Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1899 — LONG HIDING ENDS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LONG HIDING ENDS.

Sister Betray* Alex. Jester, Supposed Murderer of Gilbert Gate*. Through the confession of a sister, who has kept the secret for nearly thirty years, the alleged murderer of Gilbert

Gates, brother of John W. Gates or Chicago, president of the American Steel and WireCompany, has been located in Oklahoma. The news was telegraphed A. I A. Gates, the aged father, at Stt Charles, 111., and he immediately sent directions to Wichita, Kan., which led to the arrest of the

murderer. Gilbert Gates was murdered near Warrensburg, Mo., on the night of May 1872, while he was journeying westward by wagon with Alexander Jester. When night cane they encamped on the river bank, and under cover of darkness Jester, it is said, stole toward Gates and shot him in the back. He robbed Gates and then attempted to conceal the crimeby burning his victim’s body. Failing in this, the murderer threw the corpse into the river, whence it drifted down stream, where it was finally discovered in Salt river. A successful chase for Jester followed, and he was captured. A. A. Gates, father of the murdered man, hastened from Chicago to the West at that timeand was one of a party whiclr searched the house of a sister who was then living eighteen miles north of Wichita. There Mr. Gates says he found clothing whidb had been worn by his murdered son. Thit

and other evidence was introduced in thetrial, but before it was concluded Jester escaped. Since then he has been at large, and! efforts to find him have proved unavailing. A few days ago the sister of themurderer, Mrs. Cornelia Street of Shewnnee, Oklahoma, wrote to Sheriff Simmons of Wichita saying that her brother was living in Shewanee under the name of W. H. Hill. He was arrested and has been identified by John W. Gates. Jester protests his innocence. The bodies of George and Lapra Gates, Gilbert’s brother and sister, lie in the plot at Oakwood Cemetery, near West Chicago, and between them rises a marbleshaft ten feet high, on a granite base. The names of the two children Whosebodies lie beside it are inscribed there, and upon another face is this inscriptions GILBERT W., son of A. A. and Mary Gates, was murdered in Missouri by Alexander Jester, January 25, 1871. Aged 10 years and 25 days.

GILBERT W. GATES.

STONE THAT ACCUSES JESTER.