Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 October 1905 — Swift Justice For A Degenerate. [ARTICLE]

Swift Justice For A Degenerate.

Ray Kellenberger had his trial Friday, on the charge of attempted rape of a seven year old girl. The attempt "occured on Sunday September 24th, and the circumstances were fully related in these columns at the time, but will be briefly restated now, as brought out at the trial. — Kellenberger, though only in his 20th year, is taller than most grown men. He had! been staying in the vicinity of Lewiston, on the Gifford road for some time past, and was well know in that vicinity. On Sunday Sept. 24th, about noon he went to the house of John J. Wheeler, an industrious and res pected citizen; and found no one at home except two little girls, Dessie aged nine and Rosa aged seven. He made an indecent proposal to the older girl, who refused him, of course and got out of his reach. Then he picked up the little girl and put her on a bed. The older girl ran out of the house, screaming for her mother who was visiting a neighbor’s sick child, about 100 yards distant. Her screams frightened Kellenberger and he desisted from his purpose and fled from the house after having pulled off the little girl’s under clothing. The older girl when she reached the house where her mother was, told her Ray Kellenberger was killing Rosa. The mother flew back home but Kellenberger had already dis appeared. The little girls told perfectly straight and consistent stories both at the trial and at the preliminary examination before Squire Bussell. Kellenberger denied the whole story on the stand and even swore he had not been near the Wheeler house for three days. Which statement was refuted by Mrs. Wheeler, who swore that she saw him approach her house just before his attempt, but thought he was only going to the pump for a drink, and did not watch to see if he went into the house. Wheeler’s 11 yeai old son also refuted Kellenberger’s statement that he had not beei there for three days, for he swore that he came there earlier that same Sunday morning and borrow ed a Chicago Ledger, which, by the way is the kind of a paper such degenerate minds as hisare nourish ed on.

The jury remained out an hour and then brought in a verdict ol guilty and fixed the penalty at from two to 14 years imprisonment in the reformatory at Jefferson ville. There was great feeling against Kellenberger around Lewiston, and had he seriously injured the litth girl he would have been lynched beyond doubt. Attorneys Leopold and Halleck prosecuted the case and Williams defended.