Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 216, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1915 — MURDER TRIALS AND MURDERS IN WHITE CO. [ARTICLE]

MURDER TRIALS AND MURDERS IN WHITE CO.

Lydy, Chamberlin and Kelly Cases Briefly Reviewed—All Will Be Remembered Here.

Bert Watson, the colored man who killed a railroad brakeman in Cass county, will be tried in Monticello on change of venue, the case being heard at the September term of the circuit court. The Monticello Journal enters into a discussion of previous murders and murder trials that occurred in White county. The following will prove interesting to readers in this county: Murder trials in White county have been of very infrequent occurrence, a fact that speaks well for the people of the county, but there have been a few cases tried here that attracted a great deal of attention. One case that the approaching trial of Watson recalls, was that of the State against Starling Cox and Mrs. Elizabeth Lydy for a murder committed in Benton county. It was charged that they had conspired to get the husband of the Lydy woman out of the way by giving him strychnine and the case was venued here for trial. It required about two weeks to try the case and every day was a sensation, the court room being thronged with people. The parties lived about three miles southwest of Fowler. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty, the state having failed to establish, for want of evidence, a very material link in the chain of evidence. A. B. Anderson, now a federal judge, Senator E. B. Sellers and Dan Frazer, of Fowler, represented the state. Cox and Mrs. Lydy were defended by Reynolds & Sills, of this city, and J. T. Saunderson, of Fowler. Another case that attracted much interest was the trial of a man named VanArsdel for the murder of a woman. She was a person of loose morals. She spent a night on the banks of the Little Monon creek, and early on the following morning went into the saloon kept by VanArsdel at Monon and asked for a drink of whisky. She was refused, and as the evidence of VanArsdel showed, became very angry and started toward him with a knife. He hurled a heavy beer mug at her, striking her at the corner of the eye and fracturing her skull. She was taken to Lafayette and died he next day. When the case came to trial the usual big crowd of spectators was on hand every day and the case was reported in the metropolitan papers. Mike Ryan, now of Indianapolis, was prosecutor and was assisted by Senator Sellers. The defendant was Charged with first degree murder, but was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to ten years. The Chamberlain case, known as the Reynolds case, was another very sensational affair, and the defendant cheated the gallows. A man named Chamberlain was infatuated with a Reynolds young lady. Another young man was acting as her escort one night and was taking her home .from some kind of a social function. They were standing at the gate when Chamberlain appeared and shot her dead. The case was venued to Cass county and the trial begun on Friday. When the local attorneys returned to Logansport Monday morning to continue the trial they learned that Chamberlain had been found that morning hanging to the door of his cell.

Another murder case that the old timers speak of came from IdavilleJack Kelly and Richard Herron kept a saloon at Idaville and one day they had a quarrel over a woman. Herron was missing after that. In a few days his dead body was found in the brush between Idaville and Monticello. Kelly was accused of the murder and was tried here. The jury gave him six years. He got a new trial and the second jury gave him eighteen years.