Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1911 — EVIDENCE PILING UP IN POOLE CASE [ARTICLE]

EVIDENCE PILING UP IN POOLE CASE

That Defendant is Insane and Not Responsible for Acts MISS GRACE POOLE TESTIFIES And Several More Jasper County People Summoned for Tomorrow to Testify for the State In Rebuttal, It Is Understood. Edward Bullis, Joseph Thice, George Davisson, Grant Davisson, Steve Comer, Thomas Baker, Harvey Davisson, Joseph Nagel. Charles Bartee, Harvey Dexter. Horace G. Daniels Arthur Stewart, Charles Armstrong, Judge Hayley, L. P. Shirer, J. D. Lowe, George Coffman. Sim McCloud and Frank Miller go to Lafayette Thursday as witnesses in the Poole trial, to testify for the state. They are wanted, it is said,, to testify regarding a case Poole had in court here, when he was arrested for assault and battery In attempting tfc> embrace a woman. Several of the parties summonetl were jurors in tne ease. Lafayette, Ind., Dec. 2.—William W. Poole of Wabash county, brother of John W. Poole, charged with the murder of Joseph Kemper, told the jury yesterday that all through life his brother had exhibited symptoms of insanity which led alb his relatives to regard him as a person of unsound mind and not responsible for many of his acts. The story was interrupted at One point by the defendant’s illness, it being feared for a time that the trial would have to stop. The jail physician, however, said the prisoner was threatened with pneumonia, but it would not endanger him to proceed with the trial, and on the statement of the physician the court allowed the case to go on. Poole displayed outward indications of being very sick. ' William Poole said he visited his brother several times and observed his actions. John Poole also came to Wabash county to see his brother. The elder Poole related several instances of John’s insane temner. He said once he was in a hotel at Kokomo when his brother rushed into the kitchen and with oaths demanded that coffee be served to him at once. He was finally calmed. William Poole sajd that in Monon he slept with his brother and in the middle of the night John awoke and exclaimed, “I am dying!” The witness also testified that in the spring of 1909 he went to his brother’s farm in Wabash county and his brother did not recognize him for half an hour after he arrived. He said Poole was poorly dressed and looked ill and he conducted himself as a man laboring under many delusions. Mrs. Belle bay of Jasper county testified that she first mer Poole in 1905 at the home of her father. She and her husband were later tenants on Poole’s Jasper county farm near Rensselaer. While they were there Poole staid at the farm much of the time. They were there from March until July, 1905. "The property, she said, was in a dilapidated condition for Poole never accomplished anything. He would start to do something, she stated, and then before it was finished, he would switch over to something else. Her husband, Edward Fay, corroborated her testimony, and said Poole was a very profane man. He said that he told him that he would have to quit swearing in the house, and Poole said that he did not realize what he was saying, that he would stop, but he never did, the witness testified. Poole couldn’t hold a conversation, he said, for he would ramble from one subject to another Fay said that he oftenup

on Poole and he would be talking to himself. Poole conjplained constantly of having headaches. At these times he would break out in a sweat; his hands would tremble and his eyes take on a glassy glare. The headaches coming on him at irregular intervals.

“Once we were plowing and Poole was scattering straw with a pitchfork. I was plowing with a little mare, which sank in quicksand and refused to get up. Poole beat her ‘with the pitchfork. and stuck the prongs oi the fork into her hip until the •blood came. He beat the mare until he was exhausted,” the witness said. Fay said that he thought Poole’s mind unsound. Court was adjourned last night until Monday, when the state will cross-examine William Poole.. . . . ? ' .

Lafayette. Ind., Dec. 4. —Grace Poole, youngest daughter of John W Poole, defendant in the Poo'e murder trial, in progress here, went on the witness stand today in her father’s behalf, and the the defense depended a great deal on the girl's story in its effort io save Poole from conviction for first degree murder. The girl was in tears when she began her story, and her sister Maud, who was beside her father, .fainted as Grace began her story, and her husband assisted her from the court room. Grace Poole said that her father, as far back as she could remember. had frequent attacks of frenzy and severe headaches. She said on many occassions he would fly into a passion without cause, would hurl objects at members of the family and drive them from the house. These attacks, site said, would occur as often as two or three times a week and kept the family in- a state of fear and excitement. Even when visitors were in the house, she said, her father would have these attacks and his eyes would glare and protrude from his heyl and his —fists would be ylenched. When he undertook any work, she said, he would never complete one job without taking up another and he displayed great lack of memory. Thomas Gay wood was the first witness for the defense this morning. Fie has known Poole since 1878. and said that His opinion was that Poole was a person of unsound mind. He said he visited Poole at the 'jail here shortly after Poole was brought to this ...city and Poole talked very incoherent I !}' to him. The witness, said that in his opinion Poole did not have the power to distinguish betw-een right and wrong. i.The defense this morning introduced, in evidence against the wishes of the state, a statement written by Poole a few days after his arrest, in which, he relates his version, of.the killing of Joe Kemper. It was -badly written, the spelling and composition being poor, and it took the jury an hour to read the document. ‘

Dr. C. C. Driscoll also gave testimony bearing out Poole’s theory of the accidental killing of Joseph Kemper. Thte same*witness said an examination of Poole’s head disclosed various stigmata of degeneracy.