The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-02-01
TWO CENTS.

Q-Co1ld you tell the direction of the
bullets from the outside at the inquest?
| A-No.
Q-Could you tell positively by prob
| ing the direction the bullets had taken,
thirteen days after death occurred?
A-Well, not positively. 1 could make
a very fair estimate.
D-Would you say that those bullets
did not enter on parallel?
Al don't think they did.
Q-Haven't you often been mistaken
| when probing after bullets in bodies?
Ayes, Ihave often struck a wrong
lead and had to start another direction.
Q-Now that was in the body. Isn't
the brain less solid than the muscles?
Ayes. 1t is a semi-solid.
Q-How long would brain keep such
weather as this?
A-Oh, a week or two weeks.
Q-Will you explain to this jury how
those bullets came to be in those pieces,
as you found them?
A-Well, the lead was evidently soft
and they were not going with enough
force to keep together
Q-Isn't it true that bullets take all
most marvellous deviations after enter
ing the body?
Alt certainly is
Q-Then the place bullet is found in
does not indicate the direction it came
from.
County Attorney Stafford overbalauced
this on redirect examination by asking:
Q-1s there enough resistance in the
brain tissue to change the course of a
bullet?
A-No.
Mr.. McCammon then asked.
Q-I will ask you to state, doctor,
whether you did not tell Mr.. Atchison
and myself on the streets of Topeka that
you could not tell on examination the
direction of these bullets.
Al told you could not say from the
external appearance of the skull the di-
rection of the bullets The skull is too
thin.
Odd you not say that you could not
say that these bullets did not enter on a
parallel?
Several more sharp questions by Mr..
McCammon failed to make him change
these answers.
Odd you find any bullets in the tele-
phone or fence posts where Illston's body
was found? was asked of Albert Griffith,
a middle aged farmer of Monmouth town
ship
A-Yes. One was in the telephone
pole further than my knife could reach.
Three were in fence post across the
road.
On cross examination he was asked
particularly about the grass being benz
MIR. McCammen~ has a poiut in I'll.
though what it is was not yet apparen,.
OWL you say that the grass wa
bent down all the way to the bodyr
A-Why, yes, most OF the way. There
was a trail foot wide.
Q-There were othsr5 there before
you?
A-Yes.
Mr. McCammon succeeded in showing
that this trail might have been made BY
those who came before Griffith.
"The state rests" said Ce1nty Attor-
ney Stafford.
The first witness for the defense was
Martin Lund of Burlingame, Kansas. He
is gunsmith. Lawyer Atchison exam
ined him.
Q-Have you ever seen this defendant
before?
Ayes, in October. in Burlingame.
Q-How do you remember him?
Ale wanted me to remove bullet
from his gun. 1 did it for him.
Q-Is this the gun?
Ayes it is, one SO near like it they
couldn't be told apart
Q-Where did Coulter say he was GO
A-To Topeka.
Q-Can bullets lodged in a rife barrel
be shot out by anotherf
A-Yes. l have done it myself.
Q-Is it a common occurrence for
rifles of this character to shoot out too
bullets at once?
Ayes.
Mr.. Stafford cross-examined,
Odd you read the accounts in the
papers of the finding of the Illston boyP
A-Yes. This was two or three weeks
before that
O-How much did you charge him for
taking this bullet outf
Al charged him a quarter, but he,
gave me only eleven cents. He had
only eleven or thirteen cents, l forget
which.
Q-Do you know whether two bullets
fred out at the same time would stay
together or spread?
Al have no actual knowledge. Only
what think.
Will ]. Stagg, of Topeka, was also
called an expert witness He bought
a Quackbush rife for his son and has
shot it a great deal himself.
He testified that the gun often 'stuck''
bullets, and he as often fred them out.
81 was at Wakarusa last summer and
ball lodged in the barrel. l didn't shoot
it out myself, but l handed it to a coun-
tryman [laughterl and when he shot it
out into the creek there were two splashes
of water. l was behind tree" Laugh
ter.
The next expert was Jesse C. Elliott,
the Topeka sporting goods dealer.
OWN the bullet shot out and the
one which shoots it out separate?
A-Some.
Q-How far in twelve feet?
A-There's nothing accurate about il.
1t might be more sometimes than others
The county attorney cross eXa amined.
Q-How many times have you ever
examined where two bullets struck?
Al can't tell.
The witness finally said that bullets
spread from one to six inches, according
hc q dirfa he hid Il hnt