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»-I.Lk-kLfd1isISyhitt.PyIS.nQ-nn-id:rt,»hn.toatidP*idS.mr-e-vse-;hirQtKetcham’s Report.Owing1 to the extreme length of Attorney General Ketcham's report tc the Governor, we extract it briefly, but give the conclusions, however: “That Lyle Lavi, having been incarcerated in the jail, and not being satisfied with his surroundings or associates, and knowing that Wilder Levi’s revolver was at McCoy’s store in Osgood. broke jail—it’s not important in this connection to ascertain how he broke jail—and went to Osgood—the manner of his getting to Osgood is siikewise immaterial—that he broke into McCoy’s store, stole Wilder Levi’s revolver, returned to Versailles, broke back into jail, without the knowledge of the guards, who apparently were asleep at their post at this time, returned to his cell, shot himself, then killed Shuter and Jenkins, and with a rope that he got hold of somehow—but the evidence does not disclose how, or in what place he obtained it—hung the dead bodies of Shuter and Jenkins to the tree, put the finishing touches to his crime by hanging Andrews and Gordon, and then, in order that suspicion might rest against innocent men,dually hung himself, and his nefarious conduct, in attempting to distract attention from citizens of Osgood, Napoleon, Milan and Versailles, all of whom were in the habit of retiring to their beds, and followed that habit on this particular night, immediately after 1 o’clock at night—the hour at which, under the law, saloons are required to be closed—is the more reprehensible, as apparantly nothing in his life so became him as his leaving of it.DEAD LYNCHED THEMSELVES.It is clear that, except as to Levi, nobody was abroad that night. It is c’ear that everybody, especially in Versailles, Osgood, Napoleon and Milan. condemns, in the strongest language, the conduct of Levi in this summarily putting an end to the lives of his companions in crime, imprisonment and death.In the county, especially the men (other than Levi) suspected of the crime, tne lawyers, the officials and the justices, condemns in unmeasured terms the unlawful taking of life.It will doubtless be a great relief to your mind, as it is to mine, to know that the sentiment of Ripley county is a unit, outside of the five men who were hung, and I had no opportunity to discover what their sentiments on that subject were, against the commission of any such crimes as the community outside of Ripley county has heretofore, without any just cause, charged upon the good citizens of the county. In this feeling the Methodist minister in charge at Versailles measurably coincides, but only within limits.I sincerely trust that when your mind is coerced to the conclusion, as it must be by this report, that Levi, and Levi alone, is guilty of the killing, and that that is simply 'One more crime added to the long list of which he has been charged and suspected, the good man, in his relief at knowing that nobody else in Ripley county except Levi was responsible for the killing, will feel at liberty to denounce this additional crime by Levi in the manner that it deserves, and that as a result of this sad chapter in tho history of the state, all criminals henceforth confined in county jails will be deterred from adding further to their crimes, and permit their fellow prisoners to be hung decently and in order by the constituted authorities under the laws of the land, and not attempt to add to their other crimes the killing of those who are confined with them, and finish the story by suicide. I have the honor to beYours very truly,(Signed) WILLIAM A. KETCHAM.Attorney-General.V. S.—When you are at leisure, I will be glad to report further orally in the matter, and if there be any J lingering doubts in your mind as to The correctness of this theory—which I must admit, at the first blush, would seem to be somewhat unreasonable— to remove those doubts and convinceyou that no other explanation iseither tenable or possible.(Signed SKETCH AM.
Newspaper Details
Osgood Journal
Osgood, Indiana, US
Thu, Mar 10, 1898
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Kokomo-Howard C.
IN, USA 03 May 2018
Other Publications Near Osgood, Indiana
Osgood Weekly Journal
Osgood Republican
Osgood Journal
Osgood Ripley Journal
Osgood Ripley County Journal
