Frank Dawson and Anna Hartman of Monroe County (MO) were planning to get married in the summer of 1903, but when the appointed day arrived and all arrangements for the wedding had been made, the prospective groom failed to show up. At the urging of her father, Anna broke the engagement and wouldn't have anything more to do with Dawson.
Dawson persisted in his attentions to the young woman and pleaded with her to give him another chance, but she refused. Angry and defected, Dawson was overheard to vow that he'd kill Anna before he'd let her marry anyone else.
On Friday evening, December 4, 1903, Anna, accompanied by a young man named Obe Hughes, went to a dance near Madison at the home of George Ownby. About 7:30, Dawson showed up drunk, uninvited, and packing a revolver. He mingled with some of the other young people present and was heard to say that he meant to "kill some son of a bitch before they danced two rounds."
About 8:30, his friends succeeded in getting Dawson back on his horse and started toward home. However, he showed back up a half hour later flourishing his weapon. This time, his friends took the weapon away from him, but they handed it back to him a short time later when he promised to give it to another friend.
Dawson started off again but reappeared at the door of the dance hall about 9:30 or 10:00. Just as a new dance was beginning, he strode across the dance floor, pointed his revolver at Anna Hartman, and fired. Anna started to run but slumped to the floor. Her dance partner tried to wrestle the assailant to the floor, but during the scuffle, Dawson got off two more shots. Of the three shots, two struck Anna, one of which passed through her chest, gravely wounding her, while her companion suffered a minor injury. Dawson, thinking he had killed both Anna and her partner, strode rapidly away.
He was arrested a short time later at his brother's house, which was located not far from the Ownby place. Taken to Paris (MO), he was lodged in the Monroe County Jail and charged with first-degree murder after Anna died of her wounds. Rumors of vigilante justice soon prompted authorities to move the defendant to the Macon County Jail, where Dawson gave a statement, saying he had no memory whatsoever of the killing.
Dawson entered a plea of emotional insanity, but he was convicted of first-degree murder at his trial in Paris in late January of 1904 and sentenced to hang in mid-March. The sentence was stayed pending an appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court, and the high court overturned the conviction in early 1905 on the grounds that the prosecution and judge should have provided instructions for the finding of a lesser verdict.
On retrial in mid-1905, Dawson was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 99 years in prison. The sentence was commuted by the governor in 1918, and Dawson was released after serving only 13 years of the supposed 99-year sentence.
No comments:
Post a Comment