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THE WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL
MADISON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1930
Bandits Slay Two in Crawford Co. Holdup
Wound Two in Battle at Farmhouse
Three Men, Woman Exchange Shots, Flee Toward Mt.Sterling After Battle
PRAIRIE DU CHIEN—(U.P.)—Bandits who posed as squirrel hunters invaded a farm home near Mount Zion today, killing Patrick Gorman and his son, Paul, 18, and wounding
Steven and Cornelius Horrigan.
The Horrigan brothers, wealthy farm owners, were taken to a hospital at Boscobel after the bandits had escaped and help was summoned. Both men had an arm shattered by
the pistol fire of the robbers, and Cornelius also had a fractured jaw.
Three men and a...
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THE WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL
MADISON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1930
Bandits Slay Two in Crawford Co. Holdup
Wound Two in Battle at Farmhouse
Three Men, Woman Exchange Shots, Flee Toward Mt.Sterling After Battle
PRAIRIE DU CHIEN—(U.P.)—Bandits who posed as squirrel hunters invaded a farm home near Mount Zion today, killing Patrick Gorman and his son, Paul, 18, and wounding
Steven and Cornelius Horrigan.
The Horrigan brothers, wealthy farm owners, were taken to a hospital at Boscobel after the bandits had escaped and help was summoned. Both men had an arm shattered by
the pistol fire of the robbers, and Cornelius also had a fractured jaw.
Three men and a woman were in the group which called at the Horrigan farm today while the Gormans were visiting there and eating dinner with the farmers. Their first
request was for water. Then they asked permission to shoot squirrels, and suddenly altered their demands with the command "put up your hands."
Attempts to resist resulted in general shooting and the death of the Gormans as they tried to protect their friends from another of the attempted robberies to which they have been subjected in recent years.
Authorities here recalled that the Horrigans, reputed to be wealthy and to keep large sums of money in their farm home, were robbed only a few years ago and that they recently repelled invaders at their place.
The unsuccessful robbers fled in a gray sedan after the gun battle. Resident of Mount Sterling reported that the car passed through that place. They said the windshield
was shattered and that one of the men appeared to be wounded.
THE HAWARDEN INDEPENDENT
GRIM TRAGEDY IN WISCONSIN
PAT GORMAN AND SON PAUL ARE MURDERED BY ROBBERS
HAWARDEN, SIOUX COUNTY, IOWA THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1930
Two Members of Former Well Known Hawarden Family Shot Down at Isolated Home of Relatives
Patrick C. Gorman, aged 63, a former well-known resident of Hawarden, and his son, Paul, aged 21, of Chicago were instantly killed Tuesday evening by three men and a woman, posing as hunters, who entered an isolated farm home 17 miles northeast of Boscobel, Wis., where the Gormans were visiting, and shot them down in cold blood while they were seated at the dinner table. Cornelius and Stephen Horrigan, brothers-in-law of Mr. Gorman, and reputed wealthy, at whose home the shooting occurred, were critically wounded and the former also died that night at a hospital to which he was removed.
According to Associated Press reports an automobile carrying three men and a woman drew up to the Horrigan home while the family was seated about the dinner table. The woman entered the house and asked for a glass of water. When Miss Ellen Horrigan, aged 75, who lived with her brothers, left the room to get the water, the three men entered the house.
"We would like to go squirrel hunting on your farm," one of men said.
"Sure, you can hunt anywhere you like on my land," Stephen Horrigan replied.
One of the men suddenly drew a revolver and issued the command: "Hands up." The others also produced weapons.
Stephen Horrigan moved as if for a weapon and the men fired. The Gormans were killed instantly and Cornelius Horrigan fell wounded, with bullets through his jaw and one arm. His left arm hit by a bullet, Stephen Horrigan ran into an adjoining room for a pistol which he fired twice, as the intruders fled to their automobile. One shot shattered the windshield of the car, but posses failed to find any trace of the bandits.
Cornelius Horrigan, 60 years old, was the most seriously wounded of the two brothers and passed away that night. Stephen Horrigan is 57 years of age.
