Rockford Herald, January 2, 1857 Atrocious Murder in Washington County, Mo. A correspondent, apparently engaged in the construction of the Iron Mountain Railroad, writes us from Washington county, the particulars of an outrage, amounting, according to the statement, to a cold blooded and ferocious murder.  We are informed that a night or two previous to Saturday, the 20th of November, a railroad foreman, described as a “north of Ireland Orangeman,” and named Kussack, came to the house of John Kelley, an Irishman, and producing a bottle of whiskey, engaged Kelley in a drinking bout, with the design, as charged, of proceeding to impropriety towards Kelley’s wife, who is represented as a somewhat loose character.  Kussack, however succumbed to the influence of liquor, and on recovering his senses, found that his watch and twenty dollars were missing.  On the Saturday following, Kussack, with Justice Hayes and a constable, accompanied by Mr. Woods, John Healy and others, arrested Kelley, “dragged him out of his place and cut off all communication between him and his wife”. Woods and two or three others are said to have then stripped the woman entirely naked.  The watch wa found on Kelley’s premises, by one of his own little children, “in what she calls her play house.”  Woods, who is a railroad “boss”, is said to have next tied a handkerchief about Kelley’s mouth, and hanged him by the heels over a bridge near his house, “then drew him up and otherwise abused him” until the unfortunate victim perished under the blows.  The writer proceeds: “I was personally speaking to Squire Hayes and asked him to secure the murderer” – “he could not issue a warrant to apprehend this Woods and many others concerned in this direful outrage, until it would go through the head Sheriff’s hands.”  No inquest was held but the Justice pressed men to bury the corpse, which was done with indecent haste, without religious rites. – St. Louis Leader