Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-04-30
MAY ASK FOR PARDON
Delta Resident Does Not Believe
That Mrs. Kuhn is Guilty.
WILL SIGN A PETITION FOR RELEASE
Believes That if Petition Asking for
Executive CIemency were Present
ed That Big Majority of the People
of keokuk County Would Sign 1t.
[From Saturdays Daily.l

| From Saturdays Dailyl
Il believe" said e. A. Tanner,
prominent citizen of Delta, who pass
ed through Ottumwa last evening,
that il petition was cir
culated asking for the release
OF Sarah Kuhn, who was recent,
ly convicted of numbering her hus-
band by putting strychnine in beer
and administering it to him, that fully
95 per cent of the people of Keokuk
county would sign it. do not be-
lieve that she is guilty of the crime
and just as strongly believe that Mrs.
kuhn's husband committed suicide"
Ottumwa people remember the facts
in the case. Sarah Kuhn, girl IS
years of age, was charged with hav-
ing murdered her husband September
4, 1900. The couple drove from What
Cheer, where they went for an outing.
While there they procured some bot
tied beer and on the road home drank
it. When near Delta Mr. Kuhn COM
planned of feeling i'll. His wife whip
ped up the horse and upon reaching a
neighbours house Mr.. Kuhn exclaimed
in the hearing of witness that his
wife had poisoned him. He was hur.
riedly taken to the Office of physi-
clan where he expired. His wife was
arrested a day or two later just as the
funeral procession was about to leaveI
the house. She was allowed to ac-
company the cortege and later was|
confined in the Keokuk county Jail att
Sigourney. The case came to trial in
December and after long, hard
fought legal engagement the woman
was convicted and sentenced 10 the
penitentiary at Anamosa for life. Dur
ing the trial she stoutly maintained
that she was innocent and her demea-
nor in the court room and on the wit
ness stand carried out this idea.
There were many people who believed
that she never committed the crime
and the sentiment that she is innocent
seems to be growing.
Before her marriage" said Mr..
Tanner, Mrs. Kuhn was employed as
domestic at my residence in Delta
At that time she was about 16 years
innocent child than a. worldly wise
woman. Her parents had been in
this country but a short time, having
comparatively recently arrived from
England. The girl talked brokenly
and did not seem to grasp the signifi-
canoe of things as American girls gen
orally do. although she was bright
and not at all dullwitted. She had the
best of regulations and was a quiet.
reserved girl, although she never
showed any signs of melancholia or
had any fits of i'll temper. She was
the last person in the world whom
anybody acquainted with would &C
cuse of any crime much less that of
murder"
81 believe" said Mr.. Tanner, that
the theory that Mr.. Kuhn suicided by
placing the strychnine in the beer he
drank on that fatal night is the cor
rect one. l am of the opinion that he
became melancholy by reason of his
physical deformities and determined
to end it all. believe that Kuhn was
intoxicated when he accused his wife
of poisoning him and that he was not
in his right senses when he made the
accusation.
Kuhn and his wife never, to my
knowledge, had any trouble, and if
they had l would likely have heard of
it, because Delta is small place and
there is but little that takes place
which the residents do not hear of.
II believe as firmly as can be that
Mrs. Kuhn is an innocent woman and
that she is wrongfully detained in a
felons cell. l would sign a petition
for her release and believe that hea-
Wy majority of the residents of Keo-
kuk county would do likewise"
Mr. Tanner was very earnest in his
declarations. He is qualified to judge
of the merits of the case notwithstand-
ing the fact that jury has decided
that Mrs. Kuhn is guilty and has con-
demned her to serve the remainder of
her life in prison. She is but Is years
of age and if there is a reasonable
doubt, which there unquestionably
seems to be, as to her guilt, somebody
in Keokuk county should take hold of
the matter and make an appeal for
executive clemency. if the sentiment
is anything like as unanimous as Mr..
Tanner says it is, and there is no rea-
son to doubt his word.