Crawfordsville Weekly Journal, Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, 7 February 1896 — Page 3

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1. Any reader of THE JOURNAL, either Daily or Weekly, is eligible to contest. 2.„ Only display advertisements of Montgomery county business firms can be voted for. 3. Votes must be sent by mail addressed "Advertisement Contest," care JOURNAL, Crawfordsville. Ind. Votes handed in over the counter will not be considered. 4. Votes must be made on a coupon which will appear in THE JOURNAL and must be completely filled out. The advertisement yoted for must also be cut out and at tached to the coupon. 5. No one will be allowed to vote more than once. 6. All votes must be in the office by Tuesday, February 18. 7. All votes cast in violation of any of these rules will be thrown out.

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Joseph Binford Lumber Yard

ERBROS

The celebrated Studebaker wagon is always to the front as a first class and easy running wagon, either steel or cast skein. Everything warranted. All kinds of building material'kept on hand at prices "just a little lower than the lowest competitor. A variety of cedar posts from a 2-4 to 8-8—6 to 12 feet in length. The best of fire clay sewer pipe. High grade of smithing coal and soft coal for domestic use. ........

215-217 South Washington St., Crawfordsville, Ind.

Dr. J. H. McLEAN'S VOLCANIC OIL LINIMENT,

THE BEST AND GREATEST CURB OP PAIN,

Affords a quick relief from tKe accidents and ailments common to human or animal flesh.

In constant use for half a century.

Mo*i IIOIIUOI snd IKOOftr bottls. Sold evarywhtn.

DR. J. H. MCLEAN MEDICINE CO., ST. LOUIS. MO.

Yt

E

THE JOUR­

during the two

.1

TRIAL OF THE KELLARS.

The Evidence In The Case of Tlie State Against Tho Alleged Murderers of Clara Slianhs.

THURSDAY.

Prosecutor Maxwell conducted the direct examination last Thursday. ExSheriff John Musser, of Parke county, the official who hanged Buck Stout some years ago, was the first witness. He was the foreman of the grand jury which returned the indictment against the Kellars. He testified that the instruments or means with which Clara Shanks was killed were unknown to the jury. The defense had objected to this testimony but the court overruled the objection.

The defense fought hard Thursday to break down the circumstantial evidence going to show that Clara Shanks did not drown heiself, but was murdered, and that the circumstances pointed to the Kellars as the murderers. In the opening statement for the defense ex-Congressman Lamb had told the jury that the case was worked up by a scoundrel, that a jack-leg lawyer named Thomas was at the bottom of it, that he had filched SCO out of the treasury of Fountain county for his alleged services in behalf of justice, that the jury would be given an opportunity to see him. Frank Reynolds, a photographer of Rockville, identified photographs made in September ot scenes about the pool and of the KelIar and Shanks premises. One of the latter was taken from the inside of Shanks's gate and showed the summer kitchen of the Kellar house, in the window of which Maggie Kellar is said to have kept watch the Saturday afternoon that Clara Shanks disappeared.

Josiah Allen, of Fountain county, who was the first person to take hold of the dead girl's body when it was found in the pool, was on the stand for some time and was put through a severe cross-examination. He and A1 Beason got the girl's body from the pool. Her arms were stiff and her legs were drawn up. When first taken out there was no blood on her face, but soon afterward blood flowed'from her eyes, mouth and nose. There were scratches on her face, her lips were cut and under each eye there was a cut. There were marks on her throat, such as would be made by finger prints. He saw a trail through the weeds over the bluff, and about thirty feet from the pool saw what appeared to be blood spots on a log over which the trail led. On Aug. 1 he went to the Kellar place, where he found what he thought were blood spots on the rails of a fence. He was with Joseph Thomas, son of George Thomas, whom the lawyers for the defense call a pe'ttifogging lawyer and whom they are trying to show worked up the case against the Kellars. They cut out pieces of the woojl containing the stains. On cross-examination Mr. Lamb wanted to know the color of the spots and if they could not have been tobacco juice. The witness modified his somewhat positive statement by saying they looked like blood.

