The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1897-05-29
TRxx1 ESCAPES THE aALLowa
The Second Jury Find Him Guilty Of
Murder In the Second Degree.


Murder in the Second Degree.
The examination of witnesses in
the Freel trial at Mountain Home
OH Thursday morning
and concluded on Saturday fore
noon.
Freel's testimony was the same
in effect as what Sheriff Easley
stated in his evidence during the
first trisl % being told him by
Freel soon after Kensler's body
was found.
Freel said in part:
The night Of the murder he was awak-
oned by Mrs. Kensler who said THAT old
ID has hit me again and l am going TO
kill him; come and help me-" [ said,
"Don't you do it. She says to me, IF you
don't help me will get some one else that
will" reasoned with her and told her I'D
be blamed tor it. and she agreed not to do
it and went away. l dropped asleep and
by-and-by she and man whose face was
BACKED or masked woke me up. and the
man pointed q gun 1T my head, telling me
that they had killed John and for me to get
up and help to bury him or they'd blow my
lights out. got up and accompanied
them to the house. There saw Kensler
dead; his body on the floor on canvas
sheeting. They said they'd bury him in
the ditch and compelled me to go to the
headgate with them and turn the water out.
She walked ahead, the gun in one hand, a
shovel in the other. l followed and the
man followed after me with gun in hand,
and she opened the gate and let the water
in Garfield ditch. We got back to the
house and they dug the hole in the ditch
and the man and | dragged the body out
on the canvas to the hole. refused to but
she put the gun to my head and said, "Y I'%
blow your head off the same way" The
man and she then covered him up and
cleaned up. We then went into the house.
The bedclothes were bloody and were
burned. The bed was in the northeast cor
ner of the front room. She then got dish
pan full of warm water and washed up the
blood and brain matter off of the floor, the
man holding the lamp for her to do so. II
this. Then she went out hitched up the
team, drove them out and turned them
loose. Quite soon it was daylight. She
next got b. eakfast and she. l and the chill
dren, Myrtle and Albert, sat down to eat.
She said to me, Johns gone TO town." ]
said "Yes, he has," that way. The man
had gone. Irefused to turn the team loose
She left me washing the dishes and went
away with the bloody canvas in gunny
sack to bury it and in half an hour returned
with shovel in her hand. She, by threats
and entreaties, got me to promise not tC
tell On her. That's why told these wit
nesses what they said l told them. They
told the truth.
In the cross-examination, Freel
admitted criminal intimacy with
Mrs. Kensler, and his story in this
line is better omitted than printed
It is sad story of wife's general
infdelity and total depravity.
Freel said: l can't read, can,
calculate. Don't know months o
the year in proper order.
The mother of the prisoner tes
tilted that he received kick in the
head from a mule when he was ter
years old which rendered him men
tally unbalanced in consequence o.
which he never attended school
and could not read or write.
Myrtle Kensler, when put upor
the stand, said: Papa slapped
mamma that night at the supper
table, and mamma said, "this il
the last time you'll slap me-" Thi'
was surprise to States counsel
who called the child to rebut FreeP'
statement of that fact, and although
questioned repeatedly in the sam'
manner they could not shake her
This corroborated Freels statemen
entirely the reverse of their pur
pose and, being their witness, coult
not be impeached.
At 10 o'clock Saturday night tn
case was submitted to the jury.
Sunday night, at 8: Is, after be
ing out almost twenty-four hours
the jury returned into court ant
handed in their verdict, which wa
read by Clerk Reynolds, and is a
follows: 1--WE, the jury in the abov
suit, find the defendant, Alfre'
Rosencrans Freel guilty of murde
in the second degree as charged il
the information and recommen'
the highest penalty of the law 70
sentence by the court"
Freel was then remanded for sen
tence. His face frightened whel
the sentence was read, realizing tina
his life was saved. The verdict is NJ
less, and conceded by a great man.
good citizens, no more than he just
~ deserves.
The Mountain Home Bulletin say
"Wolfe and Bierbower of counse
for defense made q most masterl
defense of Freel all throughout tn
trial. Every inch of ground wa
contested with earnest vigor. an
every thread of evidence in his favor
however light, was weighed mos
carefully that none of its value wa
lost. Through their heroic effort
to save the life of the unfortunate
but foo!ishly erratic young man, b
was snatched from the scaffold afte
standing in the shadow of the ga
lows since his first trial. Their
eternal vigilance was his safety fror
death. The statutory penalty is I'm
prisonment at hard labor for nc
less than the years, which may b
extended to life.
The trial of Josie Kensler for til
murder of her husband was n
sumed at $50 Tuesday morning