Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-02-14
Cumberland's Confession.
HIS LAST STATEMENT OF fHE
KILLING OF THE RoBERTsoNs.
FATHER AND SON.

FATHER AND SON.
The Account of the Murder Here Given
Differs Materially from Those
Heretofore Printed-The
Remains Buried Here
Sunday.
j. K. Cumberland, who was hanged
at Fort Madison, Iowa, last Friday, at
the earnest solicitation of his lawyer.
III. w. Byers, of Harlan, Iowa, made
a confession of the killing of the Rob-
ertsons-father and son-whieh state
ment is dated January "a, 1885. Mr..
Byers, in his letter to Cumberland,
uses the following urgent language:
eff you expect me to do anything fur
Their for you, you must forward to me
at once a truthful statement of this
crime, and let me say to yon here,
do not shield any one, no matter how
close they may be to YOU
Accordingly, Cumberland made a
lengthy confession, that portion of
which bearing directly on the murder
is here printed for the first time. Mrs.
Geo. Boomer, Cumberland's sister,
~
went to Iowa to aid the doomed man
as much as was in her power, and
while there the confession was given
to her. After a long account of his
business transactions with old man
Robertson, on whose farm he was
living, Cumberland finally comes to
the point on the murder, which, he
claims, was done in self-defense. Mrs.
Cumberland, he says, was at a neigh
boris house spending the day. He
was invited to remain to dinner, but
did not do SO, returning home after
the RoDertsons had eaten their noon
meal. Cumberland's confession says:
HOW H DEED WAS ONE
When / got through dinner the old
man suggested to me to make a set
Element of our affairs. | told him all
right. AT this he went and called Jas
per, his son, who was then out in the
field tying cor shocks, and when he
came in we commenced to make a set
Element. In making III settlement
we got into an argument about $25 |
loaned the old man about the latter
part of August, and n word brought
on another until the son got to call
ing me a liar, claiming that | didn't
loan S25 to the old a | repeated
the same words-told him he was n
other liar; they got SO mad that his
son grabbed a revolver out of a box
or trunk setting close by and 1 got
| up and left the and went into
our own room and there / got my re-
volver, but didn't return to the room.
/ stayed In my room and meditated
what to do. I could hear them talk
ing, but could not understand what
they were saying. In the course of
time they went off down to the barn.
After they yer down there awhile I
concluded to go down there to see
them with the intention of compro-
missing and making a settlement with
out any trouble. When / got to the
barn door the son fred upon me and
the ball passed my head and went out
through the doorway. He fired a sec
vnrz~a~O
facing close by me, which caused me
to go back, and / went around and
came into another door behind them.
In place of using my revolver to shoot
I struck him on the arm and caused
him to drop his before he knew I was
there, and as he went to stoop to pick
it up l gave him a shove and showed
him over and grabbed his revolver,
and as he was raising up on his all
fours, not thinking what l was about,
I pointed the revolver at his head
with an oath. The revolver was dis
charged, taking effect in the back of
his head and coming out of his fore
head, and az / did this the old mar
grabbed a club which was close by
and went to strike me. I knocked his
lick off and shot at him, which shot
took effect in the top of his head.
This staggered the old man and he
fell under the horses feet, which
caused one of the horses to go to kick
ing at him. The horses were newly
shod two or three days before. His
skull was crushed by the horses.
When the horse struck him he sort of
drew up and then Strengthened out.
was SO excited that / did not realize
what was going on, but l dragged the
| old man by the legs and drawed him
from under the horses feet. l did
not know what to do. ! meditated
what to do-whether to give myself
up or wait and see my wife, but fin
ally concluded to wait until / had seer
nv wife, and | drawed the bodies in
to the cutting rooms and throwed a
little straw or hay over them to con-
ceal them. Directly after my wife re-
turned home / told her what had hap
pened and between US we held counsel
whether I had better go and give my
self up or if \ had better conceal the
bodies without letting anyone know
: and claim they had gone away, a
they were about ready to go, and
make it appear they had gone. We
: came to the conclusion that it coul
Ibe done and I did not go and give my
self up, as I should. Their bodies
were left concealed in the barn until
after dark. Then, with my wife's
help, that night we took them two o,
! three hundred yards from the barr
to the bank of the creek and buries
them. After they were buried wha
!. few things belonged to the old ma
"a were put out of sight to cover u
suspicion and there we're none of the
! clothes in our possession at the tim
we were arrested except a cap. a
for his son / know naught what b
had, as his son boarded and stayed 8
,a Chitman's, a mile or more from OF
house, and was not stopping with L
=, at all and had not been at our hous
~ fo,,r Jox-1 hafora