Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-08-27
WAS IT RAPE?7
SOME PECULIAR clRCuMs RANGES IN THE CASE OF POOR
 MRS. HANCOCK.
She Says She Was Assaulted. and So DO a Couple ot Doctors -omeers Can Find no Trace of strug-
 gle Where the As
 sault Occurred.
From Little Rock Gazette, Aug. a7.

ks Irish woman of any where from 45 to 60 years of age, the victim Of erim- 1 inal assault?
 Dr. Hing says she was.
 Dr, Hudspeth says she was. Mrs. Hayeoek says she was, The officers who visited the scene Of the supposed assault yesterday afternoon, however, say that there is no trace of any struggle, and that the dogs that they took with thcm would not take trail.
 And that is what has a good many people guessing
 l But there is one fact that cannot be denied; and that is that Mrs. Hay cock was horribly bruised and beaten by someone yesterday about noon.
 Mrs. Haycoek is a small woman. i'll height and girth, and there is nothing about her that is attractive. But wheu she hobbled into Sheriff 1 Cookers office at l:30 o'clock yester- day afternoon she was very pitiful and wretehed spectacle indeed. She was bloody from her face to her shoes; both lips were cut and bleed ing; her eyes were swollen, black and half closed, and there were other cuts and bruises about her face and head. l Mrs. Hayeock told the officers that she had been criminally assaulted by a couple of negroes. Her story was that while walking slowly along the river turnpike just beyond the Ferguson Lumber Coinpany's mills, on her way to the Widow Greens to help dry some fruit she was set upon behind by two negro men who began to throw rocks at her. One of the rocks hit her on the head and she was knocked senseless to the ground. Then one of the men caught her and dragged her into a etump of trees at the side of the road, where he erim- inally assaulted her.
 l The other man, she says, had noth- ing to do with it after the first rocks were thrown. She describes her assailant as of a ginger-eake color, with very flat nose, of medium height, slender build and wearing black pants, dirty white shirt and black or brown slouch hat.
 Deputy Constable Nowlin and his posse were the first officers to arrive at the scene. They were closely fol- lowed by Jesse Heard and another posse who took with them some of the county bloodhounds.
 The scene of the assault, as given by Mrs. Haycock, is what is known as the Lone Pine Spring, situated on the river turnpike. near the mouth of the bayou that opens the mountain side about q quarter of a mile be yond the Ferguson Cohpany's mill. According to Mrs. Haycock's E story, was there assaulted The officers declare that they found no trace of any struggle whatever in that yicin- ity, and say that the nature of the ground and the undergro with is such that it would beimpossiblefora body to be dragged over it and leave no trace They also declare that the dogs would not take the trail any where in the vicinity.
 Parties at the Ferguson mill were I interviewed and they say they donot believe Mrs. Haycock was assaulted as she claims. They say that where she lives, in an old abandoned house owned by the Iron Mountain road just across the street from the Buden- berg Furniture Factory, a number Of other old women live, and that they are continually quarreling and fight ing. About noon today, they say they heard terrible racket at the house and they appear to be of the opinion that Mrs. Haycock received her injuries there.
 The officers say that there are a number of houses close to where the assault is said to have been com mitted, and that it would be practi- cally impossible for such 0 deed to be perpetrated there at that time of day and no one hear of it or see any, thing of the parties.
 No trace of anyone nswering the