Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-02-18
HER NAME
IS CLEARED
CHARGE OF MURDER AGAINST
MRS. MARGARET HossAck is
DISMISSED.
ENDS LONG LEGAL FIGHT

Split Her Husbands Head With An
Axe is Now Free-Was Arrested Atl
the Open Grave.
Winterset, Feb. II. The case Of
the state of Iowa VS.. Margaret Hos
sack. indicted in Warren county for
the murder of her husband, John Hos
sack. on the night of December l., 1900,
was dismissed in the district court
here yesterday on motion of the coun-
ty attorney. w. S. Cooper. This ac-
tion closes a case that has been pend
ing in the courts of Iowa for over three
years, during which time the case has
been tried in the district courts of
Warren and Madison counties and in
the supreme court of the state, and
Mrs. Hossack, woman Of 6S has
spent year and three months in the
state penitentiary. The jury in War
rem county found her guilty of murder
in the first degree and the Madison
county jury failed to agree.
Support Withdrawn.
The beginning of the end was last
spring when the board of supervisors
OF Warren county decided not to spend
any more money in the prosecution of
the case, it having already cost the
county. thousands of dollars. Yester-
day the case was called up by the de-
Tense for disposition in Judge Nichols
court here. County Attorney Cooper
moved that the case be dismissed and
gave as grounds that Warren coun-
ty supervisors will spend no more
money in prosecution, the Madison
county jury had disagreed and it was
impossible to get many of the import
ant witnesses, because they had re-
moved to distant states since the
crime. He also doubted the ability
to get jury now. as every person in
Madison county is prejudiced. He
said that verdict could not be secur-
ed without additional evidence, and
the prosecution had been unable to
unearth any more than had been pre-
sented in the trial year ago. Judge
Nichols sustained the motion and con-
Cured in the position taken by the
county attorney. A year ago the case
was in the midst of its second trial at
Winterset with Judge Nichols on the
bench.
Story of the Crime.
1t was early in the morning of Sun
day, December 2, 1900, that the far
mers of the northwest part of Squaw
township in Warren county were
aroused by the news that John Hos
sack, neighbor, had been foully mur-
dered in the bed in which he and his
wife were sleeping, his head split open
with an axe, and the brains and blood
forced out on his pillow and over his
clothing by a dastardly blow with the
pole of the axe.
| Mrs. Hossack had aroused the fam
| lily about 2 o'clock in the morning with
the cry that some one had been in the
house. She said that the father was
| groaning and she was afraid he was
hurt. The family quickly gathered to
| the door of the little bedroom which
opened just off the sitting room and
there was the father groaning.
| Mrs. Hossack said she was awak-
ened by noise like two boards clap
ping together, saw a flash on the wall
of the bedroom and then heard the
outer door of the sitting room close.
Arrested by Open Grave.
|
The neighbors were summoned and
before noon the county attorney and
| the deputy sheriff were at the house.
| 1t seemed impossible that the woman
could have slept while the deed was
committed and suspicion was at once
directed toward her. People began
| telling of troubles between her and
her husband Some had heard her say
she wished he was dead Within a
few days George Clammer, the young
county attorney, had built what he
thought fair case, and Mrs Hossack
was arrested as she was leaving her
husbands open grave in the New Vir-
ginia cemetery the next Wednesday,
upon recommendation of the coroner's
jury.
History of Hossack Case.
The history of the case is, briefly, as
follows:
Indictment for murder in the first
degree returned by January grand
jury 1901.
Verdict of murder in the first degree
RENDERED at the April term of court,
1901, Indianola.
Defendant in penitentiary from April
1901, to April, 1900.
Case submitted on appeal January,
1902.
Sent back for retrial by supreme
court, April, 1902.
Defendant admitted to bail for first
time, June, 1902.
Change of venue granted to Madison
county, November, 1902.
Case tried and Jury hung at Winter
set February, 1903.
Case dismissed at Winterset, Febru-
airy 16, 1904