Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-06-11
HIGH TRIBUNAL OF THE STATE
AFFIRMs VERDICT RENDERED
BEFORE JUDGE M. A. ROBERTS
AT cENTERvlLLE. si1,3.
NEGRO WILL BE
EXECUTED JUL Y 20.
JUSTICE WEAVER IN HIS OPINION
SAYS MURDER OF CLARA Rps-
EN- WAS MOST ATRocious IhAl
sTATE-cLARK TO sPRiNosTRAH

John Jun11in must hang on the scat
fold at the Ft. Madison penitentiAry
on July 29. This was made p0sitiya
by the action today of the supreme
court of Iowa in handing down an
opinion affirming the sentence pros
nounced upon the negro at Centers
vile on June 1, last year, after the
jury and returned a verdict OF murder
in the first degree and fixed the PEN
atty at death by hanging. The brutal
murder of Miss Clara Rosen on the
night Of February s, 1909, will thus ba
avenged.
The finding Of the high tribunal re<
suited from the action of Judge J. G.
Mitchell who appealed the case ON tha
grounds that Junk1n was moral per-
| vert and would suffer less from death
| by hanging than from life impr1son-
ment, because there were alleged ers
rors by the court in Instructions to the
| Jury and because he was conscien-
tiously opposed to capital punishment
The court upheld Judge M. A. Roberta
land the, decision Of the AppanpcSa
county court In which the murderer
was tried.
| Sheriff John q. Clark Of Appanoose
county will on Friday, July 20, 1910.
drop the trap at Ft. Madison peniten-
tiary which will send John Junkin to
his doom.
Judge Weaver wrote the opinion In
the Junkin case. He said the crime
was the most brutal and atrocious In
the history of the state and II the Jury
had not given Junflin the severest
penalty possible under the Iowa lRH It
would have been surprising. In re-
gard to the claim that Junkin was q
degenerate the court says that this 18I
matter for the Jury to decide and Al
| Is supposed that It was given d1e CON-
ls1deration.
Was Atrocious Crime.
The crime for which John Jurktn
must answer with his LIE wos the
most brutal murder ever perpetrateG
in Ottumwa Miss Clara Roeen, his
victim. left the home Of her pa1entsi
Mr.. and Mrs. Fred Rosen, 10f1 Locust
street, to go to that OF her sister. Mrs
@. o. Nelson, on Dare street. Whgni
just beyond the corner OF Cara and
Dare streets, the young woman was
attacked by the negro. who after 6tr1k-
ing her with large stumA carried
her struggling form to an abandoned
cellar some few feet away and theto
continued the heinOus brutality. When;
life was extinct; he robbed the body
Of numerous small trinkets and q dla-
mond ring, the latter article leading
directly to his arrest and final cons
viction. Two days after the cOmmfsi
sion Of the murder, February 2, 1900d
Junkin was arrested by Officer joe
Beeman as suspect. On February q
he was released, the police being una
able to connect him with the crime.
A diamond stone, the same size al
that stolen from the Rossn gni, was
sold by Junkin to Pawnbroker J. Reds
mon on February 16. The following
day the negro was re-arrested by OK
f1cer Beeman. He underwent severe
sweating by the Ottumwa police de4
partment for four days, and on tho
fifth, tho excitement attendant upon
the reported assaulting Of Mrss
Charles M. Johnston, prompted the pos
lice to remove the negro to Abba.
This was done, and i've days later, on
February ~, through the combined
work of the Ottumwa police departf
ment, Sheriff Griffin, Detective Way
and others, confession was secured
from JunIdn which established his
guilt.
Mobs Would Hang Negra.
So intense was the feeling here
against the negro, that crowd of citS
liens went to Abba following the res
port of Junkin's confession and de-
manded that Sheriff Griffin turn over
the prisoner. In tire meantime, how
ever, Junkin had been removed to the
Des Moines Jail, the officers having
anticipated such move by the friends
Of the murdered girl. An Indictment
was returned against the negro by the
Wapello county grand jury on March
s. Three days later Sheriff w. w.
jackson and others, anxious to feel
out the people In Ottumwa and to de.
termine whether the mob spirit had
entirely vanished, took Junkin from
the Des Moines jail to Oskaloosa and
thence to Sigourney. During the night
of March 8, q mob of $50 Ottumwana
d, \