Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1895-08-06

| Fore and Pokey Barnes were 'he IT,
| TO come, and Wilson Abernatny next
Others followed soon thereafter.
THE KEYS PUT BACK.
The KEYS to the case from which the
money was stolen were kept In the
| drawer OF a sideboard, sitting next 10
the case They were In their proper
place, and the drawer was closed. There
were three trunks In the room, Also
| They had been unlocked with keys taken
from the sdeboard-drawers. but they
were all closed, and appeared, untii
opened by me, 10 be In perfect order Inc
| cupboard on the other side OF the room
was closed also, but numerous botties
were knocked down, and everything scat
tered. Upstairs In the loft. where my
wife kept her clothes and bedding. every
thing was I'm disorder. And almost all
my wifes clothing, together with some
inflow cases. had been stolen. This,
however, was not discovered until that
night. as ] did not 20 up stairs
| HAD THREE WIVES.
Mr.. Pollard was born February g. ls22,
and Mrs. Pollard January 5. 1896. MT
| Pollard was first married May 10. 1873
| to Elizabeth Frances Thompson, a widow,
! and the mother OF Mr.. William Thomp-
son. whose name has been by some peo-
pie associated with the killing OF Mrs
| Pollard She died In 1s72, and on May
| 10th, OF that year. Just two months after
| his first wife's death, Mr.. Pollard mar
ried her sister, Betsy Lewis. She lived
with him until 1882, and on the 18th or
| June OF that year-just seven weeks
/ after her death-he married the last Mrs
| Pollard. This ought to be sufficient 10
make 1t apparent that Mr.. Pollard ca
| not XIII his wife. He is not man VINO
| desires to live alone. as his quickness In
| filling the place of his wives has shown
/ and as he is now entirely too old to
hope fc, another chance in the mdtri-
| monial market he would have been the
| last person In the world 10 have ridded
| himself Of his better-half
NIP. THOMPSON NOT GUILTY.
Mr. William G. Thompson. whose place
| a1iujns Mr. Pollard's on the north, epi
VINO IS Mr. Pollard's stepson by MS
| first wife, was seen at his nome, ana
| talked very freely both concerning the
| G,ficu.t: ne had with Mr.. Pollard on the
rnorr ing Of the day on which Mrs. Pol
| lard was killed, and, with reference to
| the limitations of his completely In the
| tragedy, he gave "a very straight story
| OF his doIngs on that day, all OF when
/ he saws he can prove by from fye TO
/ six people. He said he went out into
| the fielu near his home directly after
| sunup. and his five hands stayed there
| all day. coming into dinner at ii 80. and
| returning at 100 o'clock. They did not
! quit work until after shutdown. Said he:
! "Mr. Pollard has been trying for some
| time to get public road through a
place leased by me. and |, as
one of the commissioners, directly
| Interested in the property. decided
that the road was not needed
IL ltl
the road: and. though had ploughed the
| ground up. ne continued to ride across
| IL when going to his Charlotte farm. Vim
| cent, my son, me; him on that morn
ing as he was riding across the field,
| and told him that | said he was not 10
ride across my field. Mr.. Pollard told
| Vincent that I had given him per-
| mission to do so. That was untrue,
| and when reported TO me made me mad.
| saw Mr. Pollard as he was riding back
across the plowed land, and We had
some hot words. In which both Of us
used considerable abuse. never
| dreamed Of doing him any bodily harm,
| and. as for his wife. | would not have
| hurt a hair Of her head for a mint Of
money.
DAVID INNOCENT, TOO.
David j. Thompson. his son. aged about
| . years was with his father when inter
| viewed. He also has been accused by some
| of having committed the murder but he
| positively disclamed any knowledge of
| the tragedy until early Saturday MORN
| ing. He said he went to Fort Mitchell
| about 2 o'clock on the fatal Friday. ar
| irving there about 2:3O. He stayed until
| $50 o'clock, which fact Is substantiated
| by all of the Fort Mitchell people. and
| returned TO his fathers house about 6
i ~. tt,A
road between Fort Mitchell and there.
| After remaining at his fathers about
| half an hour, he went over TO his own
home, which fact is also proved by re-
| putable witnesses. He did not leave his
| premises until abe next morning.
DISPOSED TO BE FAIR.
The Lunenburg people are disposed to
| be very fair in this matter. They were
naturally disturbed about the murder.
and eager to'ferret out the perpetrators
| OF the crime. They have no disposition,
| however. to wror4fully convict any one,
| and feeling secure In their ability TO in
| troduce sufficient testimony and evidence
TO convict Mary Alternately and Pokey
| Barnes. are perfectly willing that they
| shall have a new trial, If Judge Coleman
thinks the trial they have already had
| was unfair. They are very bitter against
the Richmond soldiers. and some of those
with whom the Dispatch man talked
| and they are Of the best citizens of the
county-assert their positive belief that
Solomon Marable was influenced in telling
his white-man story. Mr.. T.. a. Clements
said that Marable informed him during
the trial that three soldiers had told him
that if he would put the crime on white
man and clear the women they would
take him back to Richmond and turn him
loose. Now, many are disposed to believe
! this statement OF Marable to be true. but
others. more conservative. say they do
not believe IT, The majority talked to
are inclined TO believe that some of the
soldiers acted improperly toward the pri-
soners, and they are, therefore, very
much incensed.
HOW THE LETTER WAS OPENED.
Mr. FLOYD Clark, OF Chase city, wrote
the letter for Solomon in which he put SO
and Solomon told Mr.. ID. j. Gregory. who
arrested him, that he had said In the let
ter, which purported 10 come from his
brother. that the SIS was TO repay the
money which he (the brother) owed him
| (Solomon). Solomon afterwards bought
suit Of clothes In Chase City, he told MT
| Gregory, with the money he had left, and
| finding thereafter that he hadn't sufii-
cent money 10 pay for registering the
| letter he broke II open and took out the
$40 bill. leaving only s. In the letter
which he resealed. This accounts for the
| letter having been broken open and ex-
plodes the theory that some one IN the
post-office or mail service opened II and
read II while In transit.