The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-19
SOME FACTS CONCEALED
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN THE
TRAGEDY NEAR BELLEVUE.
ROadhOnse People Had the Two WOm-
en-, So They Say, Make Ger
tain False Statements.

Since the verdict of the coroner exonerat-
ing Henry Leonard for killing James
Thatcher and the decision of the grand
jury not to indict Leonard, some additional
facts have come out which did not come
to the attention of the coroner's deputy in
making the investigation, nor the grand
jury. The facts came out through the pro-
test of Ella Thompson and Nora Mullen.
the women who were with EIvis and
Thatcher during the night of the shooting,
against the publicity given the statements
regarding their conduct
The women and Elvis still stoutly assert
that they did not go into the barn at all
and that they found the horse loose in the
road as they first stated, and further they
produce some good evidence of the truth
of their statement The women said last
night regarding the case:
I'VE have been grossly misrepresented
and slandered. We may have done wrong
in ever going to such a place as Bellevue,
but that does not make all the statements
made about us true. In the first place it
is not true that we said at any time that
we left Bellevue shortly after II o'clock.
We did notice that it was 1915 when we
quit playing ten-pins but we staid at the
place probably an hour after that. We ate
a lunch and drank a glass of beer before
we left the place. Allowing. an hour for
this. II was probably lis when we left.
Still there is an hour or more to be ac-
counted for, as the time from when we left
TO the time the police We're notified of the
killing. This great length of time has been
taken to mean that we must have gone
into the farmers barn and misbehaved
ourselves. But this time can easily be ao-
counted for. We returned to the roadhouSe
in about twenty minutes to half an hour
after we left, and then it was three-quar-
tiers of an hour from the time we told the
people there of the killing that they tele-
phoned to the police.
They could hardly believe us when we
told them and when we did they ran around
like chickens with their heads off They
were greatly excited and seemed terribly
afraid of the consequences regarding their
business. Mr.. Tfuemper was greatly agi-
tated and pleaded with us TO protect him.
Then he got out a big register and before
he would telephone he made Mr.. Elvis sign
his name and become member of some
club. This was done, l suppose, in order
that the sale of intoxicants after hours
would in some manner be legalized There
were several propositions about the stories
which we should tell, and the bartender
wanted us TO say that we had left there
at about II O'Clock and had walked TO Fair
view Park and back before the shooting oc-
Cured. We declined to tell anything but
the truth. 1t was three-quarters of an hour
before the telephone message was finally
sent
The Thompson woman declared that the
story about them taking the horse from
the stable could be dlSprONeI by the people
at Bellevue for they had told her that the
horse was seen running about the road an
hour or two before Elvis and Thatcher and
the two women left the place. She said she
believed that the hired man had fixed up
the story about them going into the barn.
She did not believe anybody had gone in
there but two couples had left the road
house an hour before she had, and it might
have been them and they might have, let
the horse out.
Another thing which strikes me as
ai6 ThnmnSOn Ia
fact that Leonard and his son were both
fully dressed, the same they appeared
in court, when they came out on the road
where we were with the horse. 1t is
strange that a man should stop to put a
collar on when suddenly awakened in the
middle of the night by report that some
one was stealing his horse. L am OF the
opinion that the Leonards were awake ana
watching for the person that took the horse
cred that the horse was out in the road
and came to the conclusion that ii was
taken by somebody from the roadhouse who
might pick it up again
A good deal of what the women say is
corroborated by Captain Quigley and the
police who went out to the scene of the
tragedy. Captain Quigley says that Cha&.
Kirk, the engineer at the roadhouse, How
ard Wright a bartender and colored por-
ter all told him that Thatcher, Elvis and
the two women had been gone but short
half hour when they returned and reported
the killing of Thatcher. Kirk said he had
closed up Immediately after they left and
had not reached his bed when they returned.
Captain Quigley also said that Henry Econ
ard and his son were fully dressed when
ne went TO the house TO arrest them.