HALL, Wm beaten by Conrad? - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

The boundless bogs of Boone County never yawned and gave up to the Montgomery County Jail a more thoroughly disreputable and vicious pair than that which was lodged behind the bars this week.

Last Tuesday Wm Hall, an old man residing some three miles from Darlington, came riding into that place as bloody as a slaughter house floor and well nigh dead from cuts, bruises, and exhaustion. He had his wounds dressed and swore out warrants for the arrest of Absalom Conrad and wife, of Thorntown, charging them with assault and battery with intent to kill. They were arrested as soon as the officers could reach them and were given a preliminary hearing before ‘Squire Martin, who bound them over to the circuit court in the sum of $100 each. In default of bail they were brought here Wednesday by Roe Miller and lodged in jail.

A representative of The Journal called on them at the jail and found them to be ignorant, vicious, depraved and dirty. The woman swore furiously all the time she talked and had a vocabulary of slang, profanity and billingsgate rarely heard outside the vilest slums of a great city. They gloried in their bloody deed of Tuesday and coolly stated that they had tried to kill Hall. According to their story they had temporarily traded horses with Hall and Tuesday went to Hall’s place to trade back. He insisted that the trade had been “for keeps” and during the quarrel struck Conrad with a whip. Then Mrs. Conrad fired at him with a whip. Then Mrs. Conrad fired at him with the shotgun while Conrad hopped onto the old man and beat him nearly to death.

“I went in to do him up,” shouted Conrad, his eyes rolling with insane fury, “and you bet I did it. My knuckles are all out of joint and if they hadn’t hurt so, I’d have killed him. The old woman shot at him with the gun and would have popped him with the revolver if I hadn’t been so close she was afraid of hitting me.”