Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 December 1911 — POOLE TRIAL NEARING END [ARTICLE]

POOLE TRIAL NEARING END

Evidence Wil PnM) 111 Hl In Today JUOGEG.W. HANLEYTESTIFIED Regarding Assault and Battery Case Here, and Considered the Defendant of Sound Mind at That Time. The Poole trial at Lafayette is nearing an end, and it is probable the case will go to the jury early the coming week. At this time the outcome of the trial i> problematical, but the general impression has been all along that the defendant will be found insane and sent to the* asylum for ~the criminal insane. It is not believed that he will be hung. Lafayette, Ind., Dec. 6.—Four witnesses if or the state testified this morning that in their opinion John W. Poole, accused of the murder of Joseph Kemper, is a. person of sound mind. They Delated many incidents of conversations with Poole and business transactions with him. Some of the witnesses said they regarded Poole as a shrewd bargainer. Alonzo Sleeper said he sold fruit trees to Poole while he admitted that PoOle was always unclean and unkempt in his dress, he said Poole talked coherently and collectedly. . * .

\V. B. Hoffine told a long story of his relations with Poole and said that he observed PqoJs several times when he engaged in fist fights. He also said that Poole talked to him about buying land and seemed to be rational. He admitted on crossexamination that once when Poole’s head was badly cut he asked the witness to get a needle and' thread and sew up his wounds. Ben Johnson and John Johnson, farmers who live near Poole, told of their dealings with the defendant and said he was of sound mind but Ben Johnson admitted that Poole had beaten him in a law suit and that his feeling toward the defendant was not the best. The rebuttal testimony was resumed this afternoon. \V. W. Evans, a business man at Fowler, said he had known Poole for thirty years and had done considerable business with him. He said Pool? /as shrewd and a hard man ft pm whom to collect money. The witness said he never heard Poole talk incoherently or look wild and he said, in his opinion, Poole was a person of sound mind. On cross-examination he admitted that he never observed" Poole except in business transactions with him. H. L. Harrington, a hardware dealer at Fowler, said he had known Poole about ten years. He siid Poole traded with him for four years. The witness said in 1904 Poole gave him a note in payment for a mower. He said Poole came to the store a short time later and was asked to sign the note, having forgotten to do so in the first instance. The witness said he had occasion to leave Poole alone with the note and when he returned Poole had left and the note was missing. He. said he asked Poole about it and Poole gave him a second note. Harrington testified Poole told him, several months later, that the first note had turned up andj that he had paid the money to| an agent of the mower company. 1 The witness said he was finally, compelled to sue to get his. money. He said, in his opinion,' Poole was a' person of sound mind. On cross-examination he recalled seeing Poole look wild once after he was in a fight. He also admitted having told several people in Fowler that

Poole had a mania and was not right in the mind. The witness also testified that when he was paid what Poole owed him it was Mrs. Poole who gave him the check for the amount. It is the theory of the defense that Mrs. Poole did all the business on the farm because Poole was not able mentally to transact business properly. The state is planning to put on the witness stand a number of experts who will testify regarding different kinds of insanity and is seeking to show that in recurrent mania such as Poole is said to have had the victim frequently recovers. The officers of the state insane hospital at Indianapolis probably will be brought here to testify that Poole recovered his reason before he was discharged from that .institution in 1898. The state will, by hypothetical questions, endeavor to convince the jury that Poole was sane and that the wav in which he , con- *■ > ' cealed the body and destroyed its was evidence of a carefully planned homicide. The last witness for the defense was Dr. Frank B. Thompson, who testified as an expert in favor of the defendant. He said the defendant was undoubtedly insane. In cross-examina-tion the state changed the hypothesis to suit the state’s theory. Dr. Thompson sometimes answered the way the state wished him to and at other times he clung to his statements that Poole was insane. Grace Poole, the defendant’s daughter, was called back to the stand long enough to be cross-examined about testimony she gave at the eoronePs —inquest amt Site admitted the accuracy of the stenographic report of her testimbny. Lafayette. Ind., December z.— Through business men at Fowler and Swanington, farmersUand •personal acquaintances of

