Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 134, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1910 — DAN DAY RELEASED FROM THE STATE REFORMATORY. [ARTICLE]

DAN DAY RELEASED FROM THE STATE REFORMATORY.

Murderer of Daisy Phillips, Sent up For 2 to 21 Years, Paroled—Serves Only Minimum Sentence. Dan Day, the deformed and irresponsible boy-man who murdered Daisy Phillips, daughter of Frank Phillips, on the night of April 6th, 1908, and who was found guilty of manslaughter at the May term of the circuit court, and sentenced to the reformatory for a period of from 2 to 21 years, was released on parole last Saturday, and arrived in Rensselaer on the 3:13 train that day. The parole board acted on the plan which they and Governor Marshall accept as legally right, that a prisoner should be let out at the expiration of his minimum sentence provided his behavior has been good. The return of Dan to hiß old home was a great surprise and most people doubt the advisability of having him released. He is an object of great pity. Deformed in his arms, legs, spine neck and mentally weak, he is unable to be of any good to himself and will prove a care to others. Dan has the pity of all who know him, but that does not mean that they approve his freedom, and it would have been better could he have been kept in confinement for a longer time. Dan lived with his mother and grew up without any effort to give him an education. He lived a care free life in the companionship of a dog, a shotgun, a‘ revolver and a bowie knife. On the night of the murder he called at the Phillips home, became partially intoxicated and as he left he murdered Daisy without cause. He will be a menace to the community. It is understood that he will live with his father, Hiram ~Day, who is a well known and highly esteemed business man. Possibly if kept away from his old haunts and habits he may be all right, but his release seems very inopportune.