The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-02-17

Santa Rosa, Feb. 12.--Nirs. Mary Jane
Fowler and Mrs. Elizabeth Bryan, sis
ters Of Nancy Hardin Meagher, the
blind woman who was murdered at her
home near Petaluma, are still in Jail
here. They occupy rooms in the front
part of the Jail and preserve a very
AJiscreet silence. Yesterday there were
&7zae callers at the jail who expressed
desire to see them, and when the
Jaller took them co stairs, Mrs Bryan
petulantly informed them that she was
not receiving callers and that she would
be pleased if they would bestow their
curiosity upon somebody else. Mrs.
Fowler, however, arose, bowed pleas
antly tc the callers, and resumed her
seat in her usual good humor.
They will be taken TO Petaluma We'd
nesday morning, when their preliml-
nary examination viii begin The Of
flcers profess having secured consid-
cradle important evidence since the ar
rest Of the women and the boy, and
apparently believe that enough of a
case has been made out against them
TO warrant the justice in holding them
for trial
Experiments have been made with
the shotgun belongiEg 10 the organs,
Which, they think, viii have very i'm
pOrtant bearing upon the case. 1t is
also claimed that evidence has been
accumulated against Johnnie Bryan to
show that the lad did not tell the
truth when he talked about the kind
OF shot he used in the gun when out
hunting the day before the murder.
1ohnnie lay stretched out on the cot
Ingalls, cell, and when a San Francisco
Examiner correspondent called to see
him today he was in good humor and
laughed ct the efforts of the authori-
ties to fasten the crime upon him.
Why, they can't keep an innocent
person in jail long" said he. q don't
know anything about the murder and
cant tell EN- anything. and it wouldn't
make any difference if they kept me
III jail here forty years."
DO you suppose he said rising up
on his elbow to make his words more
emphatic. that il | had known any
\thing about who killed Aunt Mamie I
Would not have told it long ago? OF
course I would. I jes couldn't keep
from it. No, sir, anybody mean and
cowardly enough to shoot a person
through window without giving EN-
any chance at all would have given
the whole thing away long before
this
Then the boy laughed at the story
that the Petaluma boy who had been
hunting with him had disputed what
he said about the kind Of shot he used.
I'D like to know how he could tell
didn't have any good chance to see"
he said. He said he had always liked
his aunt Mamie and she liked him, but
Meagher disliked him. HE used to
tease me- he said, "and one time he
chased NE off the place with a whip,
cause he said / was listening to what
/, was being said over at his house,
asked if he had repeated anything
- had ever heard to his mothers folks.
'ohnnie said he had told them things
he thought were for their best inter
est. But he denied with vehemence
any knowledge of the murder First,
hes aid, they had Fred accused. and
1t looked like they would hang him.
But they soon dropped that Then they
pitched onto ma and me and Mrs. Fow-
Ter. Pears to me if / had thought one
person had done it J would have stuck
TO him while and not dropped him
all lat once to go for somebody else,
Bus. f4Spose they must pitch onto some
Then Johnnie switched off and talked
4 Hbout his folks His father, he said.
gSted about twelve years ago when he
Z Was three years old. He is the young
est child and calls himself the baby
ofNthe family. Pretty tough. isn't ii.
for the baby to be shut up in iail for
something he knows nothing about" he
said with a smile.