State v. Mercer

The facts in this tragedy are not in dispute. On the morning of August 8, 1930, Sheriff C. H. Elwood of Cedar County received a telephone call from the police depart ment of Davenport, stating that the Lage Drug Store of that city had been held up by three men and robbed, and that the bandits had left Davenport on Primary Road No. 74, headed in the direction of Tipton. The car in which the robbers were driving was described; also that it carried orange-colored license plates. Immediately the sheriff proceeded to do his duty. He asked John Carey, a constable, and Robert G. Sproat, a vigilante,…