Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1903 — Some Additional Matters. [ARTICLE]

Some Additional Matters.

H. W. Prince, formerly of near Rensselaer, now one of the nearest neighbors of the murdered man, Charley Medworth, was in town Wednesday evening. He states that the door of the pantry in which the unfortunate man sought refuge from his demoniac pursuer, oould Dot be looked, and thbt Medworth must not then have been bo badly injured but that he held the door against John by his own strength, and that Miller heard Jobn make three rashes against the door before he forced it opeD. The sbot-gnn with wbioh it ie supposed the final fatal wound was inflicted belonged to Medworth himself, audit always hnog right over the outer door through wbioh the two men entered the house from the porch. John no doubt bad thie gun in mind all the time and seized it the moment he entered the door.

The statement that has been oironlated and also published that John was known to onoe have been insane, is wholly without truth. Neither that nor anything else of his past life was ever revealed by him. He was known to be moody and morbid however, and Medworth and his family had long been in more or less fear of him and after he went away, supposedly for good, Mrs. Medworth expressed to some of the neighbors her sense of relief that they were at last rid of him. The widow and yonDg eons thus suddenly deprived of the support of a loving husband and father, are not well provided with the means of livlibood. He bad an insurance of $2,0C0 on bis life, whioh is understood to have been still in foroe. He also had a considerable outfit of horses and some other live-stook. There is also a good orop on tbe large farm whioh he worked on shares. The household goods were all, of course, destroyed when tbe bouse was burned.