Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1901 — THE ST. JOSEPH MySTERX. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE ST. JOSEPH MySTERX.

The indictment of Mrs. Addie Richardson by the grand jury on the charge of murdering her husband, Frank Richardson, has served to stir anew interest in this mysterious case. The time for the trial is now not far away and throughout the county the probable verdict of the jury is the chief topic of discussion. On this point there is a divergence of opinion, the friends of Mrs. Richardson stoutly defending her from the charge made against her. Mrs. Richardson hetself remains confident of her acquittal. "I welcome this opportunity to prove my innocence,” she said to a friend the Other day. "Ever sinee the death of my husband I have been compelled to listen to veiled allusions to my guilt, and now a chance is offered to end them forever. I am innocent-and I have no fear that the jury will Ail'd otherwise.” In less than one hour after Richardson was known to be dead at his home on Christian Ridge, the night before Christmas, it was confidently asserted that he had committed suicide. Mrs. Adie L. Richardson, the widow of the dead merchant, was the first to create the Impression that he had killed himself. A search was made for the revolver with which Richardson was supposed to have shot himself, and it was not found. Richardson did not own a revolver. The death wound was in the back of the neck. There was no indication of powder burns. When they began the investigation of the case the grand jurors first took up the relations that had existed for some time between Richardson and his

(One of the Witnesses.) wife. There was evidence that their domestic relations had been strained. In fact, they had practically separated a short time before the murder and Mrs. Richardson went to the home of her parents at San Antonio, Tex. She remained there several weeks, when there was a reconciliation and she returned home. She had been at home

only a few days when Richardson was killed. The evidence against George B. Crowley, as gathered by the officers at work on the case and by a detective employed to assist them, is held to show that he was a frequent visitor at the Richardson house, going there Crowley himself is worth about $300,000, the greater part of it being represented by real estate.

Taken in connection with the statement of Bessie Phyllis, the servant girl at Richardson’s, who says Crowley was a frequent visitor at the Richai dson house, the evidence against frequently when Richardson was not at home. Crowley lives a mile from town, on a large farm, and has a wife and one child. He owns a great deal of property in Savannah and in the country near the town. His father is one of the wealthiest farmers in the state, and Crowley Is regarded by many of the townspeople as pointing him out to

have Deen the cause of the quarrel between husband and wife. Stewart Fife has been suspected of the murder. Fife has been questioned about his whereabouts on the night of the murder, and he said he went to the rooms of the Owl club early in the evening and fell asleep there. He declared that he awoke an hour after the time the murder was committed. Fife relied on the testimony of Samuel Wal-

den, the negrd janitor at the rooms of the Owl club, to prove that he was there at the time. Other witnesses say they saw him on the street at the time he says he was asleep in the rooms of the Owl club. Fife owned a revolver, and is said to have flourished it in the saloon of E. E. Norris in St Joseph, remarking at the same time that he intended to kill Richardson. He showed letters to a woman in St. Joseph and said they had been written to him by Mrs. Richardson. The letters were sensational and were signed by the name of "Adie?’