That certainly was the case in Chariton on Wednesday evening, Oct. 16, 1901, or early the next morning, after editors of Chariton's three newspapers --- The Patriot, The Herald and The Democrat --- had seen their carefully crafted reports of Joe Buchanan's sensational murder south of Columbia set into type, heaved a sigh of relief and prepared to go home. (Follow this link to read Part 1 of this series.)
Although The Democrat team didn't even try, editors of both The Patriot and The Herald tore their forms apart and inserted brief paragraphs with updates for their editions of Thursday, Oct. 17. The Herald's read as follows:
"LATER --- Lee Whitlatch was arrested and brought to town last night, on suspicion of being one of the murderers. Some information given by him caused the sheriff and county attorney to hurry back to Pleasant township early this morning, and more developments may be looked for soon."
You may remember Lee as the brother of Owen Whitlatch, who had discovered Mr. Buchanan's mutilated and partially decomposed remains on Saturday morning, Oct. 5. Lee had entered the cabin with others later in the day and had testified during the inquest conducted onsite by Lucas County Coroner Dr. Theodore P. Stanton that afternoon.
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Lee and Owen were sons of Columbia's farmer-turned-physician, Dr. Eli Whitlatch, who had married Millie M. Reed, a Columbia girl some eight years his senior, during January of 1868 and had four children in fairly quick succession.
The eldest of these was Mary, born during October of 1869 who by the time of Joe Buchanan's murder had married Samuel E. Reed and settled down in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Next was Lee, born the 17th of February 1871 and age 30 when facing murder charges. Owen, born July 24, 1873, had married Edna Burton at Bussey during June of 1901 and they were living at Columbia. The youngest Whitlatch son, George Arthur, had died of heart disease during July of 1893, age 18, and was the first of this family to be buried in the Columbia Cemetery. The Whitlatch family lived due east of the Columbia Cemetery on a road that no longer goes anywhere, according to Dennis Stotts, a member of one of Columbia's oldest families.
Lee's middle name seems to have been "trouble" almost from the beginning. When Joe Buchanan was murdered, he was on parole from the Iowa State Penitentiary, having been convicted some two years earlier of stealing turkeys. While that seems now to have been a relatively minor offense, it had drawn a three-year prison term in part, I suspect, because of previous infractions. He had been paroled after two years, however, and was living with his parents that fall.
Owen Whitlatch seems to have been perceived of as the good son and was a school teacher by profession.
Owen Whitlatch seems to have been perceived of as the good son and was a school teacher by profession.
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In the interim between the discovery of Joe Buchanan's body on Saturday and Lee's arrest on Wednesday, Mr. Buchanan's remains had been buried on Sunday afternoon after funeral services in Columbia. Among those in attendance, according to the Pleasant Prairie News column in The Democrat of Oct. 17, were N.N. Byers and E.P. Brightwell.
We're as sure as we can be of anything that Mr. Buchanan's remains were interred in the Columbia Cemetery although the grave now is lost, but The Patriot muddied the water a little in its Oct. 17 report of the murder by stating that "he was buried in the Belinda cemetery on Sunday afternoon." Now that Belinda has for the most part vanished, we call what once was known as the Belinda Cemetery the Strong Pioneer Cemetery, located in a field southwest of the former Belinda Christian Church. The Herald identified the cemetery as "at Columbia."
I wonder if my grandmother, Jessie (Brown) Miller, attended that funeral. At the time, the Columbia switchboard was located in her living room and she would have had ample opportunity, should she have chosen to listen in, to eavesdrop on some fairly exciting conversations. I'm sure she never would have done such a thing, however.
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Lee was bound over to a Lucas County Grand Jury on the Wedneday (Oct. 23) following his arrest, as reported on Page 1 of The Herald of Thursday, Oct. 24:
WHITLATCH BOUND OVER
Held for the Murder of Joseph Buchanan, Under Bonds of $5,000.
Sheriff Manning and Attorney Drake have been laboring hard to secure the parties guilty of the foul murder of Joseph Buchanan, the old man who was found dead in his cabin in the northeastern part of the county about two weeks ago. After carefully inquiring into the situation they arrested a young man of that neighborhood, Lee Whitlatch, on last Thursday morning, and his preliminary trial was held before Justice Long on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, and on change of venue from Justice Manning's court. The trial was held in the assembly room at the courthouse, to accommodate the crowd that wanted to hear the testimony, as the murder stirred up a great deal of feeling all over the county.
