Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1900 — POWERS ENTERS A DENIAL. [ARTICLE]

POWERS ENTERS A DENIAL.

Defendant in Goebel Case Contradict* State-’* Witnesses. Caleb Powers, defendant in the Goebel case, was on the witness stand at Georgetown, Ivy., in his own behalf. He said that he was on the way to Louisville when he heard that Goebel had been assassinated. “I said it was a shame and an outrage and that it would blight the chance of all of us whose offices were in contest.” Witness said that the statement of Golden that he spoke derisively when told of the shooting was absolutely false. He said he never heard violence talked of ii* any of the conferences in which he participated, except in one, when Sheriff Barton ot Breckinridge County talked in an incendiary manner and was reproved. The day after the assassination, witness said, he began an investigation to learn where the shot was fired from. Powers detailed the events immediately preceding the arrest of himself and Capt. Davis. He said his attorney advised him to make his way to the mountains and remain there till public excitement died out before giving himself up for trial. “The Legislature had appropriated SIOO,OOO for the prosecution of persons charged with the crime, and I did not believe it was possible for me to get a fair trial in Franklin County. Moreover, I did not believe the civil authorities there would protect me. I did not know that I could get a change of venue and these were the reasons which suggested flight from Frankfort.” George F. Weaver, the witness who claimed to hail from Colorado and who asserted that he saw the gun barrel pointing from the office of the Secretary of State at the time Goebel was assassinated, was arrested on a warrant charging him with perjury. The warrant was sworn out by the attorneys for the defense in the Powers case, who say that they have found out that Weaver was not only not in Frankfort the day of the assassination, but was never there till last Saturday night.