Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-05-11
HERMIT-MIsER a TERRIBLE MAN
Claimants for "Arch Fiend's" Wealth
Describe Murders Galore Com.
mitted by Their "kinsman"

n1lIISO Oy IuCIT Nulotudi
Hastings, Neb-The terrible man
they sing about in the comic opera
the man who could choke a babe to
death and laugh, ha! ha!"-never had
anything on John O'Connor, the Hast
ings hermit miser, If the stories of the
horde of alleged relatives laying claim
to the old mans fortune are to be
borne out by investigation and facts.
Every few days turns up new crime
said to have been committed by the
hermit miser, who, If one-tenth OF
these charges are true, had been one
of the greatest criminals Of all time.
John O'Connor, known as the Hast
ings hermit-miser, died eighteen
months ago, leaving 100000 in cash
and real estate to be distributed to
his heirs, if any could be found, and
to 20 to the state if no legal claimant
appeared.
OF claimants there is no dearth,
more than 300 persons Of various de-
grees of alleged kinship having ap-
piled for the property, but none OF
these has been able to prove title to a
cent of the money. 1t is in the urging
of various claims that the criminal
charges have been made against
O'Connor's memory.
The latest murder with which the
old man stands charged was in On
tonagon county, Michigan, in 1860.
The information" is contained in
letter to County Judge Button, and
according to it O'Connor murdered
Cornish miner in that county and
made his escape. Ten years later,
says this information, he was seen and
recognized in Iowa, but again escaped
before he could be arrested. That
was about the time O'Connor, a poor
shoemaker, appeared in Nebraska.
Curiously, every charge OF crime
that has been made against the dead
man comes from someone who claims
relationship, and therefore heirship, to
the old miser. It is known that during
O'Connor's forty years of life in Hast
ings he never wrote nor received a
single letter.
According to one charge O'Connor
under a different name, lived in cen
trail Illinois, and during the days OF
the Civil War he killed a man. O'Con'
nor made his escape, and was not
heard of again until newspapers
chronicled his death in Hastings. A
near relative and heir came on from
Illinois and identified the body of the
miser as his long-lost uncle.
The second murder laid to O'ConnoI
was perpetrated in Selkirk, western
Canada, where O'Connor, again under
another name, was "squaw man,
with wife and two half-breed boys
After the murder, which took place in
the early COS, O'Connor escaped and
settle in Hastings. The body was
positively identified as that of the Ca
madam murder-and progenitor OF the
two half-breeds who claim the $500,
900 as their own.
The third murder, to escape the con
sequences of which O'Connor Is al
| legged to have become fugitive, was
| that of a ranchman in eastern Iowa
| It took place about 1868. O'Connor go,
away from the officers and settled in
Hastings. Heirs to the Iowa murderer
positively identified the body Of the
Hastings O'Connor.
An Ohio O'Connor, who committed
murder in 1862, and escaped, turned
up in the body of the Hastings re-
cluse, who has been positively identi
fied-by an heir.
The fifth Murderer O'Connor lived
in West Virginia, but after killing his
man he escaped and was never heard
of again. His nephew heir
has identified the Hastings dead
man, positively, as this West Virginia
murderer.
AS for deserted wives-and children
-O'Connor seems to have left trail
reaching clear across the continent
by two or three routes, and then back
again. The wives have passed away,
but the children remain. And they
have all put in claims for fathers
property"
About forty different sets Of children
have been to Hastings to identify the
body as that of their long-lost parent
and generally they have succeeded.
All these assertions took place be.
tween 1860 and 1865, and in the main
O'Connor's action was due to incom'
patibility-"mother and father did not
get along together, so father picked
up and left" is the general eXplana'
ton given by the many children" of
the dead man.
But there was one of these "chil-
dren"-a spinster from Springfield,
ILL.,, who failed to identify the dead
man as her father after she had made
trip all the way to Hastings for that
purpose. She was permitted to view
the remains, which had then been in
cold storage for more than a year.
She looked at the face about half 4
minute and then said: Hes not my
father. My family's all better look.
ing. There never was such an ugly
man in our family. Give the 100000
to somebody else" And she left for
home that same day.
According to some of the stories