Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1879-03-22

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gion of the heart were the proofs Of the
murder. Lying in its accustomed place
by the coal-stove was seen one of the in
struments Of death-a short iron poker,
to which adhered both hair and blood.
But the dagger was missing.
The assassin, whoever it was, had
first struck the Judge from behind with
the poker while he sat in his great arm
chair at his desk, as the position of the
chair and body indicated, and then
dealt the blows with the dagger.
In bearing off the sharp instrument
of death, it was at first believed that the
murderer had left no clew behind, but
after the surgical examination discov-
cry was made that startled every one
present.
Lying upon the desk, and almost en-
tirely concealed beneath a mass of legal
documents, was piece of legal cap,
upon which was traced, in spasmodic
hand, these words:
"Jason Bowers did this!"
Below this brief but startling sentence,
which seemed at once to fix the identity
of the assassin, was what appeared to
be an attempt of the writer to afiix q
signature, but after q 81" the pen
made long mark, which the bekolders
could follow across the desk to the very
walnut edgirg.
1t seemed that death had suddenly
stricken the writer in the act OF signing
his name, and the broken pen in the
Judges lifeless hand pointed almost
positively TO the writer.
There was such man as Jason Bow
ers. He was not resident of B.
For some time past he had been an in
mate of the County Jail-held there on
a charge of forgery. On the day prior
to the night of the Judges murder this
man Bowers had been acquitted by the
jury selected to try him, and at the mo-
ment of the commission of the crime he
was a free man. He had never been
heard to say aught against the Judge,
more than to remark that he thought
that in the charge to the jury he (the
judge had favored conviction. At
homs the young man had not borne an
irreproachable character, having en-
gagged in affairs of questionable honor;
but the trial for forgery was his first ap-
pearance before q criminal court.
Upon the evidence of the writing on
the paper, which was pronounced by
all to be in the late Judges chirogra-
ply, and beyond doubt the last work Of
his life, the Sheriff resolved to take
Jason Bowers into custody if he was
still in town. The young man was not
difficult to find, as he was in the crowd
below, and on the charge of malicious
murder he was forthwith arrested and
lodged in jail.
We now come to the most mysterious
part Of our narrative.
At the Coroner's inquest but little
light was thrown upon the crime.
Jabez Throck, the janitor, said that
he found the outer doors of the Court
house locked from the inside; and that
he had been obliged to enter through
the coal-cellar, Of which he alone car
ried the key. 1t was not an uncommon
thing for the deceased to remain in his
room till Il O'Clock at night during
session of court, and upon such occa-
sions he locked the Courthouse when
he left for home. Upon the janitor's
testimony the theory that the murderer
had been concealed in the building was
started, but this was injured by the va
rious county officers, who swore that
they had locked the iron doors leading
into their offices Immediately after the
adjournment of court, which gave the
murderer no place for concealment but
the stone corridors.
The Courthouse was on the second
street running parallel with the river,
and one of the town sewers connected
it with the stream. There was bare
possibility that small man might have
obtained ingress to the building by the
sewer, but an examination of its mouth
this theory. The courtroom
was situated on the second floor. The
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