Cortland
Semi-Weekly Standard, Tuesday, March 2, 1897.
GALVIN
ARRESTED
ON
SUSPICION THAT HE MURDERED THOMAS LAVAN.
Pools of
Blood Found Outside of His House, Walls Spattered with Blood;
Bad
Gashes in the Back of Lavan’s Head—Many Bruises on His Body—Autopsy
Held
Saturday—Coroner’s Inquest Begun.
(From the Daily STANDARD of Feb. 27.)
The death of Thomas Lavan has caused great
excitement all through the county, and the
circumstances look more and more as though a murder had been committed. Patsey
Galvin, at or near whose house Lavan died, is lodged in jail pending an
investigation. At autopsy was held this morning at the Galvin house and a
STANDARD reporter was in attendance.
Coroner Bradford of Homer and Dr. H. D. Hunt
of Preble went to the house yesterday to collect evidence. We were in error
yesterday in saying that Dr. Dana accompanied the coroner, but were so informed
from Preble. Sheriff Hilsinger and Deputy Sheriff Edwards arrived at the Galvin
house at about 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon. So strong was the evidence that
foul play had been committed and that Galvin must know something about it that
the sheriff arrested him and brought him to the county jail last night.
THE CORONER’S JURY.
Coroner Bradford yesterday afternoon
impaneled the following jury: Seth Hobart, C. C. Dennis, J. Henry Gay, A. H.
Van Hoesen, D. O. Crowfoot, James Manchester, Harley Dowd, W. D. Vandenburg, Richard
Squires, Curtis Du Bois, Alonzo Harter.
THE AUTOPSY.
At 10 o’clock this morning the coroner and
Dr. H. D. Hunt accompanied by the jury and a STANDARD reporter went up on the
hill to the Galvin farm. This is two and a half miles east of Preble on the
road toward East Homer. The examination of the body was made by Dr. Hunt and he
found the following injuries: In the center of the back of the head was a
perpendicular cut one and one-half inches in length and going clear through the
scalp down to the skull. It looked as though it might have been made by the
sharp edge of a stick of wood. Below this and a little to the left was a second
cut, oblique in position and one and one-quarter inches long and penetrating to
the skull. The upper lip had a hole through it under the nose three-quarters of
an inch long. One tooth was broken off and one tooth was knocked out. The jaw
bone was not fractured. Near the right temple above the ear was a hole one half
inch in circumference down to the skull. There were fifteen abrasions upon the
face. The eyes were blackened and the nose was bruised and swollen. Upon the
right shin was a cut two inches in length reaching down to the bone. There was
one bruise upon the shin about the size of a three-cent piece. The back and
right side of the head were bruised but the skull was not fractured.
The skull was removed by the doctors, taking
off a section above the ears from the back side to the forehead on the front.
Two clots of blood were found much colored under the two cuts on the scalp and
under the dura mater on the surface of the brain. The clots weighed about a
half once each.
EXAMINATION OF THE PREMISES.
Galvin lived upon a farm of fifty-four acres
on the hill. He was unmarried and lived alone. The house is old and small, and
a story and a half high. It was once painted white, but only the faintest
traces of color now remain. About a quarter of the window lights were out.
Outside of the back door of the house were three pools of blood on the ground
and snow was tramped down all around. The walls on the sides of the of the
little entryway leading from the back door to the kitchen were splattered with
blood, and there was blood on the door. There was blood on the kitchen floor
and on a little pile of wood by the stove in the kitchen, and blood on the
walls of the kitchen. There was also blood found on a kettle on the stove.
There was evidence that some one had tried to remove blood stains on the
kitchen floor by throwing ashes down upon them and then trying to sweep it all
up. The broom was found with which the sweeping was done and this was full of
ashes and the end of it was stained with blood. The dustpan with which the
ashes were taken up has also been found, and this is also stained with blood.
The blood stains on the floor in the entry also looked as though they had been
wiped up.
About noon to-day Deputy Sheriff Edwards
found under a box in the henhouse in the rear of the house a two-quart jug
which was empty, but which smelled strongly of whiskey.