Sheriff Moore, of Fountain county, told of his investigation at the house and at the pool. On July 26 he found a pair of trousers belonging to Dan Kellar "at Kellar's house, on which there was a stain, which he thought was blood, on the back of one of the legs below the knee, which was an inch or more wide and extended nine inches. He took the trousers away. The theory of the State is that Dan Kellar carried the body to the pool that night, and her bleeding head hung down over his back. In the afternoon Sheriff Moore was too ill to go on with his testimony, and George Thomas was called. There was feverish curiosity to know how he could stand the ordeal. He told in direct examination his part with other citizens in hunting evidence, and then Lamb went after him like a lion sure of its prey, but the •'jack-leg" lawyer had to palpaply the best of it that there was no mistaking the effect on the jury, and the general verdict was that Lamb had been misinformed and made rash assertions in his speech. The witness kept his temper better than the examiner, and was clearer in his expressions. He never received a cent for his services in the case. He had taken no more active part than other citizens of the neighborhood. The bill presented to the county commissioners of Fountain county was shown to him triumphantly but he declared it was the first time he had ever seen it.

Then Mr. Simms, appointed by the judge of the Fountain court, told Mr. Lamb that he had made out the bill, and that Thomas knew nothing of it until afterwards, and yiat Thomas received none of the monev. Thomas

VOL. 49-HO. 6 ORA"WTOEDSYIL/LE, IJSTDXANAj FRIDAY, 1'EBRUA.RY 7, 1896.-TWELYE PAGES PART FIRST

had been at the Kellar house but once, and had not. supplied the grand jury with a list of witnesses in the case, and had not done any of the many things he was asked about except to go to Covington to employ lawyers to assist the State, and this he did in company with two others, the three being selected for the purpose at a public meeting of citizens of the vicinity of the tragedy.

Two women who helped prepare Clara Shanks' body for burial told of the scars and scratches on the face and of the indications of finger prints on the throat. ffiSJ

They are now talking of a three week's trial. It is expected the medical expert testimony will take a week, which is not long when it is known that hypothetical questions are to be put to fifteen physicians.

The court room is packed every hour of the trial by a morbidly curious crowd and scores of women flock to the hearing of the evidence, gloating like vultures over a dead horse.

FRIDAY.

Last Friday was the fifth day of the Kellar family murder trial. There is a large number of State witnesses to be examined, including many physicians who will swear that the appearance of the dead girl's body indicated that death was the result of foul play and'not of drowning.

Judge Taylor inaugurated a new feature, that of issuing tickets of admission to the witnesses, attorneys and press representatives which entitle them to seats inside of the railing.

Jacob Ratcliff was the first witness Friday witness arrived at the pool at 8 o'clock Sunday morning and found the body on the bank surrounded by a crowd of forty people. His description of the marks on the throat and the bloody condition of the face was substantially the same as related by the preceding witnesses. Witness discoyered tracks on the top of the hill made by what looked to be a No. 8 shoe. The state will endeavor to show that this was the size of the shoes worn by Dan Kellar. Witness also saw two foot tracks on the bottom of a very shallow stream of water, thirty yards distant from the pool. He attached importance to them because he subsequently found spots of blood on a log and pole near the pool. He was positive there was a gash below one of the dead girl's eyes. Henry Myers said he visited the pool Sunday morning, searched the ground for several hundred yards and saw a dark red spot resembling blood on a log near the pool. On Monday, after leaving the cemetery where Clara Shanks was buried, witness with several others visited Kellar's house. Dan Kellar and family were not present, they having sought shelter with relatives the day before when Dan Shanks attempted to shoot Kellar. They found a pair of old trousers which were examined for blood stains. A red spot was found on the leg of the trousers and Mr. Banta scraped it with his knife and washed it with water. •..

Mrs. George Kellar found a can of red paint in the house and handed it to Mr. Banta who compared it with the stain on the trousers. Witness said the committee came to the conclusion that the spot on the trousers was paint and not blood. This answer was evidently not expected by Attorney Puett of the State, who moved to strike it out on the ground that witness had no right to say what conclusion was reached by the other members of the committee. This occasioned a tilt between Mr. Puett and Mr. Lamb, the latter remarking that Mr. Puett appeared troubled over the witness' answer. The court allowed the answer to remain in the record.

Mr.. Myers, with several others, visited the house again on the 16th of August and found that a number of planks had been removed from the floor. On cross-examination he said it was a fact that the committee decided that a stain found on the floor was tobacco

SDit.

The committee examined

the bed clothes, but found no evidence of blood. Many persons refused to leave the court room when the noon adjournment was taken. They remained in their seats during the noon hour that they might have places of advantage for the afternoon session.

