McGregor Murder 1869

HAGGERTY, HAGERTY, THOMPSON

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 2/27/2016 at 11:59:30

Dubuque Daily Times Journal, June 18, 1869

THE McGREGOR MURDER
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Another Corpse of the Murdered
Family Found
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The Chain of Evidence
Complete
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In the case of the McGregor murder, Andrew Thompson being suspected of taking the lives of Mrs. Haggerty and her four children, it will be remembered that although the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming, no direct evidence had been discovered connecting him with the murder. The nearest that this could be accomplished, was by showing that the time she left McGregor coincided with the time he was absent for a week from his home, twelve or fifteen miles west of McGregor. A number of impenetrable mysteries darkened the final fate of the Haggerty family, and Thompson’s connection therewith. For instance, where was he during that week of absence? Were the Haggerty family cast into the river at the same time and place their trunks, were? If so, how were they taken to that slough near the Wisconsin shore, when the river was not frozen over, but the ice was running so that the ferry-boat could not cross? If not drowned immediately, where were they kept until they were drowned? How came the female corpses found to be naked or nearly so, from the waist downward, and fully clothed, even to nubia, cape and shawl, above the waist? Were the cords around the neck of two of the corpses intended for strangling-loosely tied, and in one case with a bow knot? If not, for what purpose were the cords? Where was the youngest of the family, who was missing, but whose corpse had not been discovered? These, and other hundred questions, were subjects of constant, but bootless, discussion at McGregor. But some of the mysteries, and perhaps all of them, are in a affair way to a solution. Last evening the following dispatch from McGregor was received at this office:

Special Dispatch to the Times Journal.
McGregor, June 17, 1869
The body of Johnnie Haggerty, the fourth and last member of the murdered family, has been found. Other discoveries have been made, the whole forming a chain of circumstances undoubtedly sufficient to convict Andrew Thompson of the murder. The inquest will be proceeded with on Friday morning; and Thompson will be put upon his preliminary examination Monday.