Morning journal and courier., 1884-07-08
Sheriff Hart Confident

That he can Convict John A. WhiPper
 of EldredRe F. Joh son's Murder-Why
 that Axe Is Not Regarded as Proof Posi-
 tive.
 Deputy Sheriff Hart, the man who has
 been working since last December to find out who killed Eldredge F. Johnson on the sec ond of that month, and who claims now to |
 have discovered more than enough evidence
 to convict John A. Whippsr of that crime, l
 arrived in town yesterday afternoon, his |
 lank form enclosed in a sober suit of clothes,
 his face wreathed in a hopeful, got-him-sure
 sort of smile and big Valise and bundle
 containing Whipper's wardrobe in his hand.
 The deputy sheriff thinks he has got his man
 without the slightest shadow of 8 doubt and
 feels naturally considerably elated over what
 he regards the successful outcome of his long
 and laborious search. He takes great pride
 in coming up to New Haven and in bustling
 about the county jail, where the defiant Whipper is securely housed. It is not the
 hope of securing the $500 reward for the ar
 rest and conviction of Eldredge Johnson's murderer that makes Deputy Sheriff Hart's step elastic and his heart happy, but 1t is the fame that will be his when he proves himself better man than Pinkerton detective aided by Coroner Bollman, or vice versa He ! knows that if he succeeds in convicting Whipper he will be looked upon as man of extraordinary, not to say miraculous, powers | by his neighbors in the quiet town of Madi-
 son, who are now fully settled in their minds l as to Whipper's guilt, but do not believe that l the authorities have evidence enough to con- | vict. They themselves have been over the ground. The coal pits, the bramble bushes and the pond are all well known to them | from their modest efforts to secure the much needed bits of evidence. They believe they know all the ins and outs of the case. If Whipper is convicted it will be circumstan- tial evidence. But the deputy sheriff looks wise and says nothing when the farmers hint that Whipper cannot bs convicted.
 Eldredge Johnson's axe and lantern, which he had with him on the night of the murder, ! and which have recently been found, form an important part of the evidence. The | lantern was found some six weeks ago by New Haven man named Howard, who was l fishing in the stream alongside of which Whipper's charcoal pit is located. It lay 1 about thirteen feet from the bank in a lot of | brush. The axe was found June 25 by Sher- | if Hart and two men he engaged to help him ] drag the pond, which had been drawn down
 considerably. It lay in about three feet of water and was somewh at rusted. The three men engaged in the
 search looked at it so to locate it's position before it was taken out of the pond. | Sheriff Hart took it to his house and the next ! day, after Edgar Johnson, brother of the | murdered man, had identified it, he brought | it to MT. Doolittle, who sent it to Medical Examiner White. It is at present in Medical \ Examiner Whites hands undergoing micro | scopical examination. The lantern was just | 63O feet from Whipper's cabin and was in a ! line with the place where the axe was found | It Is supposed that after killing Johnson | wit the axe Whipper threw the axe in the ! pond and tossed the lantern after 1t, but limb from tree stopped it and it fell among | the bushes, unknown to Whipper. But | it is claimed by some that the axe must have been put in the pond recently, as month \ ago Detective Cornish, Coroner Bollman and c. E. Way, of Madison, searched that pond ! so thoroughly that had the axe been there it | surely would have been found. The water was drawn so that only three feet depth re- mained.
 | But Sheriff Hart is cheerful. He says: 'We have got the strongest kind of 8 case | against Whipper, but can't give 1t away at present. I have been working at this job 1 quietly all the time and I am sure of my
 man. I have kept MT. Doolittle posted as to what I discovered, and he told me that had more than enough to convict" Sheriff Hart vent on to say that it was very necessary to keep the finding of the axe 8
 secret. ''If Whipper had knoNn we had | got it he would have skipped. Mir. Doelittle | asked me if there was any chance of his run | ming away, and said there nothing to prevent him from going if he wanted to, for he could be gone twenty -four hours before | would know it. That satisfied the State at- | torney, and so he got bench warrant | At any rate there is no doubt in the minds
 of the truly pIous people of Madison that ! Whipper had threatened to kill Johnson that ! they repeatedly quarreled and that in all probability he carried out his threats. That remains to be proven, however. But Dep uty Sheriff Hart says he can surely do it.