John Nickell identified the pole with which the pool had been dragged for the body. At the larger end were two prongs made by the cutting away of branches. The larger of these was about Bix inches in length, and the other about three inches. Mr. Nickell took the pole in his hands and showed the jury the manner in which he searched for the body, dragging the large end of the pole through the water. The defense will insist that the cuts on the body, if they existed, were made by the pole. Prosecut­

ing Attorney Stansberrj', of Fountain county, described the pool as a dangerous spot. From near the pool to a point about one hundred feet away the banks were so steep that he would consider it dangerous to attempt the descent. lie testified to helping to find the alleged blood spots at the Kellar house. These spots were spattered over various places in the house. He helped to hold the court of inquiry at Buffalo school house, and said at that hearing that Kellar accounted for the supposed blood stains on the floor of his house by saying that he had dropped a bucket of paint on the floor before the disappearance of Clara Shanks. Being asked to relate what Maggie Kellar testified to at the court of inquiry Mr. Stansberry said she admitted that she sat at the kitchen window several hours on the afternoon that Clara disappeared and watched the Shanks' house. She testified that she saw Clara come out of the house, climb the fence' and go east down the road. Clara was barefooted, hatless and wore a blue dress.

There is considerable comment on the utter failure of Mr. Lamb to make a sensation in examining George Thomas, a treat which he promised the jury in his opening statement when he called Thomas a "scoundrel," a "jackleg lawyer," etc., who had filched money trom Fountain county. Mr. Lamb had evidently been misinformed.

SATURDAY.

A dramatic incident occurred Saturday in the Kellar-Shanks murder trial, when Attornoy Lamb said to a witness on cross-examination: "You are familiar with human blood, are you not? You killed a girl in your county, didn't you?"

The witness was Joseph Thomas, the son of George Thomas, whom Lamb assailed in his opening statement as the "scoundrel" and "jack-leg" lawyer who had worked up this case, and who had "filched #60" from the Fountain county Treasury for his services, but who, on the witness stand, duinfound ed the lawyer by showing that he kne^v nothing of the 860.

To-day the lawyer went after the son as stated. Joseph Thomas replied, "I did not." "Didn't yor. in a charivari party shoot and kill a girl the night of her wedding?" "I did not," again said the witness, and the crowded court room was BO still that his low-spoken words were distinctly heard.

Then he denied that he had ever ad' mitted that he had shot the bride. He was

With

the charivari party, and

with many others, had a gun, which he fired. Thomas on direct examination had identified a pair of woman's shoes, which he took from the Kellar house, August 29, after the July 6 that Clara Shanks met her death. "He also had a piece of the floor of one of the rooms in the Kellar house, and pieces from the rail fence on which, it is alleged, were blood stains caused by drops of Clara Shanks' blood while the dead body was being carried from Kellar's house to Wolf Creek pool. The defense had objected to the introduction of this evidence, but the Court overruled the objection, and then Lamb went after Thomas.

About fifteen years ago Thomas was one of a party of youths which gave a charivari party, and all had guns loaded with wads only. One of the wads by chance entered the room of the bride through a crack in the side of the house and killed her almost instantly. No one was ever arrested for it, and there was always doubt as to who fired the fatal shot. Thomas stood the rough ordeal well, and his testimony in the piesent case was unshaken, though Lamb walked around his chair in a frenzy.

The State, in arguing for the admission of the articles, said they would show that the shoes were what Mrs. Kellar termed her everyday shoes, and that she said at the court of inquiry that she had not worn them since the Saturday Clara Shanks disappeared. There had been along drouth prior to that Saturday, but that evening there was a rain storm. The shoes, when passed to the jurymen, had the appearance of having been very wet, and there is yet dry mud on them.

The State's theory is that Mrs. Kellar was out o* her house that night, and that her husband was not alone when he took the body of the dead girl from the house where it had been kept from noon, when she was murdered, until it was carried to Wolf Creek pool.

Daniel McKey, aged 14, testified that he was with his father Sunday afternopn when they met Dan Kellar and his brother on the road. Dan asked if Clara Shanks' body had been recovered.

