Chapter XV: More Law Cases

In the summer of 1874 the city of Des Moines was thrown into a state of considerable excitement by the fact of finding the body of a murdered man on the sidewalk near the corner of Walnut and Second street. There was a house of bad repute in the vicinity, and the coroner's jury made a thorough investigation, seemingly as far as practicable, as to the cause and origin of the death. The inhabitants of the house referred to were examined under oath, and the women who boarded there denied any knowledge whatever of the cause of the man's death. The Governor of the state offered a reward of five hundred dollars for the discovery and conviction of the murderer. At the next session of the grand jury of Polk county two of the women boarders at the house of bad repute referred to, and who had denied all knowledge of the murder, appeared before the grand jury and testified with much detail that Charles Howard, a man who had frequented their house, had been guilty of the murder and had carried out the dead body and laid it upon the sidewalk. The grand jury indicted Howard accordingly for murder in the first degree. The trial came on at the December term of the Polk county district court, and in view of the public excitement, which was largely kept alive by the daily press, Howard, by his attorney, made a motion for a change of venue on the ground of prejudice of the inhabitants of the county. Under the peculiar provisions of our statute, counter affidavits were permitted for the purpose of showing that there was no feeling in the community that would prevent Howard from receiving a fair trial. The sheriff informed me that in walking two squares from the court house he had met two hundred men who were willing to sign such counter affidavits, and had obtained a large number of them, which were filed accordingly. The district judge, H. W. Maxwell, overruled the motion for a change of venue, and the trial proceeded. The only testimony introduced in the conviction of Howard was that of the two bad women who had testified before the coroner's jury that they had no knowledge whatever in regard to the killing of Johnson. I was not personally engaged in any way as an attorney in this case, but about ten o 'clock at night after the jury had retired to consider their verdict, Judge Maxwell sent for me to come to the court house for consultation. I found he had also sent for a like purpose for Mr. D. O. Finch, one of the oldest members of the Polk county bar. The judge advised us that the jury had not agreed upon their verdict, but that some one had through the bailiff sent a note in to the jury room threatening the jury with violence in case they failed to convict the defendant. Judge Maxwell was much excited and asked Mr. Finch and myself what he ought to do under the circumstances. We advised him by all means to have the defendant conveyed for safe keeping to some place outside of the county, in charge of the sheriff, and to have it done secretly and immediately lest the mob might seize the accused and commit violence. We also advised him to discharge the jury from a further consideration of the case, as their verdict found under the influence of threats would be worthless, and that he ought also in vindication of his own court to thoroughly investigate the question as to who was guilty in sending or permitting a threat to be communicated to the jury. Instead of being influenced by our advice Judge Maxwell had the jury brought into the courtroom for further instructions, and told them that great excitement and feeling prevailed in the community in regard to the case, and that it was important that the jury should not disagree but should find a verdict in the case. The next morning the jury brought in a verdict of guilty, and the defendant waiving time for sentence, Judge Maxwell had the prisoner brought into court. The courtroom was crowded by an excited mob, and the judge took occasion to harangue the prisoner, denouncing his conduct in the most vehement manner. He then sentenced the prisoner to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. That night the excited mob broke open the jail, took the prisoner from his cell with a rope tied around his neck, and hung him to a lamp post in the court house square. The opinion of most of the persons who paid any attention to this trial was that there was no reliable evidence of Howard's guilt, and that the probabilities were that the whole case was manufactured for the purpose of securing the reward offered for his conviction. Whether or not the reward was ever paid I have not been able to ascertain, but certain it is that the cowardice of the court and the indiscretion of the public press were responsible for the murder of a man who, to say the least of it, was never proved guilty by any competent evidence.

We had among the distinguished judges that acted as teachers in our law school at Transylvania University a very eminent jurist who sometimes when he felt merry treated the class to that which was not only instructive but also entertaining. On one occasion he delivered to the class the following:

Young Gentlemen: You will find that the general principles of the
law are few and easily comprehended, but in their application to
the ever-varying transactions of human life the best of minds will
differ, hence arises what we denominate the glorious uncertainties
of the law whereby we have our bread.

The case that I am about to cite would satisfy the most credulous that there are other causes that produce uncertain results besides the difference in applying the general principles of the law to different cases.