Brenham weekly banner. [volume] (Brenham, Tex.) 1877-1907, 1897-11-25
wELLMAN's EXAMINING TRIAL.
Bond Fixed by Agreement at Five Thous
and Dollars.

Wellmann for the killing Of Her.
mann Gierken came up for hear
ing before Justice Ewing Thurs
day afternoon, the defendant
being represented by Hon. Ben
S. Rogers. The ability of the
defence to prove threats on the
part of Gerken made the case a
bailable one and the defendant
was granted bail in the sum of
5000 by agreement to await the
action of the grand jury.
The defendant declined to
make a voluntary statement.
The following is a full text of the
testimony.
Fritz Heitmann, after being
duly sworn for the State, testified
as follows: My name is Fritz
Heitmann. On the day of the
shooting, the 18th of November,
! 1897, Herman Gierken was pick
ing cotton in my field; I was
hauling wood. l was about 500
yards from the shooting. The
first thing I saw was man driv-
ing in the field in a buggy; he
drove out of the road in the bug
by and in about rs yards of H.
Gerken then somebody got out
of the buggy; I don't know who
it was; that man walked up close
to Hermann, in about four or five
feet. Icould see Herman down
to his belly; he took his cotton
sack off; I couldn't tell whether
he was walking towards the man
or not; I saw a gun in the mans
hand and saw him shoot; | didn't
see Gierken fall at the first shot.
He did not
fall the first shot; there were
three shots fired and l didn't see
Hermann any more. The three
shots were right close together;
1 don't know whether more than
three shots were fired or not; I
then went to my neighbor Henry
Gerke and he and Henry Kieke
and I all went to the place of the
shooting. 1 found no one there
except Hermann; it was about ten
minutes after the shooting when
we got there. I don't know how
many holes there were in him;
there were two in his head. No
one was picking cotton with him.
Just one man about the size of
defendant got out of the buggy;
1 saw nobody else there at all; l
do not know that the man that
got out of of buggy was de-
PENDANT. After the shooting the
man who did the shooting went
back to the buggy and got in it
and went back out the same gate
he came in: he went down
towards William Penn. This
was in Washington County, Tex.
This was in the evening and the
sun was about three hours high.
I am no kin to either party; 4
never heard either party threaten
the other, but have heard that
threats were made by deceased
against defendant. We heard
about the threats at the time de-
fendant had deceased arrested.
Deceased had just come back
from jail the night before he was
killed. He had been working for
me about six months before he
was put in jail.
Ernst Taylor, a witness for the
State, after being duly sworn,
says: My name is Ernst Tay-
lor. l was in the field picking
cotton some 900 yards from where
the deceased was killed. l saw
the shooting up there. l thought
it was man shooting birds. II
don't know how many shots were
fired. 1 didn't see the man in
the buggy. l don't know who
he was. l did not go over where
the man was killed. l saw a |
man go down but l thought he
was picking up birds. 1 began
to think something and that is
the reason l broke to run. l did |
not see a man or buggy in the
field before the shooting. Didn't
see him go out and didn't hear
any one hollow. This was about
3 o'clock in the evening.
l never saw a gun until it fired;
l then looked that way and l