When found Lavan had on only a pair of
trousers, a pair of overalls and an old woolen shirt. His rubber boots stood by
the stove in the house, and there was mud on the soles of them and on the
sides. It is fine sleighing up on top of that hill and that there is no dirt to
be seen about the premises except down in the cellar, and there is mud down
there. An old frock hung behind the stove and the back of that was soaked with
blood. Galvin said yesterday that he found Lavan lying outside the back door
and there were pools of blood found there. His vest was found at the foot
of a tree thirty-five feet away from the door and soaked with blood and frozen
stiff. It was also torn in two, one arm hole being torn out.
This was the situation found on the hill by
the jury. Having examined everything up there they adjourned to meet at the
village hall at three o’clock this afternoon for the inquest.
Deputy Sheriff Edwards is on the scene, also
Under Sheriff Estus Dwight of Cincinnatus and Detective Frank Colegrove.
GALVIN INTERVIEWED.
A STANDARD man this morning interviewed
Patsey Galvin at the jail, being admitted by Sheriff Hilsinger. Galvin is a
little man about five feet two inches high and would probably not weight over
125 or 130 pounds. It is said that Lavan was about the same build. Galvin was
found locked up by himself in the corridor in front of the east line of cells
on the first floor of the jail. He was smoking a stubby pipe and seemed in a
meditative mood. He appeared willing to talk and the reporter plied him with
questions.
He said he lived on the hill about two and a
half miles east of Preble on the road to East Homer. Lavan lives about a mile
and a half south of him just over the line in the town of Homer. They have
known each other for about twenty years or so. The reporter here inquired if
they were related in any way, as it was said by parties in Cortland this
morning that Lavan had married a Miss Galvin. Galvin said he didn’t remember
who Lavan’s wife was, but at any rate they were not related to each other.
Galvin said he was 50 years old and thought Lavan was a little older. It was
said at the autopsy at Preble that he (Lavan) was 60 years old.
Galvin said he went to Tully on Thursday
morning with a load of wood and on his return at about 1 o’clock in the
afternoon met Lavan coming from his house. Lavan told him he had been up to see
him in regard to buying some cabbage of him. Galvin told him to ride back to
the house with him, and he did so. Soon after getting back to the house Galvin
went out to the barn to do his chores and take care of his stock and left Lavan
in the house.
Lavan stayed all night. They visited during
the evening and at 11 o’clock, which was his bed time, Galvin went to sleep in
his bed (the only bed in the house) in the kitchen, leaving Lavan sitting in a
chair beside the stove in the same room. That is the last he saw of Lavan
alive.
Next morning he woke shortly before 6
o’clock and started to go to the barn. He found Lavan lying on the ground
outside the back door. He didn’t know that he was dead but picked him up,
taking hold of him under the arms from behind, and carried him into the kitchen
and placed him on the floor in a sitting position leaning against the bed and
near the stove so that he might get warm. As he didn’t seem to warm up he went
to the house of Robert Dorothy about a half mile away, and asked him to come up
to the house. Mr. Dorothy went right up there. Galvin then went over to the
house of James T. Steele, another neighbor, and asked him to come. That is all
he knew about it.
The reporter inquired if he and Lavan had
been good friends previously, and Galvin replied that they never had a word in
the world. Inquiry was made if he had been drinking, and Galvin replied that
they did take a little. He bought a quart bottle of whiskey while in Tully
Thursday, but they didn’t drink any of it. What did you drink, asked the
reporter. They drank cider, was the reply. Galvin had plenty of that in the
cellar and he got some for Lavan and himself. He (Galvin) had a half pint
bottle of whiskey besides the quart bottle and he drank some of this while in
Tully and on the way home. He said he gave Lavan about a half a tumbler full of
this and he took about as much more and that about finished the small
bottle.But he insisted that they didn’t drink a drop from the quart bottle. The
reporter inquired what had become of the quart bottle, and Galvin said it was
up at the house.
