Iowa Old Press
The Davenport Gazette
Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa
August 9, 1849
There were several deaths by cholera at Keokuk last week.
John Wilson, a notorious horse thief, was recently found dead in
Linn county, his body perforated with bullets. A regularly
organized gang of horse theives has existed for some time in that
and adjoininng counties and it is supposed that unable to bring
the villains to justice, some of the inhabitants had taken the
law into their own hands by dispatching this notorious member of
the fraternity.
Murder - Five men were arrested at Camargo, twelve miles up the
Desmoines, on the charge of murdering a man by the name of
Richard Wells, on Wednesday evening the 25th ult., near that
place: Thre of the persons arrested, butts, Shell and Trimble,
were committed for trial, and the other two discharged for want
of testimony against them. This fatal affair originated in a
"wordy war" about some trifling matter which these
persons charged upon Wells, and he denied. Clubs and knives were
resorted to, to settle the difficulty. And Wells' death ensued in
ten minutes from a stab in his left side. - Keokuk Register
[transcribed by N.B., January 2019]