Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-11-27
DEMOCRATIC NORTHWEsT THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 271ssO
Found Guilty OF Murder In the. First
;i-.f- Degree.

So Degree.
sg-In the case OF Edward Blair, aIiau
Joseph II. Hill, for the murder Of Arthur s,
Henry, at Hartsburg, Putnam county, in
March last, which was tried before Judge
Handy at 0ttowa last week, the jury returned
verdict of murder in the first degree. The
following is brief statement of the crime:
On the 18th of last March rumor went out
that Arthur Henry had been killed at Harts-
burg, this county, the night before, and that
three men were implicated in the murder.
Within six weeks the parties implicated were
arrested, and the fact of their being the parties
was fixed beyond doubt. They were Ed.
Blair. Lafayette Stoops and Joseph Shoe
maker.
The grand jury having indicted all three of
them for murder in the frat degree, Ed.
Blair was last Thursday put on trial for his
life under the indictment found.
In the place of giving the testimony in the
disjointed method of its production we lay
before our readers the plain story of the
murder, so that they may get the history of
the crime as brought out by the only two
witnesses in it, the two men jointly indicted
with the man on trial. -es
The first two witnesses examined were Mr..
Marcy sand Mrs. Henry, father-in-law and
wife of the murdered man. Their testimony
is only important as it corroborates that of
Stoops in his statement that he went to the
house, knocked, and when some one came
to the door said he wanted to get some to-
bacco. Otherwise they simply testify to the
finding of the dead body of the murdered
man after the murderers had fled.
The testimony of StooPs and Shoemaker is
alike in all essential particulars, was unshak-
en- by cross. examination, and gives a story
as follows:
On the morning the three had a talk in
Shoemaker's house in Continental in refer
ence to robbing the Harrisburg store, and in
pursuance with that talk they met at the
Nickle Plate switch in the evening, and
started west to the place of the proposed rob-
berry.
At Harrisburg the railroad runs east and
west, and the only public highway crosses it
from north to south-the store being but a
little distance from the track, and the
house where the storekeeper lived but a
little ways from the store. On the east
side of this road is cattle guard, and but
a few steps east of the guard was pile of
ties, VI
When the three reached the cattle guard
a consultation was had, the result of which
was that Blair went to the store to learn
what he could, and the other two went to the
pile of ties and sat down to await a report
from him.
When he came back he said they had taken
in about $40 that day, After further con-
sultation Stoops and Shoemaker were posted
along the road by fence to watch for the
locking up of the Htore, while Blair went west
of the road to reconn liter.
After the store had been locked and the
two men traced to their home, the two watch
ers returned to the cattle guard, where Blair
soon Joined them.
A plan of operations was then agreed on,
and in accordance with it Stoops went to get
out the storekeeper, and shoemaker and Blair
posted themselves at the corner of the store,
near the sidewalk.
Stoops knocked at the storekeeper's door,
and on its being opened Stoops said he
wanted to get some tobacco. The young
man, Henry, followed him out and accom-
panied him to the store to satisfy his de-
mands.. .,-e.. ..
While Henry was unlocking the door Blair
and Shoemaker stepped up, and Henry asked
if any of them had match. On negative
reply he said he would find one, and opening
the door went in, followed by Blair and
Shoemaker, Stoops remaining on the out
side.
Shoemaker stepped inside about ten feet
from the door, and Henry and Blair went
about twenty feet before getting to where the
matches were. When Henry Struck the
the match Stoops saw Blair with his right
arm extended az though holding revolver,
though he didn't see it Shoemaker swore he
had a revolver in the hand so lifted), and
heard him say: "It's your money we want. "
With this Henry threw the match and
grabbed BLAIR. At this point Shoemaker
and Stoops ran away, leaving the other two
struggling in the dark. And when Shoe
maker got to the door and Stoops to the
cattle guard. they heard the pistol shot that
took the life or Henry, and very soon after
Blair came running after them. They ran
on the railroad ways, then got over wire
fence, crossed field and got into the woods.
When they all got together in the field Blair
was asked if he was shot, when he replied,
"No, I shot the other man." Blair had 81
calibre revolver. Neither OF the other TWO
had firearms of any kind.
They all got to Shoemaker's house in Con-
tinental between and O'Clock in the
morning. During the forenoon they learned
Henry was dead. The night of the murder
the revolver was thrown in Shoemaker's
kitchen stove, the next day into the fire in
the front room stove, and the next day under
the house, where it remained until the next
Monday night when Stoops and Shoemaker
vent away. They took it out about q half
mile from town and threw it into the railroad
ditch, where it remained until after their
arrest.
Blair left town the night after the murder,
Stoops and Shoemaker going the next Mon-
day night, or one week after the crime was
committed The route Blair took they did
not know, but they too took the Faurot rail-
road grade to. Lima, and thence through
Urbana and Washington to East Monroe,
where they were captured, tss:
This is the story told by the only living
soulc rubn cap toll IL aYnant RlpiP-