The Grand Jury Report
We Give herewith the complete report of the grand jury: Owen Circuit Court, February Term, 1908, Hon. J. W. Cammack, Circuit Judge.
We the grand jury called by you in special session and instructed to investigate any and all supposed depredations growing out of the banding and confederating together of diverse persons for the purposes of burning and destroying property in the community of New Liberty, Owen County, on the night of March 11th, 1908, report as follows:
The preponderance of evidence secured from the examination of a large number of witnesses living in the New Liberty neighborhood and elsewhere discloses the fact that an armed body of men organized and took up a march from some point in Owen County beyond what is known as the Pen Garvey farm on the New Liberty and Sparta pike and proceeding about 50 in number, in the direction of New Liberty, applying a torch to the barn on Pen Garvey that contained about 4,000 pounds of tobacco not in the pool, said tobacco being the property of some Tobacco Warehouse Company and bought for it by John Garvey.
The mob continued its march until it reached the home of Martin Edwards, where Edward's mother was lying at the point of death surrounded by her family and her attending physician, Dr. Purdy. Some one or more of the mob shot into the Edward's home, the bullet entering a window. The physician going to the window or door to ascertain the cause of the shooting was cursed and directed by the mob to go back. While the aged lady died within a few minutes after the shooting, the physician says that her death was not caused or hastened by the alarm or shooting. A number of shots were fired into the air as the mob moved on in the direction of New Liberty. No further evidence of destruction have been found on the mob's line of march until it reached the large tobacco warehouse belonging to the Cincinnati Tobacco Warehouse Company, in the possession of one Dave Snell and located near the residence of Thos. J. Jenkins. Snell had been buying considerable unpooled tobacco and had taken about 20,000 pounds in said barn. The torch was quickly applied thereto by said mob and by the time the mob had reached New Liberty, a few hundred yards on, the barn was in a mass of flames.
It made a tremendous blaze, lighting up the country for miles around, and assisting the mob to select its places to be destroyed in New Liberty.
The plate glass front in the store occupied by W. B. Bond and the windows in the I.O.O.F. Lodge room above were shot to pieces, probably by more than a hundred shots from pistols and guns. This entire building is the property of the fraternal order. The next and final damage was the shooting into, without injury to anyone, the house of Dan Hanlon where he and his family were sleeping. The mob proceeded on to a point at the forks of the road in front of the home of William Green, a few hundred yards from New Liberty, where after a short consultation, they disbanded, some going in the direction of the Owenton and Sparta Pike, and some in the direction of Owenton by way of the Collins Hill Road.
Notwithstanding, we made a most persistent effort to ascertain the identity of these midnight marauders and demons there has not been disclosed the slightest clue upon which to base a charge.
The parties composing said mob seemed to have been thoroughly drilled and well instructed as they as they performed their devilish and damnable purposes with skill yet accompanied by abundant evidences of extreme cowardice. The left nothing to enable any one to establish their identity. By reason of the widespread notoriety the Equity Society has received in connection with this and similar outrages throughout the State we deem it but justice to this society and the great cause it is now promoting, and especially to those members thereof who condemn all such cowardly conduct, to say that there is absolutely no proof before us to warrant the placing of the responsibility therefore at the door of this Society, which has at all times by its public declarations and acts placed the stamp of disapproval on such methods.
We have absolutely no evidence on which to place the responsibility for this deplorable outrage, ever to be remembered as a stain upon our citizenship.
We recommend that the regular grand jury at the next June Term of this Honorable Court take this matter further in hand and investigate it thoroughly, whereby we trust there may be further developments that will ultimately lead to the detention and punishment of this disreputable and cowardly set of felons.
We recommend that subpoenas issue for witnesses to appear before the next June grand jury as designated by the enclosed list.
In the progress of this investigation we have discovered certain trivial violations of law, misdemeanors and we report said indictments, three in number, now in open court and ask that we be finally discharged,
David Caldwell, Foreman
The Owenton News Herald, March 19, 1908