Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1907 — IOWA LAW OUTRAGED [ARTICLE]

IOWA LAW OUTRAGED

Done by “Best Citizens,” Who Boast of Their Immunity from Prosecution. SMILED UPON BY SOME WOMEN Graced by the Presence of Clergymen, Mob Murder Done. Old Man Who Had Committed a Double Crime Lynched; Sheriff Inactive—Lynchers Wear No Masks. Charles City, la., Jan. 10.—James Cullen, who murdered his wife and 15-year-old stepson, was taken from the Floyd county jail here by a mob and hanged to the Cedar river bridge in the heart of the city. The mob broke into the jail and quickly overcame the feeble resistance Sheriff Schermerhorn was able to offer. The mob was composed of many of the leading citizens of the town, and even the leaders made no attempt to disguise themselves. Cullen fought like a tiger, but was overpowered. He declared that his wife and son had attacked him and) that be had killed them In self-de-fense. South Couldn’t Beat This. Four or five ministers and a large number of women w-ere in the crowd. The crowd gathered about the jail about 9 p. m. With a railroad iron they battered down the door, and with picks and axes quickly cut through the wall. .Judging from the expressions about town the hanging is largely the result of the pardon granted to Louis Busse, the Bremer county wife-mur-derer. Busse murdered his wife within fifteen miles of Charles City, was twice granted reprieves, and then his sentence was commuted to life Imprisonment. What Does Gov. Cummins Say? Men who participated -in the mobbing stated that they did not fear prosecution. They said that they disliked mob violence, but considered that if mob law was ever justifiable it was in the case of Cullen. They declared that the estate of $50,000 which he had accumulated as a contractor here would have been used to fight his case In the courts, and that it would be years before he would have been punished, if ever. W. W. Schermerhorn, the sheriff, while aware that the feeling was at high pitch, did not think it would end in lynching, and made no preparations to defend the prisoner. Cullen’s brother, Richard Cullen, a banker from Warren, 111., who was In the city, did not bear of the mobbing until after it was all over. James Cullen killed his wife and 15-year-old step-son at 4 a. m. Wednesday at his home on East Clark street, and attempted to commit suicide, but failed. Cullen was always known ns a man of bad temper, and was somewhat eccentric. He was (JO years old. He was especially a ernnk on the subject of temperance; was a man who never took a drink of liquor in bis life.