Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-12-24
A Murderer LyuChed.

ASSOCIATED Press dispatches of the
10Th give the following account Of the
recent lynching at Des Moines, Iowa, of
the murderer, Charles Howard
Monday afternoon, IL the District
Court Of Des Moines, Charles Howard
was sentenced to Imprisonment for life
in the State Penitentiary for the muir
der Of John Johnson IN this city in
June last. This morning at three
O'clock some 500 Vigilants, with their
faces blackened, surrounded the Jail,
overpowered and bound the jailer
hand and foot ard took his keys.
and then overpowered in the same
manner the Deputy Sheriff and the
special guard of FIVE men who had been
detailed by the Court to guard the pris-
Oner; unlocked the doors and made
their way to Towards cell, where he
was in bed with his wife, the latter be-
ing now under Indictment for completely
in The murder. The woman, seeing them
coming, threw her arms about the neck
of her husband. but was soon thrown off,
and rope placed about Towards neck
He was Immediately jerked out of bed,
six or eight Vigilants leading him with
the rope At the door some twenty
more took hold of the rope, and he was
dragged, with no clothing on but an I'M
dershirt, through the hall, down the steps,
and out through the Courthouse yard,
the jail being in the basement Of the
Courthouse, and hung to a lamppost
at one Of the gates. The whole thing
did not occupy fifteen minutes. They
stood near the body about five minutes,
when they departed. The night be
ing very dark, they were soon out
of sight. When the policemen reached
the body life was extinct. It is sup
posed the lynching was done by three
anti-horse-thief societies in this county,
aided by accomplices in the city, but
nothing definite has been decided yet.
The excitement which has led to this
foul outrage has been growing for some
time, several mysterious murders having
been committed here recently-seven in
the space of four years.
The trial of Howard was protracted and
exciting, the jury being out for nearly
four days, finally compromising on a
verdict of murder in the second degree.
It was feared Howard would be lynched
last Friday night, the jury not then hav-
ing agreed, and it being generally
thought they would agree to disagree.
But precautions were taken to prevent
it then, and on Saturday morning a YER
dict was returned. Monday afternoon
he was sentenced, and Judge Maxwell
imposed upon him the extreme rigOr of
the law, Imprisonment for Iife. Every
body here in the city seemed satisfied,
and the lynching fell upon the city to
its surprise and horror. But Towards
behavior during the reading of the sen
tence, laughing in the face of the Judge
and receiving his doom with frmness,
and his attempt to smuggle revolver
into the courtroom for the pur-
pose, as avowed afterward, of
shooting the Judge as he was de-
livering the sentence; his boast that he
would escape the Penitentiary before
six months, and return and kill all who
had appeared against him IN the trial,
and the appeal of his case to the Supreme
COurt-all these reached the ears of the
Vigilants last night, and the result was as
stated above. The whole proceeding is
most bitterly felt by the citizens here,
and the perpetrators are denounced in
the most unmeasured terms.