Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 286, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1911 — GRACE POOLE TESTIFIES IN FATHERS BEHALF. [ARTICLE]

GRACE POOLE TESTIFIES IN FATHERS BEHALF.

Defense Will Close Case Today and State Will Take a Day or Two for Bebattal Evidence. The Poole trial will end much sooner than was expected a few days ago. In fact, it is probable that the defense may complete its evidence today. The murder, trial was continued Monday. Elmore Barce, attorney for the defense, had Miss Grace Poole, the defendant’s daughter, on the stand, and she was. for the most part very cool and collected.. At the morning session Poole’s other daughter, Mrs. John .Haas, of Kramer, and her husband, were present. She cried so much that she was taken from the court room. . .-pd Grace Poole went on the witness Stand at 10 b’clock Monday morning. She was to identify a paper marked “defendant's exhibit No. 27,” which is a* document in John W. -handwriting,andwhich, was written by him in the Benton county jail after his arrest, charged with murdering Joe Kemper. It is Poole’s written statement of his versionof the killing of Kemper and it was given to W. H. Robertson and later published in the Benton Review, a Fowler newspaper. \ -.7 y Miss Poole identified the .handwriting as that of her father and Mr. Barce offered the statement in evidence. To the state’s objection the jury was retired while the attorneys argued the competency. Judge DeHart held the document relevant as throwing some light on the coh<?»* tion of Poole’s mind- Mr. Barce then, with difficulty, read the document to the jury. It is crudely written, the spelling and phrasing is poor, and at ‘lines it is almost unintelligible,. ; Mr. Hall, of the state, then requested that the court allow him to ffiad the same document to the jury. The court gave assent and rapidly Mr. Hall read the story to the jury. Mr. Barce objected to the way Hall was reading it, saying that he was adding words that weren’t in the story, Mr. Hall became angry and said, <? Mr. Barce, you let me read this in my own way, butt in,” With a smile, Barce sat down and allowed the state’s attorney to finish without another comment- The document was then presented to the Jury for examination. Miss Grace Poole stated that she is teaching school for her second year in Jasper county. She is 21 years ni<i .....

“Whe. I w»» a eblld," ab. said; ,’*Bremember my father used to be away from borne a great deal. As far back as I can remember, be had frenzied. attacks and, my mother would take us Children out of the house. M. Hfs eyes glared and protruded, his face was’ drawn and he gesticulated at these tomes.” At this point, Mrs. Haas became so affected that she was: taken weeping from the.court. When told to relate the circumstances, of some one of these attacks of frenzy, Miss Poole said that they occurred so. often that it. was impossible to detail any one ’,., .; - ■ He blamed my mother for- everything," she said, “When anything; went wrong he always said she was at faulty and that she was, keeping him from making a success. “When he became angry, he used to wreck chairs and furniture in the house and he would throw things oiftin the yard. He had terrible headaches. Before they came on, for a qpuple of (Jays, he would complain that everything was wrong. Then they would come on and last for three days. He would have to go to bed with them. As time went on, the headaches became more frequent until he would have them three or four times a month and frequently attacks two or three times a week," "When visitors were at our home he would be calm and pleasant at times, but at other times, he would become ,frenxied. We haven’t had many visitors in the last few years. There have been many men worked at our farm. Father Wotfld get one of these frenzies and the men would leave. « , been home three months of each year during the past six years and usually on Sunday. Father was horde about half the time. Then, if we had help, they did the work, if not, mother and the children did it “We had hogs on the place and he never seemed to know where they be-> longed. He Would keep changing them from ope field to another.” W. H. Robertson, of the’’ Benton County Review, who testified for the state earlier in the trial, was called by the defense and again told how he procured the story of Poole's ver-

ra ' *** * ’."ir » a wuu or four at a time. Once he hired a X e mbeX COme baCk ’ The “ an men he employed. Once she told him she would leave if he didn’t quit taking those kind of men. He went into _ . . . a irenzy, Btiia - tnat sne wouion t let him keep help and that she . was against him, so mother didn’t say anything more about it "She always sold the stock and took charge of the money gotten from the gftdn. I went»to high school in 1905. Mother sent me, although father objected to my going, saying that I ought to stay on the farm and work. “When I was a little girl, .most of our evenings were spent quietly, no one was allowed to talk; father commanded us to keep quiet” Here Miss Poole broke down and *"wept'but'"®-'

ter a short time recovered her composure. J.y-'X “Father talked to himself while working in the fields, almost continually. He has been doing that for years. Often he would assume listening attitudes. Once at the dinner table, Listen, do you hear those death bells ring? Some one is dead.’ No one else heard anything. “He had a habit of writing letters, sometimes before breakfast, or before the chores had been done. He would send'those letters away. He has writdidn’t send som. of those letters ani burnt them so he couldn’t find them. They were about land in the west, and he sent them to many states to land agents. In one he described a farm he had for sate in Arkansas. I never heard him say he ever owned any land in iho West “In the winter of 1910, he spent most of the time writing and reading. He would use about a dollar’s worth of cheap paper a week writing those letters. He wanted everything quiet when be was writing and would curse curse if we moved about./ "He has said that everybody was - gainst him as far back as I can* remember. XX “1 belidve my father of- unsound mind and I believe he has always bem so.”

Miss Grace Poole was passed by the defense and the defense offered as evidence the transcript of the case of John Quigley against .Poole on the charge of assault and battery, with intent to kill. The jury’s verdict was insanity and recommended Poole being sent to the insane hospital. Mr. Hall said that the jury had no right to return such a verdict, but the couix overruled the objection and held the transcript to be completed. The jury was excused while the attorneys argued.

Miss Poole was then on the stand .tor. Sbe,,said that her father’s attacks of frenzy were more than anger. ' 3 ? * Mr. Hall read parts of her testimony before the coroner and grand jury 'investigators, which she admitted. Miss Grace was then excused. Dr. C. C. Driscol, of Lafayette, was then called to the witness stand by the defense as a medical expert He said that he examined the skull supposed to be that of Kemper about ten days' T ~' T*‘ - .*•-* — Dr. Driscol took the skull and showed it to the jury. He held that a charge of shot fired at close range shattered the skull, the point of entrance beir f the small round hole in the back, under the large aperature. He said that it was possible for such an injury as foe one in the skull to be made by a gun discharged as Poole claimed the gun he killed Kemper uith was accidental!: discharged. Dr. Driscol then described the foigh bones to the jury. He said that one of the bones had been cut and then fractured. He,said, that he made an examination of John Poole’s head at the jail Saturday afternoon. With, a diagram of a human skull made by himself, and the instruments he used in the examinations, the witness told ot the defects in Poole’s bead. The normal skull should be 18 centimeters from the root of .the nose to the occipital protuberance, he said. Poole’s is 16-2-3 centimeters. The normal diameter of the skull Is 54.5 c.m.; Poole's is 47.7 c.m. His right ear is 11 cm and his left ear 10 cm. from the center of the hack of the neck, showing that there is one centimeter difference 4n the position of the ears, the witness stated. He presented a plaster cast of the formation of Poole’s mouth, but the state objected and the court held the man who made the < Cast should testify sb to whether or not

tian. tv ic and progressive insanity, and that I on December 12, 1909, he was insane. The defense passed the witness for cross-examination but it was then 4:20 o'clock and Judge DeHart adjourned court until 10 o’clock this morning. *, iX