fendant for a .period of many years, the state in the John W. Poole murder trial is putting before the jury some important tesmony touching on Poole’s menial condition. All of the state’s witnesses have related instances of Poole’s craftiness and all were positive in their declarations that Poole is of sound mind and that he was in full possession of all his faculties when he killed Joe Kemper, cut up the body and buried it in the corn fi£ld, where it remained for sixteen months before it was exhumed and Poole was arrested. William Baismore, a young farmer who worked for Poole several times and who was a frequent caller at the Poole home, said he never saw Poole exhibit the slightest symptom of hallucination. He said Poole was sane and shrewd. Baismore was at the Poole home the day Kemper was killed. The witness told about helping Poole thrash and butcher, and he never obr served any incoherency in Poole’s speech or conversation. He never heard him talking to himself or gesticulating. Poole, he said, directed the work on the farm, and when they butchered Poole cut up the meat. Attorney Barce, in his cross-examina-tion. asked the witness but one question. “You are a companion an 4 partner of Emory Poole are you not?” the attorney asked ‘’Yes. sir.” replied Baismore. “That’s all.” retorted the attorney. M. C. Garvin, a neighbor of Poole’s, who also testified in the case 4n s chief, said he talked to Poole occasionally about crops, and Poole always talked sensibly. He observed him about the farm.l and never saw anything peculiar in his actions. He said after j Poole’s first arrest in March he saw him in Swanington with a box of old clothing, and asked Poole what he was going to do with the box, Poole, he said, replied that he thought he would ship it away. “Why don’t you bury it?” askcct ‘the Mritness, according to his. testimony, and Poole hung his head and laughed. Garvin said he did not notice anything unusual about the way the Poole farm was kept, but in cross-ex-amination attorney Barce introduced photographs shoeing the

1 lilapidated condition of trie | sheds, barn and fences and the| dirty condition of the entire premises. - j Dr. I’. J. Watters of the Central Hospital for the Insane at Indianapolis. was questioned about Poole's hospital record in 1893 and 1897. He said Poole was first admitted in August, 1893. and released on furlough in September of the same year, when his wife was made responsible for him. In February, 1894. he was formally discharged from the insane hospital, but was returned._ to that institution in February, 1897, when he escaped and returned to his home. Poole . was brought back to the institution in February, 1898, bv the sheriff of Benton county on orders from the insane hospital. In April he was released on furlough again and in May he was formally discharged. Mr. Barce sought to question Dr. Watters about Poole’s condition while he vVas at the state hospital, but the state's objection on the ground that it was not cross-ex-amination was sustained. Frank Cones, formerly a merchant at Fowler; Michael Duffy, of Benton county: G. L. Guthridge of Swanington; Dempsey Barker of Fowler, and Charles Stuart of Barce, related business deals with Poole, and all said they believed him sane. John Quigley of Oxford told the jury of the experience his father had with John Poole, Jan. 1 23. 1897, when Poole attacked him with a revolver and shot’ him through the cheek, the injured man recovering after a long illness. Quiglev said he worked for ! Poole in 1886 and 1888, and Poole' never paid him the money he owed him. Quigley was then a minor and his father later,' brought suit against Poole andi got judgment for 548.96. Poole gave the elder Quigley a check for that amount and on Jan. 23, 1897. Quigley and his son, the witness, drove to Fowler, cashed the eheck and started for home again. . . . Quigley said Poole waylaid them, shot his father in the cheek j and forced him to give up the: ’money. Poole was tried and sent- to the insane hospital after having Been acquitted on a plea of insanity. "“7

Adam Ness, who lives three miles from the Poole farm, declared there was not a saner man in Benton county than John! Poole. William Day of Benton! county testified that he workedj for Poole and that he asked him one time between his first and second arrest if a body had been found on the farm. Poole told him none haxl been found. and remarked that he supposed! people were satisfied. Bert Evans of Benton county said that he worked with Poole several times and that Poole directed the work on his farm. William Harkryaer of Benton county related a conversation about land in Jasper county and Benton county. Poole predicted that Benton county land would be worth S2OO an acre in two years from that time. The witness said Poole’s prediction had been partially realized. Judge Charles W. Hanley of Jasper county told of Poole being. brought before him in the circuit court at Rensselaer on a charge of assault and battery with intent to commit criminal assault. He said he thought Poole to be a man of sound mind at that time. George S. Edenbarter, superintendent of the Insane Hospital at Indianapolis, testified as to the diagnosis of Poole’s mental condition at the hospital, and showed that at one time he was suffering with recurrent mania. „ The state moved to strike out all parts of the hospital record except the dates of " admission and release and the official diagnosis. The court reserved ruling. William Snyder, Frank Carson, Lon Rummel and George Pfleeger all testified Of having had business transactions with Poole, and said they regarded him a person of sound mind.