Dr. McKey said it had been that morning, and Dan asked if anything else had been found in the pool, and .was told that a man's black sateen shirt had been taken up. This shirt disappeared soon after it was taken from the water. Then Dan wanted to know if "she was marked any," and when the Doctor told him that she was, he "turned pale." The boy said on cross-examination that he paid particular attention to the conversation, because he was surprised to hear Dan Keilar asking about finding Clara's body, for the reason that he, the witness, had heard at Sunday school that morning that Dan Shanks had told Kellar about finding the body and had shot at him.

The state has not yet submitted half the testimony and, to use the language of one of the attorneys, it will "keep them hustling" to complete the state's side of the case next week. There is no way of estimating the time to be consumed by expert testimony and when the doctors are called to testify the proceedings will be dry and time will drag slowly.

Although the defense have not as many witnesses as are called by the

(Continued on Fourth Page.)

1 FEBRUARY.

Prophet Pardon Hicks Gives Hie ittojithly Weather 15ill of Fare.

1

About t'i 2d, temperature will rise in the west, and storms will organize and start eastward. Mixed rain and snow will fall for two or three days, advancing eastward, and much colder weather will follow behind until the 7th and 8th. About these dates change to warmer, with reactionary storms, will return. From about the 8th to 13th look out for more cold. New moon on 13th will precipitate quick change to warmer, and heavy storms will full about the 13th to 16th. Renewed cold will set in promptly behind storms, and follow to the Atlantic by the 17th. The 19th to 21st will bring a return of storm conditions, resulting in rain and snow and ushuring in another blast of cold. The 25th to 28th is a storm period in which a Mercury disturbance will figure, hence sleet may be expected, along with much rain or snow. Of course, the far South will not have these wintry phases of storm periods, but much colder weather will follow, even in extremes. We are not fully out of tho Jupiter period at this time, and the cold will still reach into the

South in modified degrees, as in 1804 and 1895. The month ends as January, with gales and cold wave following full moon on the 28th and perigee on the 29th.

Will Stand By Stont.

There is a sentiment down at Covington which is doing lots of good for Dr. Stout. It is the impression there that Montgomery county is after a Fountain county man. THE JOURNAL believes it will be very difficult, indeed, to convict this, man at Covington. The following remarkable special from that place is evidence of the feeling there: "The alleged confession of the defendant Hauk does not hold good on the surface and his attempts to connect Dr. Wm. R. Stout, of this place, with his nefarious crime, is considered by all those here in a position to know as a ruse to draw the attention of the public from the real perpetrator of the operation that resulted in the girl's death. Dr. Stout was arrested Tuesday and placed under $1,500 bail, which he promptly gave and ever since has been attending to his usual practice. His preliminary trial was set for Friday, Feb. 7. 'No one here has any feeling against Dr. Stout whatever. Everyone knowing the facts and the circumstances is convinced' that the real criminal who assisted Hauk is not yet under arrest."

For Recorder. A

Samuel S. Martin, who is announced in to-day's JOURNAL, as a candidate for Recorder, is one of the old wheel horses of Montgomery county Republicanism. For many years he was a resident of Sugai Creek township, but for some time more recently he has lived in Franklin township. When the battle was the thickest, whether in Sugar Creek or Franklin, there Sam Martin could be found. That he is well equipped for the office goes without saying. He served as a soldier through the war, is an excellent citizen in peace, and is in every way deserving.

For Recorder.

William H. Webster, who is announced in to-day's JOURNAL as a candidate for Recorder of Montgomery county before the Republican convention, is not unknown to the people of the county. For tho last fifteeen years he has been deputy Recorder of the county and is familiar with every detail in the office. He was a soldier in the Eleventh Indiana and served his country faithfully and well. He is a most excellent citizen, an active Republican, and will bring to the discharge of his duties years of experience.

Death of Bliss Bessie Orear.

The many friends of Miss Bessie Orear, of Jamestown, will be shocked to hear of her sudden death, which occurred at her home Saturday. She had been sick for several days but no one here knew she was seriously ill. Miss Orear was a most excellent young lady and spent much of her time in Crawfordsville, where she had many relatives and friends. She was a daughter of the late Dr. Orear and a sister of Charley Orear, recently an attorney in the firm of White, Reeves & Orear.

The Cruelty To Animals.

MisB Imogene Brown, of the Humane Society, has filed charge against the Standard Oil Company for cruelty to animals. It is charged that the company forces two horses to draw loads of 7500 pounds all over the country, the said loads being large tanks filled

with oil.