The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-08-09

| never had any other kind. They have
always been regarded as vicious and
worthless men.
| CORYDON, Aug. 7.-Special.-Since
the dispatch to The Sentinel of the ter
] rible killing of five men by William and
Edward Conrad Sunday morning about
1 o'clock in Boone township. this coun-
/ ty, more startling facts in the case have
| developed which go to make the affair
the bloodiest and most shocking that
ever before occurred in the state Of
] Indiana. and it is doubtful whether any
other state in the union has ever wit
messed so Notwithstanding and blood-chill-
| ing a scene as was looked upon Sunday
morning in the fair county of Harrison.
near the quiet and peaceful little town
| of Laconia.
| Near the house of the Conrad boys
lay the bleeding and mangled bodies of
| five of the best and most influential men
in the neighborhood. Some distance
away from the house was found five
more. some fatally and others seriously
| injured.
| The names Of those dead are John
| Timberlake. Edward Huston, William
Wiseman. William May and Isaac Howe.
|
| ty-five years. all well-to-do farmers.
Those wounded are Noah Ebert, David
Jacobs. Edward Crosier, Samuel Tindall
and one other whose name could not be
| learned
The result of all this terrible affair has
| caused the widest excitement in the
southern part Of the county.
| 1t will be remembered tnat some time
/ 10 ir1ct oil NTr
rad was found dead in the field some
distance from his house and his two sons
were arrested and brought to Corydon
charged with having killed their father,
but as no direct evidence could be pro-
duced they were released and returned
to their home where their mother still
lived. Suspicion rested heavily against
them and they We're warned two or
| three different times to leave the neigh
borhood or they would be lynched
Being thus notified they armed them
selves with shot guns and pistols and
lay in walt each night for the mob.
| The COnrads are still at home and say
| they intend to stay and fight it out un-
| til they die or kill every man who dares
| approach them for the purpose of ar
resting or capturing them. They are
wild and vicious and if the community
| undertakes to take them there will be
more bloodshed.
| The Courier-Journal published the fol-
| lowing account of the bloody business:
| The tWo-rOomed cabin over which the
iurid cloud of popular hatred hangs is
in hollow Of the hills that skirt the
Indiana bank Of the Ohio, about thirty
miles down the river from New Albany
The whole locality is wild and rugged,
the ground covered for the most part,
| with scrub and forest trees, which ex-
tends close up to the little garden patch
surrounding the Conrad cabin. Close in
front of the cabin runs Mosquito creek
On the rising ground above the hollow
| stands the cottage of a widow-AIrs.
| Lizzie Jones.
About o'clock Sunday morning Mrs.
Lizzie Jones heard shots down in the
hollow. She may have vaguely guessed
something as TO the meaning of the
sound, but she knew nothing for GER
tain, and even her guess was probably
far wide of the truth. At daylight the
mother Of the two Conrad boys the
| widow of the old man whose death had
aroused popular fury, came to Mrs.
Jones cottage and in a casual way told
| her that there were some dead men
had better come and take care of them.
| This was enough to arouse the neigh
borhood. Mrs. Jones called her neigh
bors, and they went into the hollow TO
see who the dead men were.
First they came TO two who lay near
each other-Ed Huston, lying on his
face, dead, his head riddled with bird
shot; there were as many as thirty-three
holes found in his hat, and William
| May, still breathing stentoriously the
side of his face shattered, one eye out.
brain matter protruding from the
hideouS wound. These were about
furlong from the Conrads cabin. Then,
farther on, there were two more, lying
the one across the other. They were
John Wiseman and Albert Howe; Wise
man on top. Howe underneath. Both Of
these had been shot in the back of the
head and both had breathed their last
Finally, about ten yards from the
cabin John Timberlake was found living
by the creek. All the front of his body,
from the abdomen up, was one mass
Of torn clothing and lacerated flesh,
and he, too, was dead.
What had happened when Mrs. Jones
heard those shots at o'clock in the
| morning? 1t can only be conjectured
from scattered pieces of evidence. 1t is
said that there were some thirty shots
fired, and it is reported that a mob of
thirty or forty men We're behind the
cabin at the time. They had come TO
seize the Conrad brothers-whether to
hang them or to put them to some of
| the tortures known to the white cap
code can not be learned. None of those
who were of the mob can be found; il is
not even known how many more were
wounded, although it is morally certain
that some must have received wounds
less speedily effective than the wounds
of the five who were found at dawn
After a retreat, those who composed this
unauthorized army of invasion doubt
less betOok themselves to their homes,
and nothing short of huse-to-house can
vasS through the county, with domicili-
ary examination, would avail to discover
all the partcipators or estimate the price
they paid for their nights work 1t
seems that the Conrad boys, warned by
the death Of their two dogs, had lain in
ambush in the garden patch that sur
| rounds their home. When the mob si-
lently crept up to the house, and stand
ing on and about the little porch, began
knocking at the door, the answer to
thoir knocking came from an unexpected
quarter. From the garden, behind them,
came the reports Of the shotguns First
one fell and then another No arms were
found with the bodies of those who fell,
but, well or ill-armed, it would have
been impossible for the numerous white
caps to make effective practice against
two men skirmishing in the dark among
the bushes and trees In plot OF ground
every inch OF which was thoroughly
familiar to the skirmshers. The regula-
tors were trapped. They had gone out
in search of game. and were themselves