The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-16
ELvIss STORY OF THE AFFAIl

are charged with murder and Elvis and
the woman are held on a minor charge.
ELVIS'S STORY OF THE AFFAIR.
William Elvis tells a story of the affair
which seems to be corroborated by the
circumstances and which is identical with
the women's version of it. Elvis is
paper hanger. He is single and boards
with married sister at ITO North New
Jersey street He said:
Il was at work yesterday in the north
east part of the city when Thatcher came
to me and asked me if l would go with
him and the two women that night. You
see Thatcher and L were close friends. 1
have known him for a long while and dur
ing the last two or three weeks we have
been together almost every evening, He
a substitute bartender at Fairbank,
and worked nearly every night l would
go out there in the evening and stay until
he went off watch and we would come
home together. Yesterday when he pro-
posed the trip to Bellevue he said that his
wife would be home the next night and
that it would be all off after that This
was to be his last night with the boys
and his last night with the girls. You see
his wife has been away visiting in South
Dakota for two months. l agreed to go
with him and met him after l finished
work. We ate a lunch at a restaurant on
West Market street and met the girls at
the corner of Liberty and Washington
street There we took car and were
transferred to the Fairviewpark line and
got off and walked to bellevue.
Il don't know what time we reached
there. We sat the porch and drank
two or three glasses of beer each and then
went to the bowling alley. We frequently
go out there We enjoyed ourselves with
out thinking of the time. Somebody sug-
gested it was time to go home. One of
the girls looked at her watch and said
it was fifteen minutes after II o'clock. That
was too late for a car on the Fairview
stare 90 to walk to the North
owl car line. We went out the side way
and up through the yard and out the side
gate into the road. There we noticed an
old plug of a horse and Thatcher walked
up and caught it by the forelock 1t was
an old horse and did not have to be chased.
Anybody could have caught it, We boost
ed the girls on the horses back and started
along the road. We passed a house and
We're having a merry time of it, when one
of the girls fell off and tainted. Thatcher
held the horse while l and the other girl
tried to bring her to. Just about the time
she recovered this Dutchman came along
with a gun his shoulder Thatcher said:
81 wonder where that man is going
with gun this time of the morning|
BEGINNING OF THE FIGHT
1.-THE Dutchman passed us and I could
see him clearly in the moonlight. He went
a couple of hundred feet and stopped and
started back just as the young fellow
came up on horse. The young fellow
rode up close to Thatcher who was still
holding the horse by the forelock, and
said:
"You stole that horse
You're a liar Thatcher re-
piled, and then they began fighting. I
could not see who struck the first blow or
what young Leonard used as a weapon.
But he staid on the horse and Thatcher
hit him with an umbrella.
Then the old man came running back
and l heard the boy shout something to
him. / think he said Shoot the -
- but l am not positive now. Then l
saw the old man raise his gun and strike
Thatcher: Thatcher saw the act and threw
up his left arm and turned his body slight
ly to ward off the blow. 1t seemed to me
that Just as the gun barrel hit Thatcher
The women tell the same story Of the
affair except they say that when Leonard
passed along the road Thatcher asked him
Thatcher said he wondered what the man
going to do with a gun.
THE LEONARDS' STATEMENT.
The Leonards were loquacious enough
when first arrested and talked Of the af-
fair freely. After they had been in jail an
hour or two they retained Henry Spaan to
defend them and after consultation with
him, they refused to talk further While
in the talking mood Henry Leonard made
the following statement:
II live on the old Butch farm, on the
Michigan road, about one mile north of
Crown Hill, and near the f1ve-mile bridge
have a mare that has young colt She
was locked in the stable last night. These
men and women took her out and started
off with her AS they passed the stable
the mare nickered, and her colt answered
her. This reused my boys, who looked out
of the window and saw man leading the
mare down the road, while a woman was
riding it, and told them to go to the stable
and see if Topsy-that's the mare-was
gone. When they told me she was
started after them. l took my shotgun
with me over my shoulder. l went past
EN-, for l wanted my son to come up with
me. AS / passed them the man leading
the mare asked: Where are you going
with that gun, damn your
II didn't pay any attention to him, but
went on. He began cuSSing me and he
called me a son of a - and a lot of other
names, but ! never let on. Finally he said
to me: If you come monkeying here with
that gun, T. II shoot hell out of YOU I paid
no attention until the boys came up. My