The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-12-23

room saturday morning. They may retire
Friday night but Mr.. Jetmore does not ex-
pect that the arguments can be finished
by that time unless a night session of the
court is head.
II is predicted by many that the Collins
jury will acquit the young man
charged with numbering slis own father.
This belief that the jury Will acqui is not
general, most people thinking that the
jury viii disagree and the expectation OF
acquittal is not based on the evidence in
the case. A business man who is firm in
his belief that the jury will acquit gave
his rasons today as follows. and the same
argument IS made by nearly all of those
who look for acquittaa:
"All except three of the twelve men on
the jury have grown children. They are
farmers and have seen little of human
depravity and the wiles and deceit of the
wicked. It would he difficult under any
circumstances to make these old fellows
believe that boy world murder his own
father, especially in the cruel and nor
rible manner in which Collins was muir
Cered
1.-THE strongest thing in johns favor and
the thing that think will have the most
weight with the jury, is that every rela-
tive that the murdered had in the world
is clustered around the young man in the
court room, believing in his Innocence and
testifying in his behalf. The only brother
and the only sister and the only living
uncle of the murdered man have testi-
fled for John and his step1nother and his
sister have never left his side. The jurors
are pretty apt to argue that if all these
relatives believe John is innocent and are
willing TO stand by him the law ought not
to cry out for his conviction. Another
thing that will have great weight with the
jury is that John was a Coca boy until
he went to the State University and was
led into gambling and drinking and ca
rousing with low negroes. The jurors will
say that if John was good enough son
in March for his father to make him a
present of a diamond and gold watch
on his Dist anniversary IT was impossible
that he could change so completely as to
murder his father a month later.
The majority OF people here think that
John is guilty but they do not expect him
to be convicted. There is rlmor that
two jurors have declared to their wives
that they would never vote TO convict
John. There are a few who expect a con-
viction.
There was a considerable rebuttal testi-
mony yesterday about the letter which
John wrote to Johnson Jordan shortly
before the murder. This letter covers
three sheets of ordinary note paper and
is IL printed characters, and is about some
plot between Collins and Jordan. urging
him TO go ahead and do the job which he
had promised and been paid 10 do John
admitted on the witness stand that he
wrote ali of this letter except the closing
paragraph which is:
Burn this Letter at once as I will do
with yours. Now do not disappoint me
again. shall expect TO hear from you
twice before morning, once by letter and
once again in another way John said
on the witness stand mat this closing
part of the Setter was forged.
On the witness stand this morning Jor-
dan testified that when he was arrested
the letter was in his trunk and ne turned
it over TO Attorney ". I Jamisoa Mr.
Jamison testified that he received the let
ter from Jordan and kept it safe and
secret until the preliminary hearing in the
latter part Of June. when by order Of the
court, he turned il over 10 Justice Nc
Clintock. VINO presided AZ the preliminary.
Mr.. Jamison said the letter had not been
changed. i was now exactly a. It was
when he first received II and when il was
read at the preliminary.
Fred Freeman, assistant cashier OF she
Merchants National Bank; Speed Hughes.
sssisjan; cashier Of the Bank Of Topeka.
and William Henderson. cashier of the
First National Bank. were pa; on the
stand as experts in handwriting and each
testified that they thought whoever wrote
part of the letter wrote it al.
Important evidence in reblit.al was Civ
en- by Sheriff Cook. He said tina;
when Johnson Jordan was brousat 90 the
jail last spring. after Collins had been
arrested for the murder Of MS father,
Jordan and Collins met in the parior %
the sheriff's home ar the Jail. Jordan
spoke 10 John and put out his hand. bu5
John said: | don't know YOU: | never