John Buchanan, a brother of the murdered man, who lives at Streator, Ill., was here, and he secured Attorney J.A. Penick to assist County Attorney Drake in the prosecution. Attorney Loren Hayes, of Knoxville, who had once helped convict young Whitlatch of stealing turkeys and had him sent to the penitentiary for the crime, was secured by the defendant to represent him. Eight witnesses were examined during the two days, as follows: Robert L. Wright, Proctor Bingaman, Coroner T.P. Stanton, Telitha Dawson, Elmer Smith, C.K. Damerice, J.F. Anderson and Sheriff Manning.
The testimony of three of the witnesses was much more important than the rest.
J.F. Anderson said that he and Lee Whitlatch had been buggy riding together during the latter part of August or the first of September, and Lee had said that he knew an old man that had $300 or $400 who lived in a secluded place with no one in particular to look after him. That there were lots of holes in the ground around there, and the old man could be put in one of them and never missed. Some one could get the money.
That was the gist of Whitlatch's words to Anderson. The latter asked, "Who is it?" to which Whitlatch replied, "Old Joe Buchanan.
That conversation coupled with the fact that Anderson was rather hard up just then, and was hunting work, is damaging evidence against Whitlatch. It seems to indicate that he was feeling around for a confederate in the crime that was afterward committed, but did not want to commit himself outright.
Another witness, Elmer Smith, said that Lee Whitlatch had said to him that Joe Buchanan had $300 and it could be got and someone was going to get it.
As Lee had clerked for Mr. Buchanan when he was running a store in Columbia, had helped him in his coal business, and held mortgages on him, and had counted his money for him, the affair looks bad indeed for the young man. People in the vicinity of the murder think that Whitlatch is either one of the murderers or knows all about it.
Telitha Dawson testified that she overheard Lee Whitlatch say to his brother Owen, a few days ago, and after it is supposed that Buchanan was murdered, that he had just made $100 and had it in his pocket.
After considering the testimony carefully Justice long bound the defendant over to appear before the grand jury here December 2, in bonds of $5,000. As he cannot give the bonds, he will remain in jail. Meanwhile the officers are searching for more evidence and others who may be implicated.
An unusual proceeding was the binding over of the witness, J.F. Anderson, in bond of $100, to appear before the grand jury to testify. His testimony is considered so important that his absence at that time could not be risked.
It seems that the officers are on the right track in the matter.
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With Lee now secured behind bars in Chariton, the investigation into the case continued --- taking a rather macabre turn.
At some point, the story began to spread that Mr. Buchanan had been shot in the head before his killer had attempted to obliterate all traces by applying an axe to the skull.
This probably was why Coroner Stanton ordered that Buchanan's remains be exhumed and the head removed and brought into Chariton for further examination.
We don't know exactly when this mission was carried out, but The Herald of Dec. 17, 1901, contained the following report:
"It is a fact not generally known that the body of old Joseph Buchanan, who was murdered in his cabin in the northeast part of Lucas County one night during the fall just past, was dug up by order of Coroner Stanton about 10 days after its burial, and the skull was brought to Chariton for use in the grand jury investigation. There was a theory that the old man had been shot in the head before he was struck with the axe, but no holes in the skull were found to verify the shooting theory. The skull is now in the keeping of Dr. Stanton, in his office here."
Lucas County Board of Supervisors proceedings for December 1901, published in Chariton newspapers during January 1902, show that $1 each was paid to four men for opening the grave of Joseph Buchanan --- F. Dawson, T.H. Bingaman, Jos. Pilkington and Arthur Stotts. The principal suspect's father, Dr. Whitlatch, reportedly was in charge of the forensic end of the operation.
Arthur Stotts, known for the most part as "A.B. Stotts," was Dennis Stotts' great-grandfather. Dennis recalls that his grandfather, Pete Stotts, said that his father told him Doc Whitlatch took a chaw of tobacco and started cutting Joe Buchanan's head off. The head reportedly was boiled to remove the flesh.
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Lee Whitlatch's day in court during early December proved to be anticlimactic. Both the county attorney and the grand jury had by this time concluded that insufficient evidence had been gathered to ensure a conviction. As a result, the Lucas County attorney moved to dismiss the charges against Lee and he was discharged.
This did not mean, however, that the authorities were finished with young Mr. Whitlatch, who high-tailed it north immediately after his release to Sauk Centre, Minn., and the home of his sister and brother-in-law.
Before the year was out, the sheriffs and county attorneys of both Lucas and Marion counties had petitioned Iowa Gov. L.M. Shaw to rescind Lee's parole, which he did. Marion County Sheriff Lyman L. Bybee carried the official papers north with him during late December to Sauk Centre where he arrested Lee and then hauled him back to Fort Madison to serve the remaining months of his term.
At least authorities now were certain that Lee was in secure hands as they continued their efforts to build a case against him.
To be continued ...
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