It may be noted right here that Galvin spoke
yesterday of this same bottle and when asked where it was or what had become of
it [he] had refused to say a word about it and had told the sheriff as he
inquired that it was none of his business, as it had nothing to do with the
case. Search was made all over the Galvin house this morning for that bottle,
full or empty, but it could not be found. The nearest approach to it was the
two quart jug above referred to.
The reporter inquired if he invited Lavan to
stay all night with him, and he replied that he did not. How did he come to
stay then, was asked, and Galvin replied that he just stayed. The reporter
inquired what they did during the evening up to 11 o’clock and Galvin replied
that they visited. The reporter inquired if they didn’t have a quarrel or some
words during the evening and Galvin said they did not. The reporter inquired if
he knew how Lavan came to be out of doors in the morning, and Galvin said he
knew nothing at all about it and he didn’t remember a thing that happened
between the time he went to bed leaving Lavan sitting in the chair and the time
he waked up and found him gone and then he dressed and started for the barn and
found him outside upon the snow. The reporter inquired if he knew how those
blood stains came to be found on the floor and on the door and the walls, and
Galvin said he did not. The reporter asked if there were any stains of that
nature upon the floors or walls the day before and Galvin replied that he didn’t
know of any such being there. That closed the interview.
J. & T. E. Courtney have been retained
to defend Galvin and Mr. John Courtney is attending the inquest in Preble this
afternoon.
CORONER’S INQUEST
TO
DETERMINE THE CAUSE OF THOMAS LAVAN’S DEATH.
Testimony
of the Wife of Lavan, of Jas. T. Steele, Robert Dorothy and Others—Little
Light Thrown on the Subject.
(From
the Daily STANDARD of Monday, March1.)
The town of Preble is becoming noted for the
frequency and the number of its fatalities under mysterious and suspicious circumstances.
The people in the vicinity are much stirred
up over the death of Thomas Lavan, and some are unhesitating in giving it as
their opinion that Galvin is guilty of murder, while others are more
conservative and say they are not yet ready to accuse Galvin, as possibly a third
party may have been concerned in the affair. Be that as it may, the string of
circumstantial evidence thus far produced points strongly to Galvin as the
guilty party.
The village people are seen in little knots
here and there talking over the affair and incidentally other fatalities that
have occurred in that vicinity in recent years. It is the one topic of
conversation of the frequenters of the hotel and groceries of the little
village. They recall vividly and talk over the Shea murder in the northern part
of town a few years ago, the wrecking of the night express on the D. L. &
W. R. R. a year ago last December, resulting in the death of an engineer and
fireman, and the finding in a well of the body of Mrs. Edgerton three years ago
one cold morning in mid-winter. This well is on the Hartman farm but one-eight
of a mile west of the Galvin house, where the tragedy of last Thursday night
occurred. It is said that the prisoner, Galvin, was one of the first to
discover the body of Mrs. Edgerton floating in the water in this well.
The inquest is being held in the village hall,
and the little room is crowded with the villagers and farmers, who listen to the
evidence with the deepest interest. Not a single word of the testimony misses
their ears.
It is probable that the deadly struggle
occurred after Tommy Lavan, as he was familiarly called, had removed his boots
for retiring, as there is not the sign of a mark or cut on either of them,
while on the right shin of the dead man, under where the bootleg would
naturally come there was a gash in the skin reaching to the bone. The fact that
there is mud on Tommy’s boots, that there is no mud about the house, and that
the cellar bottom is muddy, would indicate that Tommy had been in the cellar
during the evening. That he and Galvin were in the habit of drinking
occasionally, and that there was a keg of cider in the cellar, would seem to
indicate also that the cellar may have been visited by one or both of them; in
fact Galvin acknowledged to a STANDARD reporter Saturday that they drank cider
from his cellar that night.
The most generally accepted theory of the
affair is that the two men became intoxicated, quarreled, and Lavan’s death
resulted. It has been said that Lavan claimed that Galvin owed him a sum of
money for digging potatoes, and that they might have got to quarreling over
this, but nothing about this has yet been brought out in the evidence.
JUROR
DUBOIS MAKES A DISCOVERY.
