River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1881-02-24
CURIOUsCRIMEs.
Remark able Crimes that sEaye Reen
Ferpetrnfed I'm Southern Indiana.

CURIOUS CRIMES.
Remark able Grimes that ssaye Been
Ferpetrafed I'm Southern Indiana.
New Albany Ledger-Standard
Some time in the future when the
local historian comes to write up the
curiosities of crime in southern Indiana
he will be able, by following the simple
records of the courts, to produce a
work that will be full of plots ard har-
rowing details. Going back no further
than the days of the Reno family,
whose exploits filled the entire country
with wonder and alarm, and whose
tragic and terrible deaths in the New
Albany Jail, at the hands of pitiless
mob of one hundred men sent thrill
of horror through every heart, and end
ing with the year 1880, the historian
will find material enough 10 fill a large
and closely condensed volume. No
one who saw the Reno brothers and
Charles Anderson dangling from the
balcony of the upper tier of cells in
the New Albany jail on that cold win
ter morning will ever forget that hor-
rid spectacle of the swaying bodies as
they dangled from the ropes, nor the
CHASTITY look of despair that marked the
faces of the strangled victims. Nor
can the shrieks and sobs of the sisters
and wives of these victims as they
knelt over their dead after they had
been cut down and laid out in the Jail
hall, ever to be obliterated from the
memory of those who heard and wit
messed their awfHl agony of SOUL
When Sanders entered the cabin of
Woodward in Orange county on
one of the darkest and most stormy
nights eff the winter of 1866, and with
an AK deliberately and speedily Drained
Woodward, his wife, child, sister and
mother, as they lay IN bed, and then
escaped on $40, 900 straw bail, another
chapter was added to the history of
southern Indiana, and it was made all
the redder because the Whereabouts
of the murderer was long known and no
effort was made for his arrest.
Following these great crimes in rapid
succession, murders and mob violence
multiplied alarmingly. In jackson,
Washington, and Orange counties the
mob ruled supreme for several years
and many william went to his long
home, through the agency of these
vigilance committees. In those days
the law was silent, for the reason that
the officers of the law stood in with
scoundrels, and, in the present day
and even in this city of New Albany
refused to enforce the laws. This made
the mobs.
Coming down latter, the crime of
Mauck, in Harrison county last winter,
was much like that of the Sanders
Woodward massacre, though strange
enough Mauck's wife and Sarah Waugh
the victims of Mauck's ak and club
survived the twenty-odd wounds they
received on the head and body from
the murderous implements used by the
fiendish husband. A saturnalia follow
ed this crime, and only ended with the
Long Henriott killings and mob in
Blue River township, Harrison county.
The chapters may be further extend
ed down to period only two months
ago, and embrace the the exploits Of
DIR. Thomas Aust, of Winslow, Pike
county. A few weeks ago the Ledger
Standard briefly referred to the career
of this desperate. A resume thereof is
now pro er. DIR. Aust and his brother
now dead, were skillful physicians, and
therefore had Il large practice. Both
were bad men, particularly Thomas.
His career has been that of a law defy
ing desperate, lin which regards it has
some parallels, even in this godly city
of New Albany.) On an afternoon late
in November last he engaged in a game
of cards with his brother-in-law, James
Humphrey, toward dusk they quarreled
over the game and separated. DR.. Aust
went to the stable and briddled and
saddled a horse, leaving him thus
equipped standing in the stall ready
for immediate use. Then he went into
his house and procured a heavily load
ed gun and walked out and took his
station at the front gate. He knew
that in short time his brotherin-law
Humphrey, would have to pass the gate
on his way home. He waited but
few moments when he had gotten
abreast Of him, Aust drew up his gun
and shot him dead. He then walked
rapidly back to the stable, mounted
his horse. and escaped in the darkness,
and the most diligent search failed to
discover even trace of him.
A few days after this tragedy and es-
cape a family named Eads received
letter post marked at Winslow, from
DR.. Thomas Aust, in which he stated
to them that their daughter, beauti-
full young lady who died several years
ago, had been resurrected by Thomas
Aust and his brother, the jewelI-y upon
the body thrown into the Patoka river,
the clothes and flesh burned, and the
bones wired into skeleton "You can
find your daughters skeleton in my
effice at Winslow." this remarkable
letter concluded An investigation
proved all the statements of the letter
true. How the letter came to be mailed
at Winslow so long after the flight of
Aust is a mystery.
These facts were published and
copied into the Canada papers. They
fell under the observation of the chief
of detectives at Clinton, Ontario, and
he at once concluded that man who
had recently arrived in that town was
DR.. Thomas Aust. Correspondence
with the Pike county officials confirm
ed this suspicion, and Aust was arrest
ed. On Tuesday Sheriff Scales, of
Pike county, and Keefer, of Peters
burg started to Clinton to bring back
the desperate.