The herald., 1897-04-17

| aging admissions beyond this to the wit
ness. and go far as he knew might have
read In the newspapers of the engineers
failure to answer the signal.
Dennis Burkhalter, the superintend-
ent of the San Joaquin division of the
Southern Pacific testified to the various
men in the railroads employ who could
open a switch. Hugh Byrne a freight
conductor. told of having passed Roscoe
on the night of the robbery, and finding
the switch all right. G. M. Trogdon,
brother-in-law of johnson, said that he
had heard Kid Thompson say he had
done the robberies with Johnson. Chas
A. Fisk, the Wells-Fargo agent at
Tempe, identified Kid as the man who
called several times and asked for r.
package addressed to "W. S. Parker"
and at last received it. This closed the
testimony for the prosecution.
Kid Thompson then took the stand in
his own behalf. He exhibited great nerv
BUSINESS. and considerable difficulty was
experienced in keeping down his testi-
mony to the matter in hand. He insisted
upon telling the jury about many of his
adventures in Arizona, which had no
connection with the present case. On
CTOSS SS-exd1llndllOH IL WAS lIflpOs5lDle 10
restrain him from answering all the
questions that were asked of him, and he
would reply before his attorney had time
to register his objection. On one occa
sion he was asked if he was ever incar-
cerated in the states prison at Yuma
Attorney Phillips objected to the ques-
ton, but Kid disregarded him and an
swered in the affirmative. Judge Phil
lips said: II wish you to hold on Mr.
Johnson until raise my objection to
these questions" Thompson grew ex-
cited and, swaying his body, said: mo,
1 don't want to hold on. l want to tell
1t all, and then If they want to convict
me and hang me they can. swear be-
fore God that I am innocent and / will
go before my Maker with clear con-
science"
Most of his testimony was of a ram
bling nature and showed that he was in
a highly excited state of mind. He de-
MED his connection with the Roscoe rob-
berry and claimed that Alva Johnson was
sacrificing him to save some friend ani
that he had been railroaded to Jail.
At the conclusion of his testimony H.
L. Tupper, the Arizona cowboy whose
testimony was Kids main dependence
for impeaching Etzler's evidence. went
upon the stand and told the story Of his
acquaintance with Thompson. He said
that he first met Thompson at Phoenix
some time in 1894 A week later Etzler
had been introduced as w. s. Parker.
The three were together good deal. One
day Etzler, or Parker, said that he had
a box in the express office and wanted
Thompson to get it for him.
Thompson secured the box and when 1t
was opened it was found to contain lot
of Mexican silver money. Etzler said
that he had been working with a bridge
gang down in Mexico and this was mis-
wages, which had beerf sent him by ex-
press. The rest of Tuppers evidence
as to how the money was disposed Of was
simply corroborative of the testimony
already given by Etzler. He claimed
that in the prosecution of Thompson for
the trainwrecking he had simply been
substituted for Etzler.
Mr.. McComas asked the witness on
cross ss-examination "Is 1t true, Mr..
Tupper that you smuggled a pistol and
nine cartridges to Kid Thompson in his
cell in jail this morning through the as
sistance of a man named Harris and
woman by the name of Brown"
A dead silence fell upon the court
room. This was the first intimation that
the public had had of the desperate at
tempt that had been made by Kid
Thompson to escape, through the mur-
der of his guard If necessary.
Tupper did not hesitate. but answered
at once: mo sir, it is not" That is ALL
There was no further allusion to the
matter during the examination. The
case will again be taken up for further
hearing this morning.