Just before the beginning of the autopsy
Saturday morning, Juror Dubois made a discovery which may bear an important
part in determining the manner in which Lavan met his death. Just outside the
back door, and not six inches from a large pool of blood, he discovered
imbedded solidly in the ice and snow an irregularly shaped block of wood about
the size of a man’s fist. Two sharp corners projected above the ice and body of
the block about an inch or so. Mr. Dubois dug it up and carried it inside.
These two projecting corners or prongs were found to fit exactly into the two
cuts in the back side of the dead man’s head. From the appearances it would
look as though Lavan might have fallen forcibly backward, striking his head on
this block solid in the ice, then rolled off and left the pool of blood. The
block was preserved.
THE INQUEST BEGUN.
After witnessing the autopsy at the scene of
the murder Saturday morning, the jury adjourned to the village hall at Preble
and reassembled at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Coroner George B. Bradford of
Homer presided and the minutes were taken by James T. Steele, a justice of the
peace of Preble. A bag containing Lavan’s clothing, except his overcoat, the
two-quart jug found by Deputy Sheriff James E. Edwards, and several smaller
articles, was brought into the room and at the proper times, were and will be
placed in evidence.
The first witness was James T. Steele of
Preble. He lives not over half a mile southeast of Patsey Galvin’s house, and
had known Lavan several years. He last saw Lavan alive a week or ten days
before in front of witness’ house in the highway. Friday morning, Feb. 26,
Robert Dorothy came to witness’ house at about 7:30 or 8 o’clock and informed
him that Patsey Galvin had been to his house at 7 o’clock and said that when
he, Galvin, got up in the morning he found Tommy Lavan outside the door; that
he had taken him inside; that he thought he was frozen; that Tommy was in fact
over there on the floor, dead. Dorothy said he had been over there and found
Tommy all pounded up.
Witness went over to Galvin’s house. It was
now 9 o’clock. He was admitted by Galvin, who unfastened the outside door. It
had been fastened with a stick. On going through the hallway into the kitchen,
witness saw the body of a man sitting on the floor leaning back against the
bedstead. He recognized the body as that of Thomas Lavan. Witness asked Galvin
how it happened. “I don’t know,” replied Galvin. “What time did you go to bed
last night?” asked the witness. Galvin answered, “I usually go to bed at 11 o’clock.
I did go to bed at 11 o’clock.” “I asked Galvin,” said the witness, “if Tommy
was there when he went to bed and Galvin said that he was there, sitting in a
chair by the stove and was all right when he went to sleep.” Galvin said that Lavan asked if he could stay all night, and that his reply was, “Yes, of course
you can.” Galvin told the witness that he got up at 5 o’clock that morning and
that he found Tommy outside the door. In reply the witness’ question Galvin
said that the frock hanging up back of the stove was on Lavan when he found
him. Witness asked him if Tommy had his arms in the jacket. Galvin hesitated
and after a minute said, “Not exactly, no, one wasn’t.” Galvin said Tommy did
not have his boots on; that there was no one around there during the night that
he knew of except himself and Tommy.
Witness remained at the house but a few
minutes. He examined the dead man’s head and body as far as he could without
moving it. He observed blood matted in the hair, the cuts on the head, and the
swollen and blackened eyes and nose. The face had the appearance of having been
bruised. Saw blood outside the door. The body was dressed in a shirt,
undershirt, pants and socks. Galvin was sitting in a rocking chair near the
corpse while witness was there. Witness visited the house again in the
afternoon and saw that the head and face had been washed. Outside the door he
saw blood more in sight than in the morning as the sun had melted off some of
the snow. Saw blood on the side wall in the kitchen, on the door leading from
the kitchen into the bedroom south, on a chair round, and on the leg of one of
a pair of rubber boots. The floor had apparently been washed or scrubbed. Did
not notice any ashes on the floor. Had no conversation with Galvin at this
time. He and Galvin seldom exchanged visits.
In reply to questions from the jury witness
said that he did not see any snow on the clothing of the murdered man. Did not notice
any blood on Galvin. Galvin appeared quiet and said several times that it was a
bad thing for him. Galvin was pretty sober. Witness said that he could not say
from what he saw of Galvin and his actions that he had been drinking. Witness
saw no imprints outside the door where a man had lain at the time of his first
visit. There was a light snowfall the previous night.
