, and the other bru
talities attendant upon the transaction,
make it one of the most aggravated cases
upon record. We fervently hope that we
may never be called upon to record SINH
lar crime in our county, and that the per-
petrator of this one maysget the EXTREMIST
penalties of the law.