Hanging of Bennett Warren Scott County

Bennett Warren had a small farm in Liberty Township in Scott County, Iowa. Not much farming got done there. Instead, his house served as a meeting place for the more unsavory element—horse thieves, counterfeiters, occasional burglars, and other frontier badasses. 

Warren never stole horses or counterfeited money, but he helped the banditti by letting them keep the stolen horses on his property. In return, he took and passed counterfeit currency. Each time the authorities arrested Warren, no one would testify against him, so he got off with little more than a slap on the wrist.

On June 24, 1857, two hundred vigilantes crossed into Clinton County from their rendezvous spot at Big Rock. They marched to Warren’s house and took him to a nearby grove.   

A jury of twelve men was selected, and then witnesses were sworn in. They determined, “Bennet was guilty of harboring horse thieves, knowing them to be such; keeping and secreting stolen horses, knowing them to be such; and habitually passing counterfeit money, knowing it to be such.”

Unlike a real court, they didn’t pass sentence. Instead, they asked whether he should be punished. When the assembly answered yes, they asked if he should be whipped or hanged. On June 24, 1857, two hundred vigilantes crossed into Clinton County from their rendezvous spot at Big Rock. They marched to Warren’s house and took him to a nearby grove.   

After much debate, the consensus was to make an example of Warren and hang him. The old man was sweating up a storm now. A real court could never convict him, but there were no rules or friends to save him. Nothing stood between him and the rope but the men he had cheated and stolen from, and they had little sympathy for an old horse thief.

Before Warren died, they gave him a chance to speak, but the only words he could choke out were, “I am an old man, and you can’t cheat me out of many years.” After he had his say, they tied the noose around his neck and sent him to eternity.

His wife took it like a trooper. One of her previous husbands had been strung up for murdering a peddler at Buffalo. Maybe the next time would be different. Perhaps it wouldn’t.