MRS. LAVAN TESTIFIES.
Julia Lavan, the wife of the murdered man,
was next called to the stand. She had just come from Truxton, where she had
been to pick out a lot for the burial of the body of her unfortunate husband.
Mrs. Lavan is a rather spare woman of about the same age as her husband. She
was clad in a dark dress with a dark jacket and her hat was covered with a blue
veil. She bore the ordeal bravely, and gave her testimony in a straightforward, conscious manner. She
showed slight signs of breaking down when the clothes of her dead husband were
removed from a bag and placed on the table before her, but rallied quickly and
identified them.
She said that they had lived one or two
miles southeast of Patsey Galvin’s toward East Homer. Her husband was 60 years
of age. They had been married twenty-two years. No children had been born to them.
Her husband was a farmer and was always well. She last saw him alive Thursday
morning at 11 o’clock at their home. Had a conversation with him. He said that
Patsey had told him to come over and see him and get there by 2 o’clock. When
he went away he wore an undershirt, a blue shirt, a vest, jacket, an old
overcoat, cap trousers, overalls, socks and a pair of rubber boots. She readily
recognized as her husband’s all the clothing except the undershirt and
overcoat. The undershirt she finally decided was her husband’s. The overcoat
was not brought down from the house, though it was said to be there.
The two-quart jug found under a box in
Galvin’s house was shown the witness. She said: “I have seen Pat Galvin have
that jug.”
Lavan left home on foot and alone. He did
not say anything about the time of his return. It was his habit to return at choretime,
but when he did not, witness did the chores. She first heard of her husband’s
death Friday morning about 9 o’clock by Tommy O’Neil. She started to go over
and got as far as Mr. Steele’s, who advised her not to go to the house, saying
that she would not want to see him, he looked so, and they would not admit her.
She had not seen her husband since Thursday morning.
Witness had lived in that vicinity all her
married life, and had known Galvin as long. Galvin often visited at her house,
but she had been in Galvin’s house but once. Her husband had been there a great
deal. Galvin once lived at her house four years ago, off and on for two or
three years. He worked wherever he could and when it was close by, boarded
there. She never knew of the two men having any differences to amount to
anything. “Galvin was peaceful except when liquor was in him, when he was
cross; he was so on a good many occasions,” said the witness. She never heard
her husband express any fear of Galvin.
Galvin stopped at the house of witness
Tuesday going and coming from East Homer. Lavan had been at Galvin’s house two
or three times lately, but not to stay all night within a year or two. Last
summer the two men exchanged work upon their farms. Witness said that she had
known of the two men drinking together, when her husband stayed there over
night. Her husband was in his usual health when he left home. Had not been
bruised anywhere about the body or hands recently.
ROBERT DOROTHY’S TESTIMONY.
Mr. Dorothy was the first man to view the
body after Galvin. He live one-eight of a mile from the Galvin house. Had known
him ten or twelve years. Last saw him alive last summer some time. On Feb. 26
at about 7 A. M. Patsey Galvin came to his house and said he wanted him to go
to his house. Galvin told him that when he got up that morning and went out to
do his chores, he found Tommy Lavan lying at the back side of his house frozen.
He said he had dragged him into the house and tried to bring him to. He wanted
witness to go over and he went with him. Dorothy testified further that Galvin
said that Tommy asked to stay all night with him and he said he could do so. On
arriving at the house Galvin pointed out the place where he said Tommy was
lying. Witness said he did not see any vest under the tree.
Continuing, witness said: “The place where
Galvin said Tommy lay was on the back side of the house six or eight feet from
the door. Nothing was said as to the direction head or feet lay. Witness went
inside. Lavan’s body was on the floor, back up against the bed. Witness said to
Galvin, he is all pounded up and his eyes are blackened, there is a cut on the
forehead. Galvin walked up and looking at the body said, “No one except me and
Tommy.”
