The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-08
INHUMAN OUTRAGE.
A Nameless Crime Committed on Deaf and
Dumb Girt-Arrcst OF the Guilty Wretch.

Dnmb ssiri-Arrest OF the Guilty Wretch.
The last number of the Buchanan county
Bulletin, weekly newspaper published at In
dependence, Iowa, chronicles the commission in
that vicinity of of the blackest crimes in the
calendar, and one which, considering the help
lessness and misfortunes OF the victim, and other
aggravating circumstances surrounding 1t, proves
the brutal perpetrator TO be something less than
human The facts are briefly statedas follows:-
Mr.. Daniel Thomas is q respectable, enter
prising farmer, who resides in Hazleton town
ship, about ten miles north of Independence.
For some time past he has had in his employ o
young man. Emerson Raymond by name twenty
years of age, who lived with Mr.. Thomas, and
was looked upon as one of the members of the
family. A beautiful young girl. named Rock
well, about the same age, modest and intelli-
gent, but deaf and dumb from her birth, is a
member of the same family, in the capacity of
help.
On Wednesday of last week Mr.. Thomas and
wife went out to wedding in the neighbor-
hood, leaving Raymond and the deaf and dumb
girl alone in the house. What followed was
related by the latter some days after the occur
renee, and with evident reluctance, induced by
fear of the consequences with which Raymond
had threatened her if she disclosed his crime.
Shortly after Mr.. and Mrs. Thomas left Miss
Rockwell went up stairs to get pan of Hour,
| and was followed by Raymond. When there he
| seized her. threw her down upon the floor, and,
| upon being stoutlY resisted, jumped upon her
with his knees, bruising her limbs and body in a
| shocking manner. Being a poor, weak girl,
unable to scream by reason of her infrmity,
| she made all the resistance in her power, but
was soon 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 explanation. The
| next day Miss Rockwell went to the residence
| of a brother-in-law (also a deaf mute) not far
| away and there to her sister related the tale OF
| her cruel and outrageous wrong. The brother
/ in-law Immediately wrote aletter to Mr.. Thomas
/ with the facts above stated. Raymond, who In
| the meantime had remained In the neighbor.
| hood, but not at Mr.. Thomas, discovering some
indications that the secret was out, decamped
By means of an intercepted letter, the officers
| ascertained that he was at the house of an ac
quaintance on Crane creek, ia Blackhawk
county, about ten miles west of Fairbank, where
he was arrested, brought to Independence, an6
lodged in jail.
In commenting upon the above, the Bulletin
says that 1t is hardly possible TO find an epithe
| sufficiently expressive and severe with which tC
invest the perpetrators of such crime. The
misfortunes the depriyations of speech auC
hearing, which commend the poor girl to the
especial pity and kindness OF man, were made
by this lecherous beast to aid In the accomplish
ment of her hellish undoing, and the othe
brutalites attendant upon the transaction
make 1t one of the most aggravated cases upoI
record. II is to be feryently hoped that tn
wretch may be visited with the most stringen
penalties of the law.