PRISON FOR OLD CRIME AFTER 36 YRS

CACKLEY, FENSTENMAKER

Posted By: Volunteer - Rich Lowe
Date: 4/17/2013 at 20:03:04

PRISON FOR OLD CRIME

Charles Cackley Pleeds Guilty
and Is Given Ten Years.

IS CONVICTED AFTER 36 YEARS.

Iowa Man Accused of Killing Constable
in 1868 Caught Through
Pension Application

Keosauqua, Iowa, April 4 -- Charles Cackley when arraigned this morning before Judge F. W. Eichelberger in the Van Buren county district court, for the murder of Constable Reuben Fenstenmaker in Farmington 36 years ago, withdrew his plea of "not guilty" and plead guilty to murder in the second degree. He was sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary at Fort Madison and this evening will be taken to that place to begin his term of service.

Cackley was being held upon a charge of murder in the first degree for a crime committed in 1868 just after his return from several years service in the union army in the civil war. Cackley had been a resident of Farmington and for several years had worked for various farmers of the vicinity. At the time he went away to enlist he rode away on a pony belonging to the man by whom he had been employed. Upon the day of his return from the army three or four years later he drank too freely and became intoxicated.

Cackley shot and killed Constable Reuben Fenstenmaker after a quarrel as to the manner of his arrest. He escaped jail, and until a short time ago was at liberty. During the interval he married and raised a large family, to whom his crime was not known. Having served int he civil war he applied for a pension. His name attracted notice on the pension lists, and officer was sent to Cackley's home at a wood-choppers' camp in southern Missouri, and the man was arrested and brought back to Iowa for trial.

Source: The Weekly Hawkeye (Burlington, IA); 7 Apr 1904