Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1911 — J. W. POOLE IS ARRESTED FOR MURDER [ARTICLE]

J. W. POOLE IS ARRESTED FOR MURDER

Benton County Man Accused of Killing Farm Hand ARRESTED BY SHERIFF HOOVER At Poole’s Barkley Tp. Farm Monday Night.—Body of Victim Is Found Buried On Farm Near Swanington.—Poole Acknowledges Killing, But Says It Was An Accident. John \Y. Poole of near Swanington, Benton county, mention of whose recent arrest on suspicion of the murder of his German farm hand was made in The Democrat a. few weeks ago, and who was discharged on a seatrch of his preimses failing to reveal the body of the man whom Poole’s son had charged him with killing, was arrested again at 9 p. m., Tuesday at his Barkley tp. farm in Jasper county, where he had been doing some work.

Poole’s son, who first made the charge against him to an Indianapolis detective agency which resulted in the former’s arrest, claims to have been quietly searching for the body of the farm hand since the former arrest and dismissal for want of evidence, add Tuesday he located the body, which was dismembered and buried in a field quite a distance from the house. The find caused great excitement and a hurry-up trip to Rensselaer was made by the Benton county sheriff. The arrest was made by Sheriff Hoover, who with A 1 Robinson was driving from Wheatfield to Rensselaer. The sheriff had been up at Wheatfield on business, and while there his deputy, Gus Grant, informed him by phone that the Benton county sheriff was over here with two or three other men and wanted Poole.

The Benton county officers said Poole was a desperate character, but Mr. Hoover told Guss that he would stop on the way to Rensselaer and bring John in. The farm is occupied by a bachelor tenant by the name of Cloudy, and when Hoover reached the place he rapped on the door and the latter got out of bed and asked what was wanted. He told Cloudy that he wanted Poole, and he went back to the stairs and called Poole, who came down at once and came away quietly with Hoover and Robinson. He seemed considerably worried about the arrest, however.

When about half way to town they met Guss Grant and the Benton county posse who were going out and lay for Poole when he got up next morning. The prisoner was turned over to the Benton county officers who took him to Fowler in their auto, arriving there about 1 a. m., Wednesday morning. According to reports Poole was , much frightened at being taken back to Fowler, fearing a mob, and hid under a blanket : n the auto on going into town. He is also alleged to have admitted to. the killing of the farm hand to the sheriff on the way O'er, but claimed it was accidental. A statement in Wednesday’s papers made by the son to the prosecuting attorney regarding the alleged murder is as follows: “On Sunday morning about 9:30 o’clock, the 12th day of December, 1909, Joe Kemper drove me over to D. Mahoney’s to look after some traps I had set there for skunks. When we got over there "Joe turned around and drove back home, so that mother, and Grace could take the horse and go to Swanington to Sunday school. Mother said that when Joe got back he had broke one of the wheels on the buggy, and he unhitched from the buggy and hitched up to the other buggy, and they got in and drove off, and that “Joe was a German, who came to work for father, when he could not

talk the English language, but could say a few words. Joe came there the: first time to work in May, 1907, and worked about two months and then went to Chicago. .. Father gave Joe a check for $5 and Joe looked at it and said: ‘ls that all I get?' "Father told Joe that was all the money he had and for him to come back and he would pay him the rest. Joe went away, and in April, 1908, came back and father got him to work for him again. Joe worked for him until July. 1908, and on July o, 1908, father hauled a load of corn to Swanington and got two checks. One he gave to Joe, which was for sl4, and Joe was not going to take it. But again father put him off and told Joe to write and he would send it to him. I think Davidson, the grocer, cashed the check on July 4. In the tall of 1909 Joe wrote for his money, and father did not answer, so. in a few days, Joe came down after his money. He told me he had but one brother in this country, and he worked in an ice plant in Chicago. “Joe never wrote to any one that I know of, and this was the third time he had v worked here. He said he had worked in Michigan in the pineries and that he had also worked on a boat on Lake Michigan as a fireman. When he came back the last time he did not come with the intention of working for father, but came to get what money was due him from the iast time he worked here, and he told me that father lacked about S3O of paying him what was due him at that time. The only clothes he brought he had on his back, and that was a fair suit of clothes.

