Huntsville gazette., 1883-09-01
FRANK JAMES AT THE BAR.
The Trial of the Notorious Bandit Com,
menced-Opening of the Case by States
Attorney WaIlace-Testimony for the
Prosecution.

| prosecution.
/ GALI.ATIN Mo-, Aug. "a.
After the customary delays Incident to the
preparation OF an important case for trial,
jury has been secured and the trial OF Frank
James for the murder OF Frank Mcmillan in
| cideatal to the Winston train robbery, fairly
begun.
+ At eight o'clock this morning Frank James
was taken over to the Opera House by the
| Sheriff and Judge Goodman was in his seat.
| Mr.. Wallace made the opening address for the
pro rosecut;on. After calling the attention of
! the jury to the nature of the oath they had
taken TO render a verdict free from all per
al f ~ sS ns.tfal hi5ass n l gsssa Z, e
/ of one Frank Mcmillan on july Is 1881, at or
near Winston, in this State. The first count
| is for murder in the first degree The second
| for murder in committing robbery, and the
| third. in being accessory with Jesse James and
] Others unknown to the crime which forms the
| basis of this case. Mr.. Wallace then discussed
motives for murder alleging the lowest kind
| OF motive to be that motive in murder for
money, which was the fact in this case. The
| evidence in the case would be that the Rock
| Island train was robbed on July Is. 1881, at
| Winston, by five men, and that in this robbery
the men killed Mr. Westfall, the c61s~ser
and arsin Frank MeMiian EN- he
killing referred to was. committed by the
James gang, whose history he proceeded to
4 detail.
| Mr. Wallace then stated that the testimony
! which the State would offer would be circum-
stantiaI and direct, and so overwhelming that
no honest Jury could refuse 70 convict after
John IT, Penn, the first witness. testified to
1 the boarding of the train at Winston ana the
actien.of the gang; .asoyto the shooting of
Mcmillan. his falling from the platform Of the
\ car. and the subsequent finding OF his lifeless
/ body by himself and McMillan's4 father, but
] could not identtfy'any of the party. a.sI.
/, Adds e. WalcOt engineer of the train, de-
| tailed the occurrences on the engine. Charles
1 n. Murray, the express agent, related his eN-
4 perience with the robbers Drs. Claggett and
| Brooks of Winston, testified us to the nature
!, Nashville. Tenn, identified the prisoner as a
4 man he had known at Nashville under the
! name Of Woodson, as did also Mr.. James, de-
| pot master at Nashville Mrs. Sarah Hite and
i Siias Norris, Mrs Hite's father testified to
| their acquaintance with Frank James and to
| some ofhismovenents, and Nicholas ID. Bishop
4 and ]. B. BARLEY, express agents, to the
movements OF box OF guns sent to j. 4.
/ GALLATTN, Mo-, Aug. 25.
The hearing of testimony in the case Of the
| State VS.. Frank James was resumed this
| morning. A fewm minutes after eight O'Clock
| Dick Liddell was called to the stand, when Mr..
| Phillips objected to his teStifying on the
| ground that he had been convicted of felony.
\ After lengthy argument on the various
| points pro and con. the Court decided thatthe
+ defense had not sufficiently sustained their
| objection to Liddell being permitted TO testify.
Liddell then testified that he was sent to
! the Pententiary in 1874 and never again. H g
was pardOned for that offense, but had since
/ torn the pardon up.
| He detailed minutely his acquaintance with
! the James boys and his connection with them,
/ embracing the time from 1870 up to the rob
bing of the Winston train and the commission
/ of the murder for which Frank James is now
| on trial. After giving an account of the ar
| rangements for the robbery and the meeting
! of the members of the gang at appointed
! rendezvous, the witness testified: The arrange
| ment was that | and Clarence should capture
\ the engineer and the others do the rest. Clar-
! over on top of the engine. We had two pis-
| tolls. We kept quiet till the train stopped.
