Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-03-29
Floyd County Grand Jury Make
Final Report on the Cullen
Lynching
PRISONER WAS NOT GUARDED
lntimation in the Report of Failure of
Officers to Use Due Care in Pro-
tectine Prisoner-Jury Says 1t Has
Been Unable to Positively Identify
Leaders of the Mob.
Special to Times-Republican.

Special to Times-Republican.
Charles City, March 29.-The expect
edShas happened. The grand jury IN
Floyd county which has been SPEND
ing considerable time in an effort to
discover the lynchers Of James Cullen,
the Charles City wife murderer, have
completed their labors and state in
their report sufficient evidence was not
found to hold any one for participating
in the crime. The report is as fol-
lows:
First: We caused to be brought be-
fore us about hundred witnesses and
examined them in regard to the lynch
ing of James Cullen. We have dill
gently pursued all clues and lines OF
information that suggested any way or
means by which the persons who en-
gagged in the hanging of James Cullen,
their aiders and abettors, might be
identified, apprehended and brought to
trial.
second: 1t appears that the said
James Cullen was in the custody of the
sheriff of Floyd county, and confined in
the Jail of said county, on a charge of
murder. 1t further appears that the
crime committed by the said James
Cullen was of a most vicious and brutal
character; that the community was
shocked upon learning of his horrible
deed committed in the beautiful City
Of Homes that during the day fol-
lowing the commission of the crime
and during the day preceding the
lynching, there was much talk and ex-
element on the streets Of the city ana
elsewhere, concerning the eccentric
characteristics of the said James Gull
len: concerning the alleged plea of in
sanity that would be set up as de-
fense and the probability that the de-
PENDANT might escape thru some
technicalities of the law, and that he
would not haYe to suffer the conse-
quences of his deed; that excitement
and feeling ran high and rumors Of
lynching We're abroad.
Third. 1t further appears that the
said James Cullen was lodged in Jail
on the morning of the eighth day of
January, a. D. 1907, and that during
the evening of the said day crowd
gathered about the said Jail and made
some declarations in regard to lynch
ing the said prisoner; that the said
crowd, in addition to other demonstra-
tons, procured heavy timber and
proceeded to bunt the side door of
the said Jail; that upon request of the
mayor of Charles City and the sheriff
of Floyd county the said crowd dis
persed and left the vicinity of the said
Jail.
Fourth. 1t further appears that on
the evening of the ninth. day of Janu-
airy, 1907, and at about 10:30 o'clock,
an organized mob arrived at the Jail,
battered down the outside door with a
railroad rail, broke thru the walls ups
stairs in said Jail, broke open the cell
in which the said James Cullen was
confined, and took the said James Gull
len and hanged him at the Main street
bridge in Charles City, Iowa.
Fifth. 1t further appears that the
Jail was not guarded, and the said
prisoner was not protected by anyone,
at the time the said mob arrived, or at
any time during the said proceedings
and operations of the said mob; that
during the earlier part of the evening
the said Jail was occupied by the sher-
iff, his deputy, the day marshal of
Charles City, and others; that before
the mob arrived the said sheriff and his
assistants locked the cells and the jail,
building, took the keys, turned out the
lights and left the Jail.
Sixth. Altho the crime committed
by the said James Cullen was of a
most atrocious character nevertheless
it is to be deplored that our state law
should be so ignored, and superseded
by mob law, as to make possible the
hanging of a person without any trial,
in a civilized community, and especial
ly so since the case of that person was,
at that time, being vigorously prosecut-
ed before the proper tribunals of JUS
tice.
at is with regret that we report to
this court that up to this time we
have been unable to secure sufficient
evidence to identify with any degree
of certainty or warrant the indict-
ment of any person, as a participant
in the hanging of the said James Gull
len, or as an alder or abettor thereof;
but as the crime of the lynchers is one
that will not be barred by the statute
of limitations, we trust that sooner or
later the state and local authorities,
with the aid and assistance of all law
abiding and law-respecting citizens of
this community, will be able to appre-
bend the guilty parties and to bring
them to trial"