New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-02-15
a sCRAP or PAPER.
How it Convicted a Man of Murder.-A
Remarkable, True Story.

dence." said a gentleman from Contra
Costa county, recently to "a reporter of
the Independent, with whom he had
been talking about the Marley murder
trial, "calls to my mind the conviction
ofRobert Lyle, in my county, last Jan
uary, for the murder of Patrick Suli-
van, and consider it the strangest case
and one on which there was the best de-
tective work done that it was ever my
fortune to meet with. It is a famous case
and has occupied the courts since the
year 1881, and gave the officers more
trouble to secure a conviction than
dozen ordinary murder cases. They had
hardly ANYTHING to work on at first, but
stuck to it with the persistence of blood
hounds on the track of a victim, finally
securing a conviction almost wholly on
the finding of small piece of newspa-
per-"
The reporter became interested, and
suggested that the gentleman give an
account of the affair, which he did in
the following language
Sullivan was q prosperous farmer
and stock-raiser, living on Wildcat
Greek, In the southern part of Contra
Costa county, and Lyle was near
neighbor. The latter was always get
ting into trouble with his neighbors and
going to law, particularly with Sullivan.
In these suits he was generally on the
wrong side of the question, and, of
course, got worsted, which enraged him
to such degree that he was judicious
enough to make threats against SulE-
vans life, at one time telling the latter's
son that his father would fail to come
home some night. On the morning of
the day of the mu-,,er Sullivan left his
home with his team and went to town,
where he had a trifing lawsuit with Lyle
before a justice Of the peace, in
which he was beaten. The prophecy Of
Lyle was fulfilled, for Sullivan never re-
turned to his home alive. The next
morning he was found dead with his
team in field not far from his home,
his arm hanging over the whif1etree and
his body lying upon the ground. The
first conclusion was that the team had
run away with him, dragged him and
broken his neck. This theory was
strengthened by the fact that there was
a plainly Unmarked trail for two hundred
and fifty yards, evidently made by his
body. No marks of blood were on his
clothes, and no evidence that crime
had been committed. At the inquest,
when the clothes of the dead man were
removed, it was found that he had been
murdered by some one who had
SHOT HIM IN THE BACK.
Several of the shots had entered his
body, one of them penetrating the heart
and two Of them Embedding themselves
in the back of the wagon seat. I at
tended the trial and took great inter-
est in it. He was heard to pass the
house of man named Davis about nine
o'clock on the night of the murder.
The road passed near the house of Lyle,
SO that if the latter so desired he could
lie in ambush and kill him.
ssWhen the officers examined the spot
| where the murder was committed they
found the foot prints of man leading
to and from Lyle's house over the plowed
ground to the place where Sullivan had
fallen out Of his wagon. They at once
suspicioned that Lyle had had some
thing to do with the crime, and went to
his house, where he was found eating his
dinner. They told him that he was sus-
pected of the murder, and that they
| were there to make an investigation.
I have expected this said Lyle, be
cause have had so much difficulty with
Sullivan He then told the officers to
go ahead and make their search and
that they would not find any thing
eliminating about his place. On two
pegs on the wall the officers found a
double barreled shotgun, one of the
barrels Of which was moist on the in
side, and had evidently been recently
discharged. Some buckshot was found
although Lyle denied having any, and
on the shelf by the buckshot was found
a crumpled piece Of the San Francisco
Lyle was arrested and lodged in jail
at Martinez, after which one OF
the officers took the prisoners
boots and went to the scene Of the sup
posed ambush, where he found in the
brush alongside the road the imprints
of mans knees. The boots We're
found to fit the tracks in the soft ground
perfectly, and at this stage of the in
vestigation the Alameda officers offered
to hand over the case to the Contra
Costa officers, but were detailed by the
District Attorney to work it up,
sThe officer continued his weavin
| of the chain of circumstantial evidenc
and again returned to the scene of the
murder. He went to the place where tho
tracks of the mans knees had been
found, and about thirty
feet from that spot found a
small piece of paper that had evidently
been used as wadding for a gun. 1t
was bit of newspaper, crumpled and
powder burned, but not so much SO that
the print could not be plainly read.
At the trial the business manager of the
Call identified the piece as part of an
advertisement that had been printed in
the paper on the same day and date as
the paper found in Lyle's house. This
little innocent-looking piece of paper
was what completed the chain of cir
eumstantial evidence, and consigned
/ ~