‘.‘Father gave him one of his hard-luck stories that he is in the habit of putting up and asked Joe to work for him awhile, as he needed help to drive one of the teams hauling rock. This was in the fall of 1909. I do not remember the date, Joe worked until the 12th day of December, 1909. 'Joe bought wjiat clothes he worked in at Jones & Embleton’s store at Swanington, and at Fowler. If the people of this community doubt my word in rega’rd to this affair they *had better find Joe’s brother first, and see if he has ever seen him or heard from Joe since that time, and if you can find Joe Kemper alive you can take me out and burn my body to ashes or send me to the pen for life, as this is all I can forfeit to pay the bill.

“My mother and my sister Grace can tell you as mudh about this case as I have told you, for mother and I have talked this matter over time and again, and my mother is the one that told me that she saw father digging at the stack where the search wa9 made a short time ago by an Indianapolis detective. Mother has also told me that Joe never went off the place alive. In a day or so mother said to me: ‘Joe’s Sunday shirt is upstairs, and his buttons and collar huttons, collar and tie. It looks as though, if he was going to Chicago, he would have worn them.’ “She also told me to look at the pocketbook father had and a day book, and see if I had ever seen them before. One day father was in the house writing some letters, and he took this stuff but of his pocket and laid them on the writing desk, and I walked up and picked up the day book and looked at it and laid it down and I said, ‘You have got a new pocketbook. Where did you get it?” He said, ‘Give that pocketbook here; you didn’t buy it.’ “One morning he left his knife where he had started a fire and when mother got up she picked the knife up and laid it in the window. When I got up mother said, ‘here is Joe’s knife.’ I looked at it and said, ‘Yes, that is his knife, and one more thing that was his, his pipe and tobacco.’ “I will now give you what I saw when I came back from my traps on the 12th day of December, 1909 I left home in the morning about 9 o’clock, or 9:30, and returned about 3:30 p. m. As I was coming up the east road I saw father out at the barn. He was cleaning out the barn. When I came up he came out to the road to meet me. I had a rabbit in one hand and he said, ‘Give me the rabbit and I will clean it for dinner:* „ > “I said, ‘Haven’t you had your dinner?’ He answered, ‘Your mother and Grace went down to Marlowe’s and there was no one to get dinner.’ He went to cleaning the rabbit and I went in the house, took off my coat and got some water to wash in.* He fetched the rabbit n and laid in on the table and told me to start a fire and cook it. i told him that I was too hungry to wait for the rabbit to be cooked, and I sat down to the table and ate what I could find. He went out to the barn again, but was not gone much more than five minutes and came in and sat down to read and soon £ot up and went <>ut. “He went out again and came back in a short time and seemed to bo worried about something. A that time I did not Think that anything had happened, I got through eating I went into the dining room. There the floor looked like it had beep scrubbed. I then saw blood spots on th « wa *L all over the papers on the writing desk and on the curtains in the cupboard and the carpet that had been in front of the desk was hanging on the fence, and it had been washed that day, for it was all wet. When mother washed this piece of carpet there was enough blood in it to color the water red. When I saw all this I did not say anything to him. but I got my coat and cap to go to Swanineton. J««t as I wa_

ready to go he said. "There is your mother. 1 will go out and unhitch for them.” I thought he was getting dfighty good all at once, as I never saw him do that before. "When mother came in she asked what the water was doing on the floor. I told her father told me he had spilled some slop on the floor, and had mopped it up. Then she asked,. Where is Joe?’ 1 said thatT did not know, and when father came in she asked him where Joe was. He said that he had walked to Fowler to catch the 2:30 train for Chicago. I thought it rather strange that Joe left so suddenly without saying anything about leaving. "Father had niacin all. arrangements to butcher on Monday and he had spoken« to Willie Bazemore to help. I was so scared that evening that I told the folks I would go down and get Billy to come up and stay all night. 1 went out to the barn to get the horses, and I saw blood on the manger and on the first stall "Monday, when we were butchering, father would often say he just loved to work in blood, and on Monday evening mother and I went to Fowler and we got to talking about Joe. We both thought he had killed him. Father sent for a new spade, as I had broken the handle out of the spade while I was digging out some skunks on Sunday. When father went out to unhitch I happened to see the single-barreled shotgun standing by the cupboard and I stuck my finger in the end of the barrel and moist smoKe or powder came off of my finger.

"I broke the gun open and found an empty shell in it. —Mother told me I had better not say anything about the matter or I would get what Kemper got. “She thought I had better go? away and not be around to quarrel with father. Mother., told me she believed Kemper never left the farm alive, but she wouldn’t say where she thought he was.”