Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-05-17
uzOsE rowALYNcm Law.
Iclinson Herald. May s.l !

[clinton Herald, May 81
| A state of genuine excitement
leaualed by none here for years now
reigns in this vicinity over q tragedy
committed atan early hour this morn
ing in the engine house under the
Lyons City Hall. The facts, as near
lily as we can learn them, are as fol-
lows:
At an early hour yesterday morn
ing three parties raped at the saloon
tof VIM. Barlow, situated in a locality
lust outside of Lyons, known as
~ a WHISKY HOLLOW, .3,4
and in few moments were admitted
iby the half dressed proprietOr, who
tsuppOsed his visitors werHii after
liquor or cigars. Once inside how
lever, the trio began to abuse Mr..
Barlow and to demand moIley, the
latter recognizing one-armed man,
who formed one Of the party, - Pat
Trick Hand, q notorious vagrapk pro-
fligate and desperate, who hae lived
in and about Lyons for many years,
and is known to every saloon Keeper
and police officer within q radius of
many miles. Mr.. Barlow N3ed in
vain to rid himself Of his ObnQxiOus
visitors, and finally they selpupOn
him, threw him down and rifed his
pockets of ~, and kicking and beat
ing him severely. Mr.. Barlow's wife
interfered and was sgs
FIREDUPoN
by one of the party for her pains. She
then fed fer help, but the unwelcOme
visitors, after further kicking and
pounding their helpless victim, helped
themselves to liquor and cigars, and
then ran away before any one else
arrived. Mrs. Barlow, having sue
ceeded in procuring assistance, re-
turned to the building occupied joint
~ by the family for saloon and res
dence, where she found her husband
in an insensible condition. He was
assisted to bed, where he now lies
under physicians care, and at last
accounts. G&lf 8I
WAS NOT EXPECTED TO LIVE.
During the day the particulars Of
the brutal assault and obbery at Bar
lows were not generally y noised about,
and no attempt was made to arrest
Hand until about six o'clock in the
evening, when he was taken into GUS
tody at Clinton by officers Patrick
Rowen and John Holmes, of Lyons.
Hand was intoxicated, but was able
to walk, and was taken on q street
car to Lyons, where he was locked in
an engine house with ball and chain
attached to his legs to keep him quiet,
the cell below being inundated and
uninhabitable. The doors and win
dows of the engine house were
fastened, but .
OFFICER RowEN WATCHED THE I'll ACE
through the night. Al two o'clock i'm
the morning Mr.. Rowen visited the
engine room, and saw the prisoner
stillasleep in drunken slumber on a |
bed made tor him in the back part of
the room. Not dreaming of any at !
tempt to do violence to Hand by out
side parties, and feeling that the pris-
oner could make no effort himself to |
escape, Mr.. Rowen did not visit the |
Jail again until four o'clock in the
morning, when the officer was hor-
rified to see the form of Patrick Hand !
SUSPENDED BY THE NECK,
cold in death! One glance at the
spectacle, ghastly'enough at best, but
rendered still more weird by the
stiffness of the night and the glow of
moonlight, was sufficient to satisfy
the officer of the startling tragedy so
noiselessly, SO promptly, and so sue
cessfully enacted during his absence.
For moment he was unable to
move,so strange did the sight appear.
the residence of Coroner l.. p. Adams,
near by, whom he notified briefly of
the occurrence. Then awakening Mr..
A. L. Carney, the three proceeded to
the city building and
CUT THE BODY DOWN.
The body was found suspended by
a new half-inch rope, evidently bought
for the purpose, and which had been
passed over a beam in the back tow
er, passing thence through the closet
back of the City Hall and through "a
hole in the floor to the room below.
An examination of the premises
broken in, the lock being still turned,
but the door being sprCng and stand-
ing ajar, as though several men had
forced it from the front by pressing
their combined weight upon ii. The
rope had been tied around Hands
neck, with the knot under the left
ear, in true hangman's style, and the
body was found suspended three feet
from the floor, the other end of the
rope being made fast to the ire en-
gine
From deep cut on Hands temple,
pools of blood on the floor, and stains
OF blood on the walls, il was at one
time supposed that the man had been
FOUNDED TO DEATH
before he was hung. But DIR. Weth-
erell subsequently, testified before the
Coroner's jury that death had been
caused by strangulation.
| Patrick Hand, the victim, was about
thirty years old. He was q man of
considerable native ability, but has
for years been SO stepped in sin that
he had lost all respect for the right.
He lost one arm
IN THE REBEL ARMY, q
and since the war has probably COM
mitted half the crimes in the calendar.
He served two years in the peniten-
tiary and innumerable shorter periods
in the city and county, jails. lie was
unmarried, but has relatives living
about five miles west Of the city, his
| father, Mr.. Owen Hand, being
| wr,, ppspvcrrn r...s.
~ ~ = - -
ana ms uncfe, also presiding III that