From descriptions of the robbers, authorities believe they were all novices. The woman is said to have had her face partly covered with adhesive tape while the men were all unmasked.
Tales of buried treasure on the Horrigan farm were believed by the authorities to have prompted the slayings. Neighbors said the Horrigans feared to trust their money to banks and buried their savings.
A quartette answering descriptions of the slayers was routed from the farm the past summer. At the time they were frightened away, they were reported digging about the farm in search of the reputed hidden wealth.
The Gorman family made their home in Hawarden for many years during which time Mr. Gorman was section foreman for the North Western Railway Company here. He was a man of powerful physique, weighing in the neighborhood of 300 pounds and his genial nature made him a friend of everyone. A little more than twenty years ago he purchased a farm near Canton and moved his family to that place. The family prospered on the farm and following the death of his daughter-in-law, Mrs. John Gorman, a couple of years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Gorman moved to Huron to make a home for their son, John Gorman, and his motherless children. Mr. Gorman and his son Paul of Chicago had gone to Wisconsin to visit the Horrigans only about a week before the tragedy. Mr. Gorman had visited here frequently during the past few years and was here several times the past summer.
News of the tragedy came as a distinct shock to the many old Hawarden friends of the Gorman family, all of whom are highly regarded here.
Besides the widow, surviving members of the family include six sons and three daughters, Philip Gorman of Leesburg, Fla.; John Gorman of Huron, S. D.; Walter Gorman of Algona, Iowa, who moved to that place from Hawarden within the past year; Raymond, Maurice and Elmer Gorman of Canton; Mrs. Martin Connaughton of Thunder Hawk, S. D.; Mrs. William Logan of Carthage, S. D.; and Miss Margaret Gorman of Chicago.
Upon receipt of word of the tragedy, the widow, accompanied by her son John, who is a conductor on the North Western railway, departed from Huron for Wisconsin. The funeral of Cornelius Horrigan is being held there today. The remains of Mr. Gorman and his son will be brought to Canton where funeral services will be held at the Catholic Church at 9 o'clock Saturday morning. The two bodies will then be brought to Hawarden and interment will be made in the family lot in the cemetery here.
THE HAWARDEN INDEPENDENT
HAWARDEN, SIOUX COUNTY, IOWA, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1930
DOUBLE FUNERAL SATURDAY
Impressive Rites for P. K. Gorman and Son Paul at Canton
Requiem high mass for Patrick K. Gorman and son, Paul Gorman, who were murdered by robbers at the isolated farm home of the former's brothers-in-law, 17 miles from Boscobel, Wis., on Tuesday of last week, was observed at 9 o'clock Saturday morning at the Catholic church at Canton, where the Gorman family had lived for the past twenty years. Following the funeral service the remains of father and son were brought to Hawarden and interment was made in the family lot in the cemetery here.
Following receipt of word of the tragic death of Mr. Gorman and son Paul last week, Mrs. Gorman and son John left Huron, S. D., immediately for Wisconsin and accompanied the remains back to Canton. An inquest was held following their arrival in Wisconsin but little additional information concerning the manner in which the robbery and double murder was carried out was secured.
The Independent was in error last week in stating that Cornelius Horrigan, the eldest of the two Horrigan brothers had passed away as a result of wounds he received in the battle with the bandits. While his wounds are serious, it is stated at the hospital to which he was removed that his chances for recovery are very good. Stephen, the younger of the two Horrigan brothers, was not seriously wounded.
Mr. Gorman had reached the Horrigan farm only about half an hour before the attack but his son Paul had been there for several weeks and members of the family bad just seated themselves at the dinner table. Cornelius Horrigan had not yet come into the house, when the robbers entered but followed about the time the shooting began. Apparently, Miss Ellen Horrigan, 75-year-old sister of the Horrigan brothers, was first threatened with death, when she returned from the kitchen with the water which the robbers had asked for, unless she revealed the hiding place of the money which was supposed by the robbers to be concealed on the place. She refused to talk and started to resist and it is presumed that this precipitated, the shooting in which Mr. Gorman and son were killed and the Horrigan brothers wounded.
