Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 125, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 May 1911 — Jehn Poole to Make a Desperate Fight for His Life. [ARTICLE]

Jehn Poole to Make a Desperate Fight for His Life.

A sign of the desperation with which John W. Poole, of Fowler, proposes to fight, for his life and liberty in his coining trial on the charge of murder of Joseph Kemper, is seen in the fact that he has asked Col. Free P. Morris, of Watseka, to be one of the counsel for his defense. Poole stoutly refuses to make a defense on the plea of insanity—though he escaped the penitentiary on the plea after killing a neighbor in a quarrel several years ago—but he sticks to his story that’ his killing of Kemper was wholly Accidental. “If Col, Morris takes charge of the defense a hard fight will be made for Poole’s liberty,” says the Watseka Times-Democrat, and then continues: “The case hangs largely on the story told by Emory Poole, who caused his father’s arrest, but there are still soim doubts as to the identity of the body found on the Poole farm. Poole’s wife cannot testify against him and the daughter is unwilling to do so. “The evidence is largely circumstantial. The body was found on the Poole farm; the farm hand disappeared and at the same time, the boy saw blood stains and signs of a struggle in the house.\ This, with Poole’s admission, constitutes the case.”