Witness went out of doors and told Galvin he
had better go and notify Mr. Steele. Galvin replied that witness had better go
as he wanted to do his chores and witness had somebody to do his chores. Witness
said, all right, and took one of Galvin’s horses and went over and had the
interview as testified to by Mr. Steele. When witness returned he found Galvin
in the barn. He wanted to know if Mr. Steele was coming, and wanted to know if
witness had left any word to send for Mrs. Lavan. Witness replied that he had.
He said he would like to have witness go down and notify Dr. Hunt. He said he
went to bed at about 12 o’clock, and Tommy was then sitting in a chair by the
stove. Witness notified Dr. Hunt and went home. No one else was there in the morning.
Galvin said nothing about how Tommy got the marks. There had been a light
snowfall. The temperature was cool and freezing.
If a body had been dragged through the
hallway, there would have been indications of it, would there not?” asked the
coroner.
“Yes,” replied the witness, ‘but I did not
see any. I saw no track’s there except Pat’s, where he went out. I saw no place
in the snow where it looked as though a man had lain. The blood on the wounds
looked dry. I saw where ashes had been placed on the floor by the kitchen door.
I asked Pat what he had been doing there. ‘Been cleaning up some stuff there,’
said he. Galvin did not appear to be excited or nervous. He did not talk as much
as usual. Don’t think he was exactly sober that morning when I was there.
“I was there in the afternoon between 2 and
3 o’clock. I observed a vest under an apple tree about two or two and one-half
rods east of the door. Think I would have seen it in the morning had it been
there as I went on the south and east sides of the house. Saw the pools of
blood just outside the door, in the hall, on the doors, boot and frock.”
“Did you say anything to Patsey about Tommy
dying game?” asked Foreman Hobart.
Witness replied, “Don’t know but I did. I
said to Pat, ‘Tommy looked as though he died game.’ This was up in the barn.
Patsey did not want to say much about it. He said that there was no time for
fooling around there at that time. He kept looking down all the time. Did not
look me in the face at all. Kept right on at his work about his chores. The
dead man’s appearance was that of a man having suffered violence. I saw no
marks, scratched or bruises on Galvin.”
At this point an adjournment was taken until
Monday morning at 10 o’clock.
MONDAY MORNING.
The coroner’s inquest was continued in the
town hall at Preble at about 11 o’clock this morning. The first witness was
Martin Mahon, who testified that he was 18 years old and lives on the hill
three-fourths of a mile from Galvin’s house. He was there at Galvin’s about
11:30 o’clock Friday morning. Galvin asked him if he didn’t want a drink and
told him to go up to a certain place in the henhouse and he would find a jug.
He found the jug. It contained only about a gill of something which he thought
was whiskey. Witness identified the two-quart jug found by Deputy Edwards as
the one from which he drank that morning.
On Friday night witness stayed all night at
the Galvin house with Constable Dorothy, who was left in charge of the place
and the body of Lavan. He did this at Dorothy’s request. They searched around
and in a satchel belonging to Galvin they found a memorandum of purchases. There
was no date on the bill, and no heading to show where they were purchased. But
the items were as follows:
Mackerel, 18
Tobacco, 10
Soap, 05
Crackers, 32
One quart rye, 50
One-half pint rye, 12
Then follows a credit of $1.25 for wood. It
is supposed that this is a memorandum of Galvan’s sale of wood at Tully, Thursday,
and of his purchases there. It will be noted that the purchases of Rye
corresponds exactly with what he told The STANDARD man at the interview at the
jail Saturday morning, when he said he bought a quart of whiskey at Tully
Thursday, but didn’t drink any of it, as he had a half-pint bottle from which
he drank in Tully and on the way home from Tully and which he and Lavan about
finished that night at his house.
Witness testified further that Galvin didn’t
talk much with him that morning. Galvin did not appear to him then as though he
was drunk then, but he looked as though he had been drinking.
JAMES T. STEELE.
James T. Steele was recalled to the stand
and testified that he arrived at the Galvin house at about 9 o’clock on Friday
morning in company with his son. They drove the horse up to the appletree where
afterwards Lavan’s vest was found, and both got out of the sleigh there. His
son tied the horse to that tree but didn’t see the vest lying there. He himself
untied the horse from the tree when they were ready to go away, but didn’t see
the vest there then.