When the bandits started to shoot, Stephen Horrigan made a dash for another room for a weapon which he kept there and was shot in the left hand and arm. Returning with the gun, he started firing at the robbers at close range and wounded one of them so severely that his companions were obliged to lift him into the car outside as they made their escape. Reports have been received of the finding of an unidentified dead man in that vicinity since the shooting but these reports lack confirmation.
The authorities of Crawford County, in which the murders and attempted robbery took place, according to newspaper dispatches, have offered rewards amounting to $4,000 for the apprehension of the three men and woman responsible for the slaying. Donald Alderman, 27, years old, was arrested as a suspect and held on a murder charge at Prairie du Chien, Wis. Miss Ellen Horrigan failed to identify him, however, as one of the party.
The funeral of Mr. Gorman and son at Canton Saturday was very largely attended. Hawarden people who attended included Mr. and Mrs. John Schmitz and family, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Lynott and daughter Loretta, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Maher, Miss Agnes McManaman, John Dalton Jr., Mrs. Roy Nelson, Mrs. Harry Rummel and Ed Muth. Many more Hawarden people were at the cemetery here when the funeral procession arrived from Canton.
From the November 15, 1930 Huron, SD Huronite
Many Flock to Gorman Funeral – Canton, Nov 15 (AP)
A throng so large that several hundred persons were unable to gain entrance attended funeral services here today for Patrick Gorman and his son Paul, killed by bandits while visiting the farm of a brother in law, near Boscobel, Wis. last Tuesday.
Requiem high mass was conducted at the Catholic church and afterwards mourners moved in a procession to Hawarden, Iowa, the Gorman's former home, for the burial.
The funeral services were conducted by the Rev. Thomas O'Shaughnessy, a nephew of Mr. Gorman and a priest who is serving in the parish where the South Dakotans were killed last Tuesday. He was assisted by the Rev. Fathers Costello and Krause, Worthing.
The Gormans and their host, Cornelius Horrigan, were lined up against the wall by three bandits and a fashionably dressed woman who visited the farm in search of money reported to be buried there. Horrigan's brother, Stephen, who ran into the house to get a gun when the bandits came, was shot in the arm. The bandits are believed to have shot the Gormans and Horrigan in fear and excitement when Stephen ran for his gun. They fled immediately in their car.
From article FROM NEWSPAPER IN 1956
Pat Gorman, a South Dakota man had just arrived on the farm to visit his son, Paul,19. Paul was working on the
Horrigan farm in the town of Clayton, helping out his old spinster aunt and bachelor uncles.
Pat Gorman was having lunch with his brother-in-law, Steve Horrigan, and Steve's sister, Ella. Three men knocked at the farmhouse door, and the biggest of the trio asked for permission to hunt on the land. At the same time,
he pushed into the house
The three men pulled guns, and told Ella, Steve, Pat, and Paul to stand facing the wall. Paul, a 6-footer, suddenly jumped one of the strangers and knocked him down, but one of the others shot Paul in the neck and killed him.
Paul's father, a big, powerful man, too, turned on the armed men but was shot in the stomach. He died later in his bed.
Steve, a man in his 60's, ran downstairs and got his rifle. He started shooting through the door and wounded one of the strangers.
At this point, Cornelius, Steve's brother, came in from the fields, saw what was happening, began swinging a chair, and chased the trio out of the house.
A car awaited them, with a woman reportedly at the wheel. Detectives worked on the case for two years, but no leads ever panned out. The robbers, if they were robbers, never got any money and never asked for any. They disappeared.
After the shooting was over two men were dead. Steve had injuries and a bullet in his mouth and in his shoulder, and Cornelius was wounded. Ella was not hurt.
Some people believed there was money hidden on the property, and many were seen digging for it later, but none ever was found. The Horrigan's denied there was any money hidden.
The Horrigans lived in Boscobel for a year after the murders, then Steve took his gun and told renters to leave, he was coming back to live
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