Des Moines Daily Leader
Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
Sunday Morning, November 10, 1901, Page 1

MT. AYR, Nov. 9 - (Special.) - A. M. HUNTER shot and instantly killed Homer HOLLAND on the street at 12:30 today. They had had a dispute last night and this morning over a misunderstanding arising out of a gambling game. HUNTER is a professional gambler, 30 years old, and is a marvel of nerve and cold bloodedness. He recently did time in jail for keeping a gambling house. He is a second cousin to the noted bandit, Polk WELLS.

No one saw the shooting, although many persons heard the report and were soon on the ground. HUNTER stood with the smoking revolver, a .45-caliber Colts, in his hand, and avowed the act. He had also previously told Captain HOLLAND, Homer's father, that he would get back a certain $20, no matter what road he had to travel to get it. As his victim lay dying, HUNTER lighted a cigar. He then went home, asked his mother how she felt, and said [illegible] to her without telling what he had done.

He went down town and told [illegible] he was going to give himself up and changed his mind and hid in [illegible] barn hay mow, where he was found at 4 o'clock. He surrendered without a struggle. He claims HOLLAND started an attack on him.

An empty revolver as found under HOLLAND, which evidently jolted out of his pocket when he fell. The bullet from HUNTER's revolver went clear through HOLLAND's body, shattering the lower one-third of his heart. The gun used is the one which HUNTER had been flashing frequently.

When arrested, he said:

"It's a d_____ bad job, but I never could stand imposition."

HOLLAND's mother is a chronic invalid. His father, Captain A. E. HOLLAND, was formerly sheriff. Homer was 23 years old last February. His athletic record at Drake university and with the Chicago Athletic association, in 1898 and 1899, care familiar. He was looked upon as the most perfect specimen of physical development ever known here. He was known all over southwestern Iowa as a baseball player. His friendly ways made him quite popular.

The Ringgold grand jury convenes one week from Monday. HUNTER is in the jail under double guard.

The shooting occurred during the dinner hour, hence there are no witnesses to the controversy, though a neighbor, hearing the report of the revolver, appeared immediately on the scene, to find HUNTER standing over his victim with the smoking gun still in his hand. Death cam almost instantly.

"Mat" HUNTER is of medium height and weighs about 150 pounds, dark hair and eyes, cool, steady nerves. He remarked that he expected to kill "Cap," as HOLLAND was usually known. He evidenced no excitement as no remorse, though as boys they had been friends for many years, having been raised in the same town and lived neighbors. He refused to surrender up his gun, rolled and lit a cigarette, cooly turned, after finding his victim was dead, and walked quietly down town across the busiest part of the court house square, thence to his gambling house, and disappeared. It was learned later he went home to say "good-by" to his mother, and then hid in the hay mow, where he was found.

The sheriff and deputies were away after the fellow who broke jail here last night, and the town got a posse together that after some delay found HUNTER.

It seems that trouble started last night over money. HOLLAND was a general favorite, and the highest excitement prevailed. The father of HOLLAND is almost crazed over the affair, and twice this afternoon tried to get away, swearing he would shoot HUNTER on sight. HUNTER comes of a respectable family, though for the past few years had has been practically disowned by them on account of the life he persisted in leading.

When HOLLAND was raised by the coroner from the position in which he had fallen a revolver was found under his hip pocket, but there were no loads in it. Whether he had made an effort to draw it is not known, though it is supposed that his hand may have reached it and partially drawn it from the pocket, so that it came out when he fell.

HOLLAND, pictured at right when he was a student at Drake, was almost a perfect specimen of physical development. It was feely predicted, when he left Drake, that he would become one of the greatest athletes of the country. He held the running, hop, step and jump record for Iowa, 48 feet one-half inch, made at the Iowa intercollegiate meet in 1898. At the intercollegiate field meet held in Des Moines in May, 1899, he won for Drake five firsts and one second place. In that meet HOLLAND wond first in the 50-yard dash, making the distance in 10 2-5 seconds; first in the broad jump, making 22 feet 3 1-2 inches; third in the high jump, second in the 120-yard hurdles, and first in the hop, step and jump, making 23 out of Drake's 49 points.

Following the meet HOLLAND was protested as a professional, and the protest was sustained by the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic association upon a showing that he had played baseball for money in southwestern Iowa.

NOTE: Holland FOSTER wrote in his book The Ghost Town of Caledonia [1978] that this judgment was in error. Homer had won $1.00 at an Emancipation Day Celebration in Mount Ayr, Iowa, when he was a child. This is why Homer's name doesn't appear in the world's record book.

See The HUNTER Trial

NOTE: Charles Knox "Polk" WELLS, who off and on went under the alias of C. H. WARNER, was a train-robber and all-around bandit, operating in Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa. He rode with the JAMES and YOUNGER brothers off and on during his criminal career. He was apprehended, convicted of robbery, and sentenced to serve 10 years at the Iowa State penitentiary at Fort Madison. On May 1, 1882, during a prison break, WELLS and his companions overwhelmed prison guard ELDER who died from an overdose of chloroform. WELLS was captured and sentenced to life for the death of the guard. WELLS appealed for clemancy, proclaiming that he was dying of consumption (which was proven to be true), that his companions killed the guard by mistake, and that he was a Christian, having been converted while incarcerated the second time. WELLS' appeals fell on deaf ears. As WELLS' health faded, he was transferred to the Iowa Penitentiary at Anamosa where medical facilities were somewhat better. Here, WELLS died of consumption on August 26, 1896.

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2009