The weekly soliphone., 1915-03-19
MURDERED-B0DY IS
THROWN IN RAVINE
Charles Cowden Sentenced to Pris-
on for 81 Years-Took Dead
Mans Place.

being out for 5 hours the jury re-
turned verdict of murder in the
second degree in the case of Chas.
Cowden of Bolivar, Mo, who was
tried for murder in the first degree
on a change of venue from Boone
county, where Claude Spence, a
prosperous farmer, was murdered
Dec. 10, 1913. He was sentenced
to the penitentiary for 81 years.
The murder with which Cowden
was charged and for which he was
convicted was one of the most baf-
fling and mysterious as we'll as hor-
rible crimes ever committed in the
state. Claude Spence, the man who
was murdered, was a well-to-do
farmer residing on his farm about
II miles from Harrison, in Boone
county He was bachelor of about
As years of age and lived alone.
Dec. 10, 1913, he suddenly disap-
peared, leaving no clue as to his
whereabouts. People in the near
vicinity discussed his disappearance
with grave concern until the eX-
citement was over. 1t was then
dropped. Soon thereafter Cowden
moved into the bachelors vacant
home and informed the inquiring
neighbors that he had rented the
farm prior to Spence's leaving. He
proceeded to sell the hogs and live
stock and also the personal effects
of Spence, gradually allaying the
suspicion of the neighbOrhood by
making apparently plausible ex-
plantations, which later proved to
be contradictory in several impor-
tant facts. After having occupied
the premises for a period of about
six weeks and having sold nearly
all the things of value on the farm,
Cowden left for his former home
i'll Polk county, Mo, near Bolivar,
where he and his wife and family
of nine children located.
His leaving so suddenly and his
desertion of the Spence premises re-
suited in again arousing the suspi-
cion of the people of the locality
and causing considerable conversa-
ton and speculation on the mystic
rious disappearance of Spence, who
was we'll liked by all of his neigh
bors. 1t soon developed that the
numerous and varied stories, eX-
plantations and assurances given by
CoWden to the folks in regard to
the absence of the bachelor farmer
were so contradicting as to be more
absurd than credible. The matter
rocked on until in August, 1914,
when the people of that neighbor-
hood got together and caused the
sheriff of Boone county to be sent
to Missouri with a warrant of ar
rest for Cowden, who was charged
with having had something to do
with the disappearance of Spence.
The sheriff found him in Polk coun-
ty, and succeeded in getting him
back to the scene of what later
proved to be a cold-blooded MUIR
der
Upon his return to Arkansas
Cowden offered a story which was
different from all else that he had
told and which created a sensation
among the citizens of Boone coun-
what had become of Spence. Cow
den explained that a man from
| Missouri had murdered him on or
about the 10th of December, 1913.
and that he saw him commit the
horrible crime, and further that he
himself was forced by the murderer
to assist the latter in concealing the
body of Spence with a threat of
similar treatment in the event that
he disclosed the crime. He explain
ed that he lived in the vacant house
OF the murdered man for nearly six
weeks and that all the while he
knew that the body of Spence was
decaying in a ravine within a few
hundred feet of the house and
would not tell it on account of
fear. To prove this unbelievable
story to his astonished and horri-
! fled hearers, Cowden led them to
the place where he said that the
body had been hidden and succeed
ed in finding eonugh bones of the
murdered farmer to convince them
that the man had really been MUIR
dered.
When this news gained general
circulation over Boone county, the
sentiment of the populace was
against Cowden and manifestly bit
ter. Through fear of improper and
rash treatment at the hands of per-
sons of the neighborhood where the
crime was committed, officers
brought him to Cleburne county
last fall for safekeeping, where he
has since been. He was granted a
change of venue and was to be tried
at the last term of circuit court, but
succeeded in getting his case on
tinued.
Cowden is a poor man and has
family of nine children, together
with their mother, living in Polk
county, Mo-, where he claims they
are being cared for as paupers by
the county. None of his folks at
tended the trial, nor did any of