| Then we hollered to go ahead. We shot to
! scare those fellows who both ran onto the
| pilot. The first run was about 200 yards, then
| a stop Then the engineer opened the thrOt-
! tie to the usual level. We couldn't stop it,
| Frank came on and shut off steam, and as she
slackened we jumped off while it was running
| Frank and Clarence got off first went back
after Jesse, who was still in the express car:
| Jesse jumped first and [ followed We got
800 or $500 that night in packages. 1t was
| all good money. We all got together then,
except Wood, who had been knocked down
| as Frank pulled the baggageman out of the
car, and we never saw him. Frank talked to
me about the robbery afterward. He said he
| thought they had killed two men. Jesse said
| he shot one he knew, and that Frank killed
| one He saw him peep in at the window and
/ thought he killed him. From there we went
| to our horses, taking our time. We all un-
| hitched, except Clarence, who cut his halter
strap. From there we went to Crooked River.
! The money was divided in a pasture, just
before daylight. Jesse divided, giving us
about Sl30 apiece, before we got to
| Crooked River Wood and / then
went to Ford's. The others went to-
! ward their mothers. / staid at Fords about
| found no one but the family there. Jesse and
/ Frank came to the Ford's a week later, and
then all five of us went to Mrs. Samuels'. We
| left in a wagon. All the horses had been pre-
| viously turned loose. Wewere all armed with
| pistols at Winston. | went back to jefferson
| City with Sheriff Timberlake in 1882, in Janua-
tlraf
with Mr.. Craig, of Kansas City. saw Cover
| nor Crittenden both times, first at the depot
and the other time at his office. | don't re-
| member telling the Governor at either of
! those times that after the Winston robbery
| Frank James upbraided Jesse for killing any
| one, or reminded him of the agreement be-
fore the robbery that no one should be hurt
Governor Crittenden by consent, testified:
Liddell did make such a statement to me as
| propounded just now. / think twas the sec
| ond time he was at Jefferson City. 1t grew
out of my asking him why they killed an inno-
cent man engaged in his duties. He said that
| it was not the intention to do it; that the un-
| derstanding was there was to be no killing;
that Frank had said there was to be no blood
| shed, and that after it was over Frank said,
| "JeSse, why did you shoot that man! thought
the understanding was that no one was to be
| killed, and | would not have gone into it if i
had known or thought there was to be any
thing of that sort done.P To which Jesse said,
II thought that the boys were pulling from
me- and wanted to make them common
band of murdererS to hold them up 10 me.
| Don't remember that there was any place fixed
at which the conversation first quoted occur
red. but 1t was after the robbery that the
question was asked why Jesse had killed that
| innocent man engaged in his duties. By that
/ man l referred to Conductor Westfall, and not
to Mcmillan, whose killing is the basis OF this
| action. VIZ - Linz
ga si+- GALL4TIN, Mo-. Aug. 27.
The trial of Frank James was resumed this
moning at eight o'clock, when Dick Liddell
| again took the stand was subjected to a.rigid
cross-examination by Mr.. Phillips, of counsel
for the defense, which failed to shake the
testimony of IiddeH Mr.. Phillips took the
witness over every step Of ground referred
to bv him in his testinanoy in chief without
] eliciting anything which tended in any way
1 to contradict that testimony. If anything
Iiddell's testimony to-day was more full and
| particular as to dates, places, persons and
! description than on Saturday. -afsu
Defendants counsel filed motion to strike
4 out IiddelFs testimony, on the ground that he
was an accomplice of the defendant, which
| was overruled + ,a ~ n-ya. ag .
\ w X. Oliver and Thomas "A. Manlove tes-
titled to the. delivery of express packages to
the messenger on the train robbed.
i Mrs Martha Bolton, sister of Bob and
Charley Ford, testified to her knowledge of
Frank James, and also her negotiations for
the surrender of Dick Lfddeu Dick sur
I rendered on condition of Immunity from
n punishment, and that he would testify against
the rest of the band. era E
r. An attempt by the defense to get witness