Buchanan County, Missouri Genealogy Trails

Newspaper Articles

St. Joseph, Mo., Sept. 5;—The history of the gallows tells no more hideous story than that of the execution of Louis Bulling, the St. Joseph wife murderer, at Savannah, Mo.; yesterday afternoon. Before the execution Bulling attempted suicide by shooting himself in the left breast with a revolver, believed to have been given him by a clergyman who had been with him for several hours. Sheriff Barry had set the hour for the execution at 10 o'clock a. m. When he went to the cell at 6 o'clock to prepare the doomed man for the scaffold Bulling .pleaded so pitifully for an extension of a few hours that the sheriff yielded and. gave him until 2 o'clock to live.

Another Respite and Two Shots
When 2 o'clock arrived Bulling renewed his supplications to the sheriff and falling on his knees pleaded for one hour more. The sheriff granted his request and removing the guard from the cell Moor left the doomed man alone with his spiritual adviser, Rev. August Lavake. The silence of the jail was only broken by the voice of the priest when suddenly two shots
rang out.
The sheriff ran to the cell and found the priest prostrate on the floor, have fainted. At his side lay Bulling, weltering in his own blood which flowed from wounds in his breast. He had shot himself twice with a revolver. A hasty examination of Bulling's body showed that one of the bullets had entered the left breast and glancing from a rib had passed around his body and come out of his back. The other bullet had only inflicted a slight flesh wound in his left side.

Dragged to the Gallows Cursing.
He had not lost consciousness, and when the sheriff ordered four deputies to carry him to the scaffold he cursed and swore at them in a horrible manner. The deputies dragged the struggling man to the courtyard and lifted him upon the gallows. He refused to stand, and they placed him upon a chair. As he sat there he presented a revoking spectacle. His hands and face were covered with blood, which also stained his shirt, and blood was streaming through his shoes, whence it had run from the wounds in his breast.

Went to Eternity Blaspheming
He cursed and swore at the deputies, cried and screamed for mercy, and shrieked in terror. The sheriff gave him a large glass of brandy, and he swallowed it at one gulp. Finally he was told to get up and stand upon the drop. He refused, and four deputies held him up while the rope was being adjusted. The black cap was placed over his head, and yelling, screaming, and blaspheming he shot through the opening at exactly 8:21 o'clock. His neck was broken by the fall, and he died almost instantly.

The Priest In Jail.
The Rev. Lavake, who is believed to have provided the murderer with the revolver, was immediately arrested and is now confined in jail. He declines to be interviewed. Bulling cell was thoroughly searched Thursday night and no weapon was found. The only persons admitted to the cell since that time were a newspaper man, the deputies and the Rev. Lavake.

Lavake Says He Is Innocent.
Later.— Mr.- Lavake was interviewed by a reporter last evening regarding Bulling's attempted suicide. He said he did not give Bulling the revolver, and had no idea where it came from. He was on his knees praying, he said, when Bulling shot himself.
Date: 1891-09-05; Paper: Elkhart Daily Review. Contributed by Barb Z

CARL FISHER HELD ON ASSAULT CHARGE
Helped Lynch Negro for Similar Crime at St. Joseph

ST. JOSEPH, Mo.. Oct. 2
- Carl Fisher was in Jail here to-day, charged with a crime similar to one for which he helped lynch, a negro attacker November 28, 1933.
Fisher was held in default of $2,000 bond of a charge of assault with intent to attack a woman.
Although a dozen were indicted for participation in the lynching of Lloyd Warner, the negro.
Fisher was the only one to be punished. He served three months in jail upon pleading guilty to theft of a pistol in the mob's raid on the sheriff's quarters.
[Hannibal Evening Courier-Post, Wed. Oct. 2, 1935] C. Horton 0609

Three Flights at St. Joseph.
St. Joseph, Mo.—Army Dirigible Balloon No. I made three ascensions at the military tournament grounds here Wednesday afternoon.
[Alma, Wabaunsee County, Kansas October 2, 1908 Page 2 - Barb Z- 2009]

A Trooper Drowned at St. Joseph.
St. Joseph, Mo.—The first accidental death at Camp Everett Penbody, where 6,000 regulars are encamped, occurred Thursday when Private John H. McCawl of Baltimore, Md., Troop M, Seventh cavalry, was drowned in Lake Contrary.
[Alma, Wabaunsee County, Kansas October 2, 1908 Page 2 - Barb Z. -2009]

A SCANDAL IN AN ASYLUM
Dr. Kuhn Announces a General Shakeup at St. Joseph.
St. Joseph, Missouri.—As a result of sensational disclosures In the trial of a guard, charged with aiding a patient to escape.
Dr. W. F. Kuhn, superintendent of State Hospital for the Insane No. 2, announced Wednesday that there would be a general shaking up at the Institution. Elmer Gulick, a local character, was sentenced to the penitentiary for three years for burglary.
Gov. Folk, upon representation that Gulick was Insane, ordered him sent to the state hospital. Gulick was released one night by B. B. Renfro, a guard, who said Elmer Dykes, another guard, presented an order of release purporting to have the signature of Dr. Kuhn. The superintendent says it was a forgery and Dykes has been held to the grand jury on a felony charge.
Renfro was arrested Tuesday on a similar charge, and other arrests are expected. It developed at the Dykes hearing that outsiders were In the habit of smuggling In whisky to patients through guards.
[Alma, Wabaunsee County, Kansas October 16, 1908 Page 2 - submitted by Barb Z- 2009]

George TAYLOR at St. Joseph's, MO., refused to plead not guilty to attempt to kill, when urged by the court to do so.
He was sent to the penitentiary for two years.
Trenton Sun, Trenton, IL, April 20, 1894 - Candi H. 2009

The St. Joseph Gazette, of Friday last, says: “Yesterday morning, about day-break, the dead body of an unknown man was found on the Cameron Branch of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, near Liberty. The body was cut in two, just above the abdomen and horribly mangled. The body had evidently been run over by a passenger train. Nothing was known as to how the man came upon the track-whether he committed suicide or was killed and the body placed on the track by his murderers.”
The Quincy Whig, Saturday, June 26, 1869, Page1, [transcribed by Debbie Gibson]

The St. Joseph papers say that a grass hopper attacked a little girl in that city, a few days ago, doing considerable injury to her ear.
The Quincy Whig, Saturday, June 26, 1869, Page1, [transcribed by Debbie Gibson]

On Friday morning last, at St. Joseph, a colored woman found a living white babe, about two weeks old, in an empty freight car belonging to the Hannibal and St. Joe railroad company.
The Quincy Whig, Saturday, June 26, 1869, Page1, [transcribed by Debbie Gibson]

Maj. John L. Bittinger has purchased all the stock of the St. Joseph Herald and assumed editorial charge of the paper. he is a fine newspaper man and no doubt will greatly improve the Herald, making it what it should be to represent a growing and prosperous city like St. Joseph.
Richmond Conservator, June 20, 1889 [submitted by Lisa]

Chas. A. Williams, late managing editor of the St. Joseph Herald, has begun suit in the United States circuit court against the Gazette publishing company of that city for libel, laying damages at $50,000.
Richmond Conservator, June 20, 1889 [submitted by Lisa]

The Quincy Daily Whig
Quincy, Ill, May 13, 1908

SIX KILLED

St. Joseph, Mo., May 12 – The train crew of the Burlington passenger train from Omaha this evening reported a race with the cyclone near Island Park, Iowa, barely escaping from the tornado which they reported wrecked a bunk train containing a number of foreigners who had been working on the track. Six men were reported killed and a score injured. The bunk train had been moved from Bartlett, Iowa earlier in the day. [Submitted by Debbie Gibson - 2008]

Postal Thief Arrested. ST JOSEPH, Mo., January 24.
McGinnis Jeffreys, night clerk of the post office here, was arrested tonight by Inspectors Crowall and Boyd, of the post office department, for rifling a registered, letter. The money was placed in a test letter, which was found in his pocket-book and he confessed the crime.
Source: Galveston News January 25, 1883
[submitted by a Friend- 2008]

St. Joseph, Missouri
Mr. L. D. Davidson of St. Joseph Drowned
St. Joseph, Mo., Sept. 11 – The body of Mr. L. D. Davidson, proprietor of the drug store in the Tootie Theater building, who was drowned Saturday night in Lake Contrary, was recovered yesterday afternoon after a search of nearly twenty hours.
(The Guthrie Daily Leader; Guthrie, Oklahoma; September 12, 1893. Transcribed as written by D. Donlon)

Tid Bits:
Bert Linton was severely injured late Sunday night when his automobile collided with a street car at Sixth and Oak St.
Redmond Harrington has filed suit for divorce from Martha E. Harrington, alleging desertion.
In a letter to his father, H.O. Siddenfaden, his son Herman W., who is now a yeoman at Mare Island, San Francisco says that he will soon be assigned to sea service.
John Rush, a barber of 114 East Louis street, was arrested Monday night by the police on a charge of having torn down and destroyed a picture of President Wilson. Rush professed not to have done so, and said that if he did he was sorry. He was later discharged.
It cost Claude Bartles of Sheridan, Mo. $10 for driving his machine seventy miles or better on King Hill avenue Tuesday night.
When James M. Jones, a street car conductor, stepped behind a southbound street car Wednesday he was struck by a motor car and his left leg fractured in two places.
Charles T. Donovan, a prominent live stock commission man of St. Joseph Mo. and brother of Colonel John Donovan, general manager of the St. Joseph Stockyards, is dangerously ill with rheumatism of the heart.
Major John L. Bittinger, consul general to Montreal, Canada, arrived at St. Joseph, Mo. called there by the death of Major Thomas J. Chew, Jr.
[source: Custer Co. Republican, Broken Bow NE, May 3, 1900. Transcribed by: Melody Beery]

Irving Andrews, charged with murder in the first degree, was acquitted in the Circuit Court at St. Joseph, the jury being out only twenty minutes and arriving at the verdict on the first ballot. In February last, Andrews and Isaac Cathey were engaged in a saloon business at Winthrop. A dispute arose, when Cathey seized a poker and endeavored to brain Andrews, who drew a revolver and fired, killing Cathey instantly. Defendant had previously borne a good character, while Cathey was recognized as a rough.
COLE COUNTY DEMOCRAT, Jefferson City, MO, 4 July 1884, p1, c4. Typed by Joanne Scobee Morgan

Frank Blair, a boy about 12 years of age, and son of a respectable widow lady in St. Joseph, was attacked by three newsboys a few evenings since, one of them stabbing him with a small penknife opposite the left kidney.
COLE COUNTY DEMOCRAT, Jefferson City, Fri., 12 August, 1887, p1. Typed by Joanne Scobee Morgan

A fatal railway accident occurred on the St. Joseph & Grand Island Road, a short distance from St. Joseph, a few days ago, as a result of which Mat Anderson, a farmer, will die. Anderson was walking along the road on his way home, and had a jug of molasses over one shoulder and a sack filled with groceries on the other. He did not hear the train, and was struck. He alighted several yards to one side, half way down the embankment. His injuries are such that he can not recover.
COLE COUNTY DEMOCRAT, Jefferson City, Fri., 12 August, 1887, p1. Typed by Joanne Scobee Morgan