This closed the forenoon session of the
inquest. At noon Constable Dorothy arrived at the town hall with the overcoat
which it is claimed was Lavan’s and which was left at the house when his other
clothing was brought down to Preble. It is supposed that it will be identified
this afternoon. The afternoon session was to begin at 1 o’clock, and it was the
plan to call Dr. Hunt who would testify to what injuries he found on Lavan’s
body when he conducted the autopsy. Constable Estus Dwight was also to be
called. He had taken certain measurements which were to be sworn to. Mr. Steele’s
son was also to be called. There is no probability that the inquest can be
concluded to-day.
PHYSICAL EXAMINATION ON GALVIN.
During the day Sunday, Attorney John
Courtney, who is retained to defend Galvin, called at the jail and accompanied
by Sheriff Hilsinger and J. H. Wallace visited Galvin in his cell. The prisoner
was requested to lay aside his clothing, which he did down to the waist, and a
careful physical examination and inspection of the man was made to learn id he
bore any bruises or marks of a conflict. Not a single scratch or a bruise of
any kind was found on him, but it was noticed how exceedingly thin and
emaciated he was.
It seems decidedly singular that a man could
have succeeded in inflicting such blows upon a fellow man as Lavan bears
evidence of and not get a bruise or a scratch of any kind in return. This seems
one of the strongest proofs of Galvin’s innocence that has yet been brought
out.
A young man from Preble who is well
acquainted up on the Galvin hill and all over that territory is to-day quoted
as saying that there is another man up there who has frequently been seen at
Galvin’s house and who when he gets loaded with firewater is one of the worst
fellows to tackle in that town. This man, the authority above referred to, says
is now badly bruised and battered. He is keeping as much out of sight as
possible and looks as though he had been run through a threshing machine. He
offers no explanation as to his bruises and seems to avoid speaking of it. The
sheriff has been informed of these facts and is to-day up there investigating.
If this report proves to be true and if no satisfactory explanation of the
state of affairs can be made, it seems likely that this man may be called
before the coroner’s jury to explain how he became so bruised and battered.
POLICE
COURT.
E. W. Carpenter
Hauled up for Smashing His Furniture.
Friday forenoon at about 10 o’clock Lizzie Carpenter,
wife of E. W. Carpenter, who lives at 42 Pendleton-st., entered a complaint against
her husband for smashing their household furniture and destroying her clothing.
A warrant was sworn out before Police Justice Mellon and Chief Linderman
started to arrest the man. Arrived at the house he found Carpenter gone, but
the furniture was pretty badly wrecked. It appeared that the man had become
well filled with a brand of apple juice or some similar liquid and had gone on
a general tear at the house.
Chief Linderman learned that Carpenter had
bought a ticket for Greene and had skipped the town on the 2:45 train. The
chief telephoned to Officer Van Vost at Marathon to secure the man on the
arrival of the train and soon received a reply that Carpenter was in custody.
He went down on the 6:13 train and brought Carpenter back at 10:05 P. M.
The case was called Saturday morning in
police court and Edwin Duffey appeared as consul for both plaintiff and defendant.
He stated that it was a kind of family row and that husband and wife had now
become reconciled and that Mrs. Carpenter wanted to withdraw the complaint. The
police justice said that he would not permit that at present anyway. He gave
the defendant a short lecture on his general conduct, and said that complaints
had frequently come from the neighbors both to him and to Chief Linderman of
the doings of the defendant and of the quarrels of both plaintiff and
defendant; that they had become a cause of general annoyance to the neighbors.
The police justice said he would adjourn
this case to Monday, March 8. In the meantime if Carpenter had any desire to
have the complaint withdrawn he must move from that house and get clear out of
the neighborhood before March 8. If he did this and paid all costs of the case
so that there would be no expense to the public, he would then consider the
matter of the withdrawal of the complaint. Carpenter promised to move, and the
case was adjourned.
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