Laura Jane Harvey Murder: Part Eighteen

As perhaps to be expected, the District Court's guilty verdict of Lant McComb was appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court which set a date of mid December to hear the case. The Supreme Court was going to rule on eight different issues relating to the trial of McComb.

I am not a lawyer and have read through the eight charges several times over the years and am only to scratch the surface when it comes to decoding them into a form that a layman could understand. What I can tell you is that the defense was unsuccessful on many of the charges and the ones they were successful on weren't enough to warrant a new trial. The decision of the District Court was upheld and the court left it up to the Governor of Iowa to decide the date and time of the execution.

No more about the case was posted in the local newspaper but toward the end of January, there was an article in the Rockford newspaper, McComb and victim Laura Harvey's home town, about the city board stopping all payment of reward money until numerous conflicting claims for them could be settled. I could find no work of their settlement and none on how those reward funds based in Iowa were handed out, if at all. With $1500 up for grabs, I'm sure there were people vying for them in Iowa just like they were across the state line in Rockford.

Finally on February 2, 1865, closing in on five years from the date of Laura Harvey's murder, word came through the telegraph to the newspaper office that the Governor of Iowa had set February 17th at 2 o'clock p.m. in the "vicinity of Ottumwa" as the date that the sentence of Lant McComb would be carried out. However, Sheriff Derby had not yet received official word of the date for the hanging so didn't want to respond with an actual time or place that it would be carried out until he had received the information officially. 

A week later, official word had still not reached Sheriff Derby and as one could expect of a citizen population that had tried to lynch McComb not once, but twice, they were starting to get antsy for the punishment to be carried out. Great throngs of people were starting to arrive from around the state into Ottumwa and excitement was building.

McComb, for reasons unexplained, started a hunger strike which he kept up for five days and nights according to the newspaper. Also for reasons unknown, he began to eat normally on the sixth day and started receiving visitors to his cell. Mr. Wagg, a local barber, stopped by to give McComb a haircut and a shave and a Mr. Harkins from the Rockford area stopped to make arrangements for the disposition of McComb's body after the hanging. 

At last, on February 16, Iowa Governor William M. Stone finally signed the death warrant for B. A. McComb, for the murder of Laura J. Harvey, ordering the execution to take place on the following day. The site of the execution was selected to be held within the walls of the jail and would be strictly private. 

The newspaper also made an announcement that their normally scheduled weekly paper for the 16th, would be delayed until late in the day of the following day, specifically so they give a full account of the execution of McComb to their readers. The announced that extra copies would be available at the post office.