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The First Hanging in Iowa for $any Years,History of the Crime—The YouthfidL Murderer of Mrs. Coons and Daughter Sceit'ed to Have Xo Cooccii-tiuu of tiie Crime,Cr.KSTOx, la., Oct. 19,—The first execution to take plo.ee in lovra sttwe- the passage of the law making capital punishment a possibility, occurred today, when Janies Dooley vras hanged in the penitentiary at Fort Madison for the murder of his aunt, Mrs. James Coons, and her 10year old daughter.Dooley went to the gallows without faltering and his remarkable nerve displayed during nil the lime since his arrest did not desert him at the supreme moment. The drop was sprung at 12:14, his neck uot being broken by the fall, and life was not pronounced extinct until 12:?3, death being caused bj strangulation.The murder was the most atrocious ever committed in this portion of the state. The excitement at the time was intense and it was withdifiieuUy that a lynching was averted. James Coons, with I113 wife untl daughter, lived on a rented far id near Prescott, la,, although Coons was a well to do fanner and owned a farm near by. The house in which the family lived was ;t miserable hovel, having only one room, in which the whole family lived, prepared their meals and slept. With them lived their hired man, James Dooley, a nephew of Mrs, Coons, aged 10 years.On the 11 tii of May, 1302, Coons had occasion to be absent for the day. 0a his return he found his wife and daughter lying on the bed dead, hav ing been murdered by being shot. Mrs. Coons’ clothe-were badly disarranged, her hands bound, and her body gave evidence of having been ravished, but whether before death or after, couid not be told. Suspicion immediatelyFrom the time of his arrest TViolehas shown tnc most stolid iruiiffcrcneas to hts fate. He does not seem thave any idea of the enormitv o£ hi crime:
Newspaper Details
Emmetsburg Democrat
Emmetsburg, Iowa, US
Wed, Oct 24, 1894
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
NA, NA 22 Oct 2021
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