The Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
24 November, 1902

WAS MURDERED, NOT A SUICIDE
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The Remains of  William Gillilan Pass
Through City on Way to Central
City For Interment
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    M. M. Gillilan of Prairieburg, Iowa, was in Cedar Rapids during the night, having in charge the remains of his brother, William C. Gillilan, who either committed suicide or was murdered at Rock Rapids, Iowa, on Thursday night. This morning the body was taken to Central City, where the parents of the deceased, Mr. and Mrs. M. C. Gillilan, reside, and where the interment is to occur. The death of William C. Gillilan is enveloped in much mystery that is now apparently unexplainable. The inquest over the remains was begun at Rock Rapids on Saturday and will be finished at that place today.
    M. M. Gillilan related to a gazette representative the information which he had obtained at Rock Rapids concerning the death of his brother, the first press telegrams filed there stated that he had committed suicide, but Mr. Gillilan is strongly inclined to the theory that a foul murder has been committed. Much of the circumstantial evidence points to that conclusion. The deceased was last seen about 11 o’clock Thursday night in a restaurant at Rock Rapids, where he ate a lunch and left. The following morning his dead and wounded body was found in a pig pen in the rear of a house in the section of Rock Rapids that is called “Covington” and situated over the Rock river and at a considerable distance from the principal part of the business and residence districts of the place, and which Gillilan was never known to frequent. About 7 o’clock Thursday night he is known to have had over $100 in money on his person, but when the body was found there was only [$4.55] remaining and a pocketbook that he was known to have carried was missing. One theory is that he was inveigted[sic] to a distant and secluded locality while either intoxicated or suffering from the effect of having been drugged and was robbed and killed.
    The body was found lying in a pig pen, the door of which had been opened and the animals within the enclosure had made their escape. There was a bullet wound in the right temple and a pistol was found in the left hand of the dead man. It is argued that if he had killed himself that the weapon would have been in the other hand. His shirt was off and his underwear down and several knife wounds were found in the back, which certainly could not have been self-inflicted. A knife was found just outside the door of the hog pen. When Mr. Gillilan reached Rock Rapids he caused another examination to be made of the remains of his brother and the result was that the physicians discovered that there were two bad fractures of the skull on the back of the head, beginning at a point on the crown and coursing downward toward the neck, and several lighter fractures. This is accepted as evidence that a club as well as a pistol was used in accomplishing the murder of the man. The fractures were accidentally discovered in probing for the ball, which was removed. It is thought the body was placed in the pen with the expectation that it would be mangled and partially destroyed by the hogs, but the door having been left open the animals left their quarters. To reach the pen it was necessary to cross over three barbed wire fences. No arrests have been made as yet, but the investigation by the coroner may lead to the issuance of warrants.
    Mr. Gilliland was shown a telegram concerning his brother that had been sent out from Sioux Falls, S. D.  It stated that the dead man had formerly lived there and that last June he created a sensation in that place by killing out of revenge for a [-----] grievance, several valuable horses belonging to Parker Bros., who had been his former employers. After hiding in the ice houses for three days he was finally compelled by hunger to surrender to the authorities. Mr. Gillilan stated that the matter was settled by his parents at the time, but it was clearly shown that the deceased was suffering from mental aberration. He was 34 years of age.

Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
1 December, 1902

HIS DEATH A MYSTERY
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NO LIGHT ON GILLILAN TRAGEDY
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Coroner’s Jury Completes Its Investigation –
Accused Women Are Released –
A Reward Offered.
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Rock Rapids, Iowa, Dec. 1 – The death of William Gillilan, the former Linn County young man and whose body was taken to Central City for burial, who was found dead in Rock Rapids over a week ago, remains a deep mystery. The coroner’s jury has finished its investigations, but has been unable to shed but very little light on the tragedy. That Gillilan was murdered there does not now seem to be the slightest doubt. The suicide theory has been completely abandoned.
    The verdict of the coroner’s jury was that Gillilan was murdered, but the jury was unable to fasten the crime upon anyone. It developed during the hearing that on the night Gillilan was killed there was a fight in East Rock Rapids in the vicinity of the tragedy, and the supposition is that the deceased took part in the row. Who the other persons were the jury was unable to ascertain.
    A reward has been offered by the relatives of the dead man, and the search for some clew[sic] to the mystery will be continued.
    The two sisters who were arrested on suspicion of having committed the crime have been able to prove their innocence, as they tell a straightforward story concerning their movements during the evening prior to the finding of the body. They admit seeing Gillilan about 9 o’clock on the evening he was last seen alive, and give the names of the several others whom they were with up to the time they went home.
    The testimony taken by the coroner’s jury, which has been investigating the case for several days, shows that Gillilan was around the streets of Rock Rapids until 11 o’clock on the night of his death. He was around the saloons until they closed at 10 o’clock. Later he visited a bowling alley, and at 11 o’clock left a restaurant, where he had taken a lunch.
    From the time he stepped outside the door of the restaurant he was never again seen alive. Three young men who were in the neighborhood of a bridge leading to the part of town where the body of Gillilan was afterward found say they saw two men, one of whom might have been Gillilan, as he answered to descriptions, pass along in the direction of the bridge shortly after 11 o’clock.
    Members of a family living within a block of the spot where the body was found heard a disturbance during the night, but supposed it was a drunken row, and made no effort to investigate.
    There are a number of Rock Rapids people who declare that Gillilan had a large sum of money with him within a day or two before the murder. This money was not found on the body. One man who saw his money a day or two before the tragedy declares that he had fifteen or twenty bills in a long pocket book, and that the bill on top was of the denomination of $10.
    A knife, which is supposed to have been the property of the dead man, and a 5-cent piece, were found near the fence surrounding the inclosure[sic] in which Gillilan’s body was discovered. The knife was closed, and there were no blood stains upon it. It would have been impossible for Gillilan to have walked from the point where the knife was found to the place in a shed where his body was discovered in its badly mutilated condition. There were no signs of blood leading from the point where the knife was found to the inclosure[sic] where the body was discovered. In the head was a bullet hole, which is generally believed to have been made after Gillilan was dead.
    When the body was found there was a revolver in one of his hands. Four witnesses swear that the revolver looks as if it had been placed in his hand. It was in the hand opposite from the side of the head where the bullet had entered. The weapon appeared to hang from the thumb, which was through the guard around the trigger. About two inches from the bullet wound is an indentation in the side of the head from a quarter to a half inch deep, which looks as if it might have been made with the back of an ax. From this wound there is a fracture of the skull running in three directions, but none of these are in any way connected with the bullet wound. There were no powder marks whatever on the face or head of the dead man, which would indicate that the shot was fired from some distance.
    Another strange thing which was noticed by many was the fact that while the body was found in a shed at least twenty feet from the fence and to get to the point where found it was necessary to walk over ground which was covered with filth, the bottoms of his shoes were as free from dirt as if he had been walking on a carpet.
    The theory is that he was murdered for his money, after which the body was carried to the inclosure[sic], passed over the fence, where the knife and 5-cent piece fell out of his pocket, and then again carried to the shed, which was about twenty feet from the fence.
    Members of a family living near the scene of the murder are under suspicion of having been concerned in the crime. They bear an unsavory reputation. The members of the family are known to have been financially embarrassed for some time, yet it is said that they had a plentiful supply of money a couple of days after Gillilan’s death.

                                                                                 -transcriptions by Kate Maynard, 2013