Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/493

 so. But the confession only sealed his doom. There could now be no doubt of his guilt, and strong men grasped the rope and quickly put an end to his career of crime. His confederates escaped, as no legal evidence could be secured to corroborate the confession of the murderer.

The citizens of Jackson and several adjacent counties now assembled in conference and effected an oath-bound organization for the purpose of ridding the State of the remaining members of the gang of desperadoes who were stealing horses, robbing houses and farms and circulating counterfeit money. In 1854 a cruel murder had been committed by a Mr. Barger, in Jackson County, whose wife had secured a divorce from him.

He went one dark night to the house where she was living with her children, and watching until she came to the door, shot her dead with his rifle. He was seen by a neighbor running from the scene of the murder, was arrested and tried three times, always convicted, but through the skill of William E. Leffingwell, the best lawyer in the county, secured rehearings and new trials on technicalities, finally got a change of venue to Clinton County, and was removed to the De Witt jail to await another trial. The respectable citizens became thoroughly exasperated at the continued thwarting of justice and determined to take the punishment into their own hands. On the 28th of May, 1857, more than three years after the murder, the “Vigilance Committee” to the number of fifty assembled at the jail, secured the keys, took the murderer back to Andrew and hanged him to the same tree upon which Gifford had been executed. Soon after this affair the members of the “Vigilance Committee” sent a statement of their object and purpose to the Jackson Sentinel for publication, from which the following extracts are taken:

“We, the Vigilance Committee of Jackson County, are determined that the criminal laws of the State shall be enforced to the very letter. When our legal officers neglect their duty, we will spare no pains either of time, [Vol. 1]