EXCERPT:
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BRIEF STORY OF HOSSACK CASE. ~
Waterloo,
Iowa – John Hossack was a prominent and prosperous farmer who moved into Warren
county from Canada a third of a century ago. Sometime during the Saturday of'
Thanksgiving week last November [1900], Hossack was murdered while in bed and
asleep, he being struck with the sharp blade of an axe over and slightly behind
the right ear. The stricken man lived until the next morning but he did not
regain consciousness, and there remained naught but circumstantial evidence by
which to fasten the crime upon the guilty party. Mrs. [Margaret] Hossack had
gone to bed with her husband in a parlor room down stairs, two sons sleeping in
an adjoining room and two others up stairs. Mrs. Hossack, who was arrested while
attending her husband’s funeral, testified that she was awakened by some noise
like the slamming of a door, saw a flash of light and immediately called out
her husband’s name, “John!” She testified that as he did not answer she made a
light and then found her husband with a terrible gaping wound in his head. A
man to have murdered Hossack as it was done would have had to cross the porch,
go through the room where two sons were sleeping, and then reach over the wife
and hit the husband. the axe was found next day under a farm building and was
covered with blood and hair that showed for what purpose it had been used. The
evidence was circumstantial, but everything pointed to Mrs. Hossack’s guilt.
Hossack was an old school Presbyterian, honest as the day was long, successful
and prosperous, and respected and honored by all who know him. However, it was
claimed at the trial that he and his wife had bitter jangles. Mrs. Hossack was
arrested charged with the murder of the husband and Thursday morning found her guilty
of murder in the first degree, the penalty for which is imprisonment for life
in the state penitentiary.
[Excerpt from: “Criminal Parallels - Hossack
Case Recalls Murder of Mrs. C. A. Simmons. - Both Parties Receive Wounds of
Similar Nature. - Mrs. Simmons Murdered
Night of April 26, 1879.” Waterloo Courier (Io.), Apr. 12, 1901, part 2, p. 1]
[Headline taken from very long article: “Mrs. Hossack Guilty
Of Murder In First Degree – Mrs. Hossack Found Guilty of Murder – Tragic Scene
In The Court House of Indianola. – Woman After The Jury Retires Breaks Down And
Sobs – Her Children Join With Her and Still Believe Her Innocent.” The Des
Moines Daily Capital (Io.), Apr. 11, 1901, p. 1]
[Illustrations
from: “Mrs. Hossack May Yet Be Proven Innocent – Tide of Sentiment Turns
Slightly in Her Favor – Notified Today That She Will Soon Be Released First
Photograph Bearing on the Tragedy.” Des Moines Daily News (Io.), Dec. 12, 1900,
p. 1]
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[1748-2/13/22]
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