The Ward County independent., 1922-07-27

i-2ICS, "ltHOuG Cduoc. SoLAAiS uOWA
to the time of his crime they had a
and she told her father perhaps
thoughtlessly, that she had seen a
man who came into their home, in the
absence of Dan, sitting upon her
mothers lap, or attempting some lib
erty with her. ~
Her story much infuriated Dan who
constantly called it to his wife's atten-
ton and would frequently require the
the little girl, in fear, to repeat the
story in her mothers presence. This
he kept up for years and the more
it was repeated the worse the situa-
ion became. Mrs. Mcdonnell was
much in love with Dan in her young
er days, and when she plead guilty,
she informed me that she had come
to hate this child because of this
story; that she had deliberately starv-
ed her-that she was coming between
her and her husband and that she
wanted her out Of the way. She
said that she would give the little
girl nothing to eat for days at a
time, until she became emaciated. Dan
Mcdonnell knew, or he must have
known, as head Of the family, of this
situation.
This little girl was beaten, she was
starved, she was inhumanly treated in
every way in this so-called home. She
was not permitted to associate with
the other children except one other
child who was also put into the attic
or at least out of sight, this child be-
ing unable to talk, unable to walk
and without control of any Of its
functions, all without doubt, because
of mistreatment at the hands of it's
parents. This child has little sem
blance of being human. After the
crime it was sent to the children's
home at Fargo and was being treated
and brought to life and before it died
of the flu was able to straighten out
its legs and to shows signs of dawn
ing intelligence.
A third child in this family, small
boy, was driven from the house to the
fields, to herd cattle in the cold of the
winter, in the cold of the spring and
in the fall, until he had several of
his toes frozen off and his feet bad
ly injured. These three children
were the objects Of hatred; they were
not permitted to set at the table and
eat with the other children and the
family, but made to sit upon the floor,
while the other children, favorites Of
Dan McDonnell's, sat at the table and
ate and the scraps were pitched to
those other children upon the floor.
The final scene about the death of
this girl shows her emaciated form.
Under normal circumstances she
should have weighed about one hun.
dred pounds but she actually weigh
ed less than fifty pounds. Her alb
dominal parts were drawn together
in such way as to resemble little
pod, such as we see in pictures of
starving children in China and of In
dia, during famines. That little pod,
upon post mortem contained among
other things, bones, showing the fight
that she put up for her life, with
starvation and when her strong con-
stitution did not readily succumb to
starvation her mother informed me
that she beat this little girl over the
head with the thick end of an apple
box and that Dan kicked her about
the room as she lay on the floor.
Thus she died. ~
+. Story by Murderers 2E=tt
These are but briefly some Of the
facts attending the killing and gain
ed most Of them from the lips of the
parties themselves when they plead
guilty of this most horrible crime. l
sentenced them to serve twenty-five
years each in the state penitentiary
and they have now served little