Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 155, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 June 1910 — Insane Man Arrested Here Causing Officers Trouble. [ARTICLE]

Insane Man Arrested Here Causing Officers Trouble.

Monticello Herald. Sheriff Price and Deputy Charles Davisson had a little experience with a crazy man Saturday evening which they do not care to repeat every day. They were about to serve supper to a prisoner named Robert Allen, who had been placed in jail Thursday and was awaiting admission to Longcliff. Sheriff Price unlocked the door to the corridor and admitted his deputy, who carried the tray containing the prisoner’s supper. To their surprise young Allen came rushing at them with uplifted arms and demoniacal yells, evidently bent on making his escape by felling his jailers. His first lunge distributed the supper and dishes in fragments on the floor, and Charlie only saved himself by jumping back through the door, which Sheriff Price held open for him. In the sheriff’s haste to close it against the madman, he caught his deputy’s arm between the door and the jamb, almost breaking it, but Charlie was well satisfied to let it go at that when he saw the key turned in the lock and the furious prisoner still secure behind the bars. Young Allen is a resident of Monon township and has only recently shown signs of derangement. He is said by those who know him to be a young man of excellent character and without any bad habits so far as known. He had formerly lived with a cousin in Kansas, for whom he worked several years. One of his first acts after he became deranged was to telegraph his cousin to “come at once—all expenses will be paid.” Without any further information but suspecting something wrong, his cousin came and with Allen’s brother, took steps to place him in an asylum. He had been at LaCrosse, but had left there and gone to Medaryville. There he had hired a livery rig and a driver and started across the country seemingly without any particular destination in view. When about four miles from Medaryville he had dismissed the rig and driver, enjoining the latter not to tell anybody of his maneuvers. He was soon overhauled and placed in jail at Rensselaer, whence he was brought here Thursday by the marshal of Wolcott in order to get him within the proper jurisdiction for admission to Longcliff. His condition continues to grow worse, and he is now quite a troublesome prisoner. Since his outbreak Saturday evening he has had to be disarmed of an iron bar which he secured by tearing up part of the fixtures in the water closet. The chances are that he will remain a charge here for some time, as word has been received that there, is no room for him in Longcliff at present.