The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-25
John Collins Of Topeka Murdered
His Father.
CONVICTED BY A JURY
CRIME WAS DELIBERATELY
PLANNED AND EXECUTED.
Shot the Old Man While He Slept
Needed the Life Insurance Money
to Spend Upon His Wealthy
Sweetheart-Hfred Negroes, But
They Backed Out.

Topeka, Kan, Dec. M.-"Guilty of
murder in the first degree. was the
verdict returned at 9 o'clock tonight
in the case of young John Henry Col
Inns, charged with the murder of his
father, James S. Collins, prominent
real estate and insurance agent of To-
peka, who was shot as he lay asleep in
bed early one morning in May last.
John Henry Collins, the murderer,
was a student in the Kansas State Uni
versity and a licensed lay reader of the
leading Protestant Episcopal church of
Topeka The motive of the crime was
found in the youths greed Tor the
money which would come to him upon
the death of his father. The elder Col
Inns carried $4,000 of life insurance, and
it was provided that of this amount
/ $6, 500 should go to his son.
The young student was enamOred of
Miss Frances Babcock of Lawrence,
whose family is considered wealthy,
and the trial developed the fact that
Collins had lived beyond his allowance
! at Lawrence, that he had contracted
numerous bills at the University town
which he could not pay. and that he had
planned to join the Babcocks when they
went to spend the summer at an At
lantic coast resort.
Jess Harper of Lawrence and John
son Jordon of Topeka, two of the most
notorious negroes in Kansas, were i'm
portant witnesses against the youth.
They sWore that working through Jess
: Harper, Collins had hired Johnson Jor-
don to assassinate his father. The ne
groes, after securing money and valu-
ables from the youth, refused to carry
out their contract, and then, according
to their testimony, Collins boasted that
he would "do the job himself.
SHOT HIS FATHER.
He came to Topeka from Lawrence,
pleading sickness, retired at the usual
hour and, according to the theory of
the state, arose before daylight and
shot his father as the latter lay asleep
in bed.
one of the youths first acts after the
murder was to run to a telegraph Of
! fee and dispatch a message to Miss
Babcock, in which he said father is
dead; tell nothing.
The Investigations of the detectives
/ developed information that Collins had
