Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 24, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1901 — Noted Life Prisoner Pardoned. [ARTICLE]

Noted Life Prisoner Pardoned.

Oxford Tribune. James McColb U'h, who has been confined in the Michigan City prison fcr the past 30 years, has been granted a parole by Gov. Durbin. McCol ough was sentenced from this county for the murder of a man named Morgan, in York township. A full account of the finding of Morgan’s bones and other articles in a slough and the finding of McCollough in Illinois where he bad disposed of the team and wagon, was given some time ago in this paper being taken from the old files. McCollough is now an old man and can live only a tew years at the best. He has been a model prisoner. The trial at which he was sentenced was held in the room over what is nqw the Corner Grocery. At that time the old court house was condemned as unsafe and the court was held in that room. He was defended by the late Judge R. C. Gregory and Col. R. P. Dehart. S. P. Thompson, now judge of the Newton Jasper circuit court, was the prosecuting attorney. Edwin P. Hammond was the judge. He was convicted on strong circumstantial evidence. McCollough was confined in the old jail here, later on used by the electric light plant. He dug out one night and made his escape. William Matthews, a fellow prisoner, was forced to assist in rolling away some of the big nigger heads in the foundation, but the latter refused to accompany him. The fugitive was caught at his home in the eastern part of the state, in a short time. McCollough served in an Indiana regiment during the Civil war.