Law and Order 1875

May 15, 1875

A young man named Kaiser was returning from Vincennes to his home on May 16, 1875 at 10 o'clock pm. when he met two neighborhood men who assaulted him. These men were David Crane and William Hughes. Two to one being too much for Kaiser, he ran, dropping a bundle of clothing he had just purchased in the city. When he returned to collect the clothing it had disappeared. He collected some companions, including Richard Calvin,[1] and went to the house where Crane, Hughes, and, as reported by the newspaper, “lewd women”, lived on the John Richardville farm.   

There Kaiser and his friends called out to those in the house that they could have as much fighting as they wanted if they would come out of the house. Two pistol shots were fired from the house, and Kaiser and his friends scattered in different directions. Most of them lay down behind logs and stumps. 

After 10 minutes elapsed, Kaiser’s party decided to go home. While they were trying to climb over a fence about 50 yards east of the house, a double-barreled shotgun was fired at them. The buckshot struck Calvin in the center of the forehead, entered his brain, and killed him instantly.

Calvin’s body was taken to the residence of his employer, John Jackson.  Richardville was arrested at once but Crane and Hughes were not found. 

Hughes was arrested Sunday and in the afternoon Officer Keever of Vincennes and W. C. Garrard of Lawrenceville arrested Crane just outside the corporate limits of Vincennes on William Green’s farm near the fair grounds. Hughes confessed to having fired the shot.  He was taken to join the others in the Lawrenceville jail.  Within 16 hours all those implicated in the shooting were arrested. 

The Vincennes paper opined that Calvin was a man of good character, while Crane was the reverse. Crane had been forced to leave his home, because of mistreating his wife in Martin County, Indiana, while Richardville belonged to one of the oldest French families of Vincennes, who had never been in trouble.

A coroner’s inquest was held on May 16, at Jackson’s farm, known as Butternut Hills.  The jurors were Wm. M. Garrard, Foreman,  Will M. Garrard, A. G. Wineman, T. A. Curry, W. H. Seed, James H. Perry, W. E. Hopkins, Ed T. Ryan, William Maloy, Richard Hynes, Walter Mainning, S. B. Rowland.

Witnesses called were Perry Fitzgerald, Jos. Robinson, F. P. Hopkins, Jeremiah and John Brown, F. VanTrece, L. Carrico, George Weikle, N. A. Kaiser, John Brown, Sarah Anderson, Ella Richardville-- all of Lawrence County.

John Brown’s testimony was the only one recorded by the Coroner. Brown was a farm laborer and was with Kaiser, Calvin and others the night of the shooting.  His testimony focused on what he knew about that night, with several extraneous comments about the morality of the women inside the house with Richardville, Crane and Hughes.

Brown said he saw Crane and Richardville slipping up the fence on Thursday, looking to see if anyone was watching.  Richardville said “no one sees us.”  They then went into the house with sacks of provisions about 5 o’clock and Brown never saw them leave the house, but could not say what happened after he left work in the neighboring field. 

Brown was outside the house about 10-11 o’clock pm with Calvin and the others.  He believed Richardville and Hughes had stuck Kaiser. The boys in the house then commenced shooting, and Brown and the others ran behind stumps. Crane said “God Damn you, I will give you some more of this” and then shot Calvin who fell off the fence.  Brown heard no other voices except Crane’s.

After all the testimony, the jurors found that Richard Calvin’s death was caused by a shot gun loaded with buckshot, fired by David Crane on the night of May 15, 1875, and that John Richardville, and William Hughes were also involved.

On June 5th the newspapers reported that on Monday Messrs. Cobb and Pritchett of Vincennes, legal counsel for David Crane, John Richardville and Wm. Hughes, who were confined in the Lawrence County jail, were trying to secure the necessary documents  for a writ of habeas corpus.[2] 

By Friday the prisoners were before Judge Allen. After hearing testimony, the judge set bail at $2000 each for Crane and Hughes. Richardville was discharged, it appearing he was not an accessory to the crime.  However, Judge Allen did charge him with being cognizant of a felony and failing to give information. He was subject to a fine and imprisonment.

Richardville promptly gave bail for his appearance at the August term of Court and returned to his home.  Crane and Hughes remained in jail, not being able to make bail.  Atty Thomas R. Cobb represented the prisoners on this writ.

During the August term of 1875 the Grand Jury called by States Attorney T. B. Huffman, met to decide if there was enough evidence to try the case. The foreman was Josiah Tewalt.  Witnesses called were John Brown, Jerry Brown, Perry Fitzgerald, Fayette Carrico, Robert Vantrece, Alonzo Kaiser, George E Weikle, Frank Hopkins, Clinton Abernathy, Ed Ryan, O.V. Smith, T. P. Curry and D. L. Gold.

The grand jury found that David Crane and William Hughes, willfully and with malice of forethought, assaulted Richard Calvin with a loaded shotgun and/or pistol and then discharged and shot Calvin in the head, a little back of the forehead and near the center of the top of his head causing a mortal wound of 4 inches in depth and 1/2 inch wide from which Calvin died instantly.

A lengthy trial in Circuit Court then followed. Lewis Wilcoxen was summoned on behalf of the defendant. J. H. Allison, the sheriff, reported back to the court that he could not serve the subpoena on several of the plaintiff’s witnesses because of high water.

No witness testimony or a transcript of the trial can be found in the court file but the jury instructions were still there.

Jurors were told that if they believed from the evidence that on the night of May 15, Richard Calvin, with several others, went to the house occupied by the defendants, David Crane and William Hughes, one of whom shot and killed Richard Calvin, while the other one pointed out where and in what direction to shoot, then the jurors should find the defendants guilty of murder. 

But if the jury believed from the evidence, that Calvin and his group assaulted the defendants’ house with bricks in such a manner that Hughes and Crane believed they were in immediate danger of losing their own lives or of sustaining the loss of the house, then the jurors were to find the defendants guilty of manslaughter.

No one is alive today to tell what facts the jury considered and what ones they disregarded, but when they returned to the courtroom the verdict was not guilty for William Hughes and guilty of manslaughter for David Crane. Crane’s punishment was to be imprisonment in the state penitentiary for one year.

Bibliography

Coroner’s Inquest Record, Lawrence County Courthouse, Lawrenceville, IL

Court Records, Lawrence County Courthouse, Lawrenceville, IL

The Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois), “Lawrence County Illinois Tragedy” May 17, 1875

The Indianapolis News, May 22, 1875

Vincennes Weekly Sun, “A Bloody Murder,” May 18, 1875   (This article was republished on May 22, 1875)

Vincennes Weekly Sun, June 5 1875 (republished from the Lawrenceville Herald)

Vincennes Western Sun, “The Habeas Corpus Case,” June 8, 1875 (reprinted on June 12, 1875)

[1] Richard Calvin had been employed by the Hon. John Jackson at Butternut Hills in Lawrence County for about one year. He was from Martin County Indiana and was about 23 years old. He was about 5’8” with dark complexion, black eyes, and dark hair,

[2] A writ of habeas corpus is a procedural legal remedy to determine if the prisoner is being lawfully detained.