Mount Ayr News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
July 13, 1905

"Doc" MULLOCK, formerly a resident of this county, was shot and instantly killed Sunday near his home, two miles from Parnell, Worth County, MO. His brother, John, is in jail at Grant City, the coroner's jury having named him as the person who did the shooting. It appears that there had been trouble between them over a cow.

MULLOCK received a charge of No. 4 shot in his right breast, 67 shot entering a spot not much larger than a man's hand, so it is figured that the murderer must have stood only 20 or 25 feet away. The theory of the prosecution is that John MULLOCK stood behind a tree and rested the shotgun on a limb.

The victim was going along the road, leading a cow. He was accompanied by his ten-year-old stepson, Dan MANIS, who claims to have seen John MULLOCK fire the fatal shot.

"Doc" MULLOCK's father-in-law, Stokey MANIS, in "Doc" MULLOCK's yard a quarter of a mile away from the shooting says he saw someone go to the field and speak to John MULLOCK, when the latter at once went to the house of his sister, Eliza MULLOCK, where he made his home and where the shooting was done. John MULLOCK claims that when the shot was fired, he was pulling weeds in an oats field a quarter of a mile north of the scene of the shooting.

The body of the victim was left lying in the road for over an hour, his numerous relatives in the neighborhood giving it no attention.

John MULLOCK, in jail at Grant City, was sullen and reticent, and when at length he consented to talk, would not speak directly about the shooting, but talked volubly about his wrongs, among which he mentioned having been shot in the hand a few months ago by his brother in a quarrel. He claims to have heard of the shooting first from the Sheriff, who arrested him late Sunday afternoon at his sister's where he made his home.

Two boys named COLLINS, whose family is involved in the cow dispute, passed MULLOCK and his boy going east, and after the shooting drove the cow back to their own place. Stokey MANIS says he heard one of the COLLINS boys say "John get ready, here comes 'Doc' with the cow." The COLLINS place is a half a mile west of "Doc" MULLOCK's, while John and Eliza MULLOCK's place, where the shooting was done, is about half way between them.

Ten year old Dan MANIS, who was behind driving the cow when the shot was fired, states that he saw John MULLOCK behind the willow tree and that he saw him level the gun and fire. He also states that he was so frightened he could not cry out to "Doc" of his danger. He further states that the two COLLINS boys were standing near John when he fired the shot.

The trouble over the cow is stated thus:

"Doc" MULLOCK had gone over to the COLLINS home, about half a mile west, to get a cow out of the pasture. It seems that a few days before the shooting, three cows that were being kept by "Doc" MULLOCK got out of the pasture and were taken up by John MULLOCK. One of these cows in particular the COLLINS boys claimed they had bought of Eliza MULLOCK, and it was this one that "Doc" was taking home. It seems that this cow was owned by Chancey MULLOCK, a brother who lives in Kansas, and he had either sold it to "Doc" or given it to him. "Doc" got the cow out of the pasture and started to drive it to his home on the public road, going east.

"Doc" MULLOCK is said to have carried a gun with him when he went for the cow.

The facts on which this article is based were obatined from this week's issue of the Worth County Times and the Grant City Star.

MULLOCK formerly lived in Lotts Creek Township, this [Ringgold] county. He was sent to the penitentiary from this county under a four years' sentence for keeping a house of ill fame, on complaint of his neighbors, who asserted that his young daughter was being wronged. He was sent up in 1899, and shortly after his return from Fort Madison [penitentiary] went to live in Missouri.

Transcriptions by Sharon R. Becker, December, 2008