Horrible Crime Committed by a Kansas Farmer
Oswego, Dec. 11---After a preliminary examination, Rudolph Bruckman, a wealthy farmer of Osage township, has been held in the sum of $10,000 to answer for the murder of his 17-year-old daughter, Mary. Four weeks ago Bruckman gave the girl a terrible beating, because she did not work to suit him in his cornfield. He then tied a rope around one of her ankles, fastened the other end of the rope to a rear axle of his wagon and drove to his barn a quarter of a mile off, dragging the girl behind. Arriving there, he locked her up in the barn without sufficient clothing and without food.
The girl was found by her uncle and another neighbor, who carried her away, but her injuries were so serious that she died on November 22.
Bruckman has long been an outcast among the farmers of Osage township. His ranch adjoins the notorious Bender farm and he was the nearest neighbor of the Bender butchers.
After the horrifying crimes of the Bender family had become known and they had fled the country, Bruckman was visited one night by a mob of masked men who demanded to know where the Benders had gone. Bruckman insisted that he knew nothing of the Benders or their deeds, but he was strung up to the limb of a tree and held there until almost dead. Finally, however, he was cut down and allowed to go away, but ever since he has been shunned.
(Morning Olympian ~ December 11, 1896)
Lizzie, Mary's sister, went to live with her uncle by the name of Clinefelter. Later she returned to the Brockman home to find her sister, Mary, in a sorrowful plight. When Lizzie found her, Mary's hair was all matted, her clothes torn, dirty, and in terrible condition. One foot and leg were nearly rotted off. She could not walk. The uncle took her to his home where she soon died.
It is said the step mother used to get a broomstick after Mary and she couldn't stay at the house. Her father made her go to the fields with him to shuck corn. When she was not able she would be chained to the wagon and dragged to the field and back. She had to sleep in the barn with the chickens roosting over her.
Lizzie reported this, unhuman act, to the authorities. Brockman's trial came up in February, 1897. He was sentenced to twenty years in the penitentiary. The neighbors thought Mrs Brockman was as guilty as he, but other people said, "Well, he didn't have to mistreat his daughters."
"The Famous Mortimers" by Vera Mortimer Turner, 2nd part page 101
COYVILLE STAR, NOV 26, 1897
Some one in passing the graveyard noticed fresh earth at one of the graves and on investigation, it was found that the grave of Mary Brockman, who was killed by her brutal father last fall, had been opened. The earth had all been thrown out, the box lid taken off and the glass in front of the coffin broken, exposing the remains to the weather. The work had not been done long when discovered, Wednesday of last week, and it is mysterious what motive anyone would have in doing such a thing. Nothing was taken from the grave and there is no clue to the perpetrator of the deed. It seems too bad that Mary should suffer such a horrible death and that her bones are not allowed to lie undisturbed in their last resting place.
Contributor: Gypsy Girl (47851655)
Oswego, Dec. 11---After a preliminary examination, Rudolph Bruckman, a wealthy farmer of Osage township, has been held in the sum of $10,000 to answer for the murder of his 17-year-old daughter, Mary. Four weeks ago Bruckman gave the girl a terrible beating, because she did not work to suit him in his cornfield. He then tied a rope around one of her ankles, fastened the other end of the rope to a rear axle of his wagon and drove to his barn a quarter of a mile off, dragging the girl behind. Arriving there, he locked her up in the barn without sufficient clothing and without food.
The girl was found by her uncle and another neighbor, who carried her away, but her injuries were so serious that she died on November 22.
Bruckman has long been an outcast among the farmers of Osage township. His ranch adjoins the notorious Bender farm and he was the nearest neighbor of the Bender butchers.
After the horrifying crimes of the Bender family had become known and they had fled the country, Bruckman was visited one night by a mob of masked men who demanded to know where the Benders had gone. Bruckman insisted that he knew nothing of the Benders or their deeds, but he was strung up to the limb of a tree and held there until almost dead. Finally, however, he was cut down and allowed to go away, but ever since he has been shunned.
(Morning Olympian ~ December 11, 1896)
Lizzie, Mary's sister, went to live with her uncle by the name of Clinefelter. Later she returned to the Brockman home to find her sister, Mary, in a sorrowful plight. When Lizzie found her, Mary's hair was all matted, her clothes torn, dirty, and in terrible condition. One foot and leg were nearly rotted off. She could not walk. The uncle took her to his home where she soon died.
It is said the step mother used to get a broomstick after Mary and she couldn't stay at the house. Her father made her go to the fields with him to shuck corn. When she was not able she would be chained to the wagon and dragged to the field and back. She had to sleep in the barn with the chickens roosting over her.
Lizzie reported this, unhuman act, to the authorities. Brockman's trial came up in February, 1897. He was sentenced to twenty years in the penitentiary. The neighbors thought Mrs Brockman was as guilty as he, but other people said, "Well, he didn't have to mistreat his daughters."
"The Famous Mortimers" by Vera Mortimer Turner, 2nd part page 101
COYVILLE STAR, NOV 26, 1897
Some one in passing the graveyard noticed fresh earth at one of the graves and on investigation, it was found that the grave of Mary Brockman, who was killed by her brutal father last fall, had been opened. The earth had all been thrown out, the box lid taken off and the glass in front of the coffin broken, exposing the remains to the weather. The work had not been done long when discovered, Wednesday of last week, and it is mysterious what motive anyone would have in doing such a thing. Nothing was taken from the grave and there is no clue to the perpetrator of the deed. It seems too bad that Mary should suffer such a horrible death and that her bones are not allowed to lie undisturbed in their last resting place.
Contributor: Gypsy Girl (47851655)
Horrible Crime Committed by a Kansas Farmer
Oswego, Dec. 11---After a preliminary examination, Rudolph Bruckman, a wealthy farmer of Osage township, has been held in the sum of $10,000 to answer for the murder of his 17-year-old daughter, Mary. Four weeks ago Bruckman gave the girl a terrible beating, because she did not work to suit him in his cornfield. He then tied a rope around one of her ankles, fastened the other end of the rope to a rear axle of his wagon and drove to his barn a quarter of a mile off, dragging the girl behind. Arriving there, he locked her up in the barn without sufficient clothing and without food.
The girl was found by her uncle and another neighbor, who carried her away, but her injuries were so serious that she died on November 22.
Bruckman has long been an outcast among the farmers of Osage township. His ranch adjoins the notorious Bender farm and he was the nearest neighbor of the Bender butchers.
After the horrifying crimes of the Bender family had become known and they had fled the country, Bruckman was visited one night by a mob of masked men who demanded to know where the Benders had gone. Bruckman insisted that he knew nothing of the Benders or their deeds, but he was strung up to the limb of a tree and held there until almost dead. Finally, however, he was cut down and allowed to go away, but ever since he has been shunned.
(Morning Olympian ~ December 11, 1896)
Lizzie, Mary's sister, went to live with her uncle by the name of Clinefelter. Later she returned to the Brockman home to find her sister, Mary, in a sorrowful plight. When Lizzie found her, Mary's hair was all matted, her clothes torn, dirty, and in terrible condition. One foot and leg were nearly rotted off. She could not walk. The uncle took her to his home where she soon died.
It is said the step mother used to get a broomstick after Mary and she couldn't stay at the house. Her father made her go to the fields with him to shuck corn. When she was not able she would be chained to the wagon and dragged to the field and back. She had to sleep in the barn with the chickens roosting over her.
Lizzie reported this, unhuman act, to the authorities. Brockman's trial came up in February, 1897. He was sentenced to twenty years in the penitentiary. The neighbors thought Mrs Brockman was as guilty as he, but other people said, "Well, he didn't have to mistreat his daughters."
"The Famous Mortimers" by Vera Mortimer Turner, 2nd part page 101
COYVILLE STAR, NOV 26, 1897
Some one in passing the graveyard noticed fresh earth at one of the graves and on investigation, it was found that the grave of Mary Brockman, who was killed by her brutal father last fall, had been opened. The earth had all been thrown out, the box lid taken off and the glass in front of the coffin broken, exposing the remains to the weather. The work had not been done long when discovered, Wednesday of last week, and it is mysterious what motive anyone would have in doing such a thing. Nothing was taken from the grave and there is no clue to the perpetrator of the deed. It seems too bad that Mary should suffer such a horrible death and that her bones are not allowed to lie undisturbed in their last resting place.
Contributor: Gypsy Girl (47851655)
Oswego, Dec. 11---After a preliminary examination, Rudolph Bruckman, a wealthy farmer of Osage township, has been held in the sum of $10,000 to answer for the murder of his 17-year-old daughter, Mary. Four weeks ago Bruckman gave the girl a terrible beating, because she did not work to suit him in his cornfield. He then tied a rope around one of her ankles, fastened the other end of the rope to a rear axle of his wagon and drove to his barn a quarter of a mile off, dragging the girl behind. Arriving there, he locked her up in the barn without sufficient clothing and without food.
The girl was found by her uncle and another neighbor, who carried her away, but her injuries were so serious that she died on November 22.
Bruckman has long been an outcast among the farmers of Osage township. His ranch adjoins the notorious Bender farm and he was the nearest neighbor of the Bender butchers.
After the horrifying crimes of the Bender family had become known and they had fled the country, Bruckman was visited one night by a mob of masked men who demanded to know where the Benders had gone. Bruckman insisted that he knew nothing of the Benders or their deeds, but he was strung up to the limb of a tree and held there until almost dead. Finally, however, he was cut down and allowed to go away, but ever since he has been shunned.
(Morning Olympian ~ December 11, 1896)
Lizzie, Mary's sister, went to live with her uncle by the name of Clinefelter. Later she returned to the Brockman home to find her sister, Mary, in a sorrowful plight. When Lizzie found her, Mary's hair was all matted, her clothes torn, dirty, and in terrible condition. One foot and leg were nearly rotted off. She could not walk. The uncle took her to his home where she soon died.
It is said the step mother used to get a broomstick after Mary and she couldn't stay at the house. Her father made her go to the fields with him to shuck corn. When she was not able she would be chained to the wagon and dragged to the field and back. She had to sleep in the barn with the chickens roosting over her.
Lizzie reported this, unhuman act, to the authorities. Brockman's trial came up in February, 1897. He was sentenced to twenty years in the penitentiary. The neighbors thought Mrs Brockman was as guilty as he, but other people said, "Well, he didn't have to mistreat his daughters."
"The Famous Mortimers" by Vera Mortimer Turner, 2nd part page 101
COYVILLE STAR, NOV 26, 1897
Some one in passing the graveyard noticed fresh earth at one of the graves and on investigation, it was found that the grave of Mary Brockman, who was killed by her brutal father last fall, had been opened. The earth had all been thrown out, the box lid taken off and the glass in front of the coffin broken, exposing the remains to the weather. The work had not been done long when discovered, Wednesday of last week, and it is mysterious what motive anyone would have in doing such a thing. Nothing was taken from the grave and there is no clue to the perpetrator of the deed. It seems too bad that Mary should suffer such a horrible death and that her bones are not allowed to lie undisturbed in their last resting place.
Contributor: Gypsy Girl (47851655)
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