HOSSACK, John 1841 - 1900

HOSSACK

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 3/17/2020 at 11:30:36

Source: Decorah Republican Apr. 18, 1901 P 4 C 4

A Woman Convicted of Murder.
A jury at Indianola, last Thursday, brought in a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree against Mrs. Margaret Hossack, and fixed her penalty at a life imprisonment in the state penitentiary. She was charged with the murder of her husband, a prosperous farmer in Warren county, where he had resided for more than thirty years. The evidence has been published and has elicited more than usual interest in all parts of the state. The story of the murder has been told in brief as follows:—
Some time during the Saturday of Thanksgiving week last November, Hossack was murdered while in bed and asleep, he being struck with the sharp blade of an ax, over and slightly behind the right ear The stricken man lived until the next morning, but he did not regain consciousness, and there remained naught but circumstantial evidence by which to fasten the crime upon the guilty party. Mrs. Hossack had gone to bed with her husband in a parlor room down stairs, two sons sleeping in an adjoining room, and two others upstairs. Mrs. Hossack, who was arrested while attending her husband’s funeral, testified that she was awakened by some noise like the slamming of a door, saw a flash of light and immediately called out her husband’s name, “John!” She testified that as he did not answer she made a light and then found her husband with a terrible gaping wound in his head.
A man to have murdered Jobn Hossack as it was done would have had to cross a porch, go through the room where two sons were sleeping, and then reach over the wife to hit the husband. The ax was found next day under a farm building and was covered with blood and hair that showed for what purpose it had been used. The evidence was circumstantial, but everything points to Mrs. Hossack's guilt. Hossack was an old school Presbyterian, honest as the day was long, successful and prosperous, and respected and honored by all who knew him. It was claimed that he was quarrelsome and that he and his wife had bitter jangles.

Transcriber’s Note: Find a Grave shows he is buried in the New Virginia Cemetery and was born 1841 and died Dec. 2, 1900.