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WHAT HAPPENED IN RENVILLE COUNTY?

The list of serious crimes in Renville county’s early history was brief, but the fact remains—poisonings, rapes, robberies, shootings, stabbings, suicides and other crimes of madness took place in Renville county. Murder trials were more fully reported than other crimes because they excited so much public interest. If one killed another, there was a good chance that he would hang for it, regardless of his intent, or even of his mental capacity. While insanity has always been a valid defense to a charge of a crime, the question of what constituted insanity was once quite different from what it is today. Insanity was a legal, rather than a medical concept, and could be determined by applying certain legal tests. But a hundred years ago, many a madman was hanged after he had slaughtered his whole family under the belief that he had been instructed by God to do it. This is a collection of true stories that tell us what happened in Renville County from 1868 to 1940. Some of these crimes remain unsolved, and a murder victim has never been identified to this day.

"It was a cold, windy day on November 14, 1894. Emanuel and Cathrine Otto had just finished dinner. Cathrine washed the dishes and made preparations to go into town to do some shopping. Emanuel was not feeling well the day before so Catherine told him to lie down and take a nap instead. She was gone from home about 2 hours. As she approached the house, she noticed the front door was open. She entered and took off her hat, and thinking it quite strange that the door was open, she called out her husband's name. Hearing no reply, she stepped into the bedroom and saw him lying on the bed with his vest, shirt, trousers, woolen boots on and truss removed. She supposed he was sleeping and attempted to wake him. She placed her arm around his neck and lifted his head up. Feeling something warm on her hand and looking at it, she saw that it was all bloody. Slowly the truth dawned upon her, and she wildly ran to the house of a neighbor. Dr. Penhall was summoned and pronounced Emanuel Otto dead at 5 pm." from Bullets and Poison.