Cowart, James J. – 1888-1931

COWART

Posted By: Diana Wagner
Date: 7/13/2021 at 21:35:35

$1,000 Check Given Wife of Dead Officer
Des Moines, Iowa (UP) – Mrs. James Cowart received a check Tuesday for $1,000 from the Des Moines Police Burial and protective association. The money was intended to make the going a bit easier for the woman who had been made a widow when Arthur Thornton shot Cowart in the abdomen with a shotgun.
Thornton, a former deputy sheriff, shot and killed himself accidently a few minutes after he wounded Cowart as the climax of a grudge he had nursed for five years. Cowart was a police sergeant.
The shooting occurred early Sunday morning. Cowart died Monday night.
Source: Fort Madison Evening Democrat; December 8, 1931, page 1

Grudge Assailant Is Accidentally Killed
Policeman Victim in Hospital, Critically Wounded
Des Moines (UP) – Police Sergeant James J. Cowart lay critically wounded on a hospital bed Monday, the victim of a long-standing grude.
Meantime funeral arrangements were made for Arthur Thornton who apparently died accidentally only a few minutes after revenging his five-year-old hatred for Cowart.
The police sergeant was called to the door of his home in the darkness before dawn Sunday and a shotgun charge crashed thru the glass of the door and into his abdomen.
Shortly thereafter Thornton was found dead in his automobile, evidently killed accidentally as he south to take apart the shotgun.
Thornton was a former deputy sheriff and his grudge against Cowart dated back before the time when he was an officer. It was said the policeman once had employed a club to bring about Thornton’s arrest and the incident rankled in the latter’s mind for years.
Source: Ames Daily Tribune Times; December 7, 1931, page 7

Old Grudge Has Resulted In 2nd Death
Police Sergeant At Des Moines Is Dead Of Wounds Inflicted By Former Polk Co. Sheriff
Des Moines, Dec. 8 (By The Associated Press) – Police Sergeant James J. Cowart, who was shot early Sunday morning by Arthur Thornton, former Polk county deputy sheriff, died late Monday night.
Thornton called Cowart to the front door of his home and fired through a glass pane of the door with a shotgun, Cowart’s wife told police.
Thornton was later found near the Cowart home with a shot gun wound in his left side. He died shortly after.
Trouble between the two arose in 1926 when Cowart arrested Thornton allegedly for creating a disturbance. Thornton was said by acquaintances to have harbored a grudge during the intervening five years.
Source: Boone News Republican; December 8, 1931, page 6