Armstrong County PA News - Crimes
Reward Offered for Arrest of Dr. John Gilpin
Inquest Held On the Death of David Yount
James G. Sowers, Prominent Farmer Found With His Skill Fractured - Murder Is Suspected
Reward Offered for Arrest of Dr. John Gilpin
Taken From The Adams Sentinel (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
April 15, 1833
A reward of one hundred dollars is offered in a paper published in Armstrong county, Pa., for the arrest of Dr. John Gilpin, a practising physician, and Robert Cogley, his student, both of them late residents of the borough of Kittanning. It is stated in the advertisement that on the fourteenth of February last, Mrs. Jane Leighley of Kittanning, died of consumption, and was decently buried at the public burial ground of that borough, a few days after. On the night of the 18th, Gilpin, who had been her attending physician, assisted by his student, disinterred her remains; took her body to a garret convenient to the office of Dr. Gilpin, dissected it, and after doing so, deposited the head and one arm about the shop, where the same was found, and after cutting up and mangling the remaining parts of her body in a manner too horrible to relate, put the same into a box, and sent it adrift on the Allegheny river, in which it was found and identified about twenty miles below Kittanning. Even the teeth of the deceased, (as had been discovered) wre extracted by Cogley, and inserted in the mouth of his own sister. Hence the reward of 100 dollars is offered for their apprehension.
Inquest Held On the Death of David Yount
The Indiana Democrat (Indiana, Pennsylvania)
May 25 1871
Armstrong County
The Sentinel says: On Monday, May 15, Coroner Hoch held an inquest on the body of David Yount, who died in this place last week from the effects of a stroke upon the head with a stone, thrown by a young man named Weaver, several weeks since. The circumstances, as we know them, are: that a difficulty occurred between the two, while standing upon the corner of Market and Jefferson streets, when Weaver threw the stone, striking Yount upon the head and producing a fracture of the skull, which resulted in his death. The body of Yount was buried without an inquest being held; but, as we have stated, was disinterred, and a post mortem examination made by Drs. McCulloch and Cunningham. A verdict in accordance with the facts was rendered. Weaver decamped immediately after the occurrence and has not since been hard of.
James G. Sowers, Prominent Farmer Found With His Skill Fractured - Murder Is Suspected
Warren Evening Mirror (Warren, Pennsylvania) April 29, 1908
Kattanning, Pa., April 29 - Under circumstances which the authorities believe point to foul play, James G. Sowers, well known farmer of Kittanning township, died in the Kittanning general hospital early on Monday morning. Coroner H. B. Stone and the local authorities are conducting an investigation in an effort to unravel the mystery that is surrounding the case.
Sowers arrived at Kittanning shortly after noon on Saturday, putting his team up at the Nulton house barn. He spent the afternon with local acquaintances and at 9 p.m., reappeared for his horses and drove off with a man names Will Cravener. An hour later he returned hunting for his team, which he said he had lost. At 11 p.m., Sowers was in conversation with Chief of Police Stitt, on Market street, but on leaving the official all trace of him seems to have been lost. Robert Pilstil found Sower's half dead and badly mutilated body in a wagon shed of George Kline in Water alley on Sunday morning. His skull was crushed slightly and several blood vessels in the brain were ruptured. He was taken to the Kittanning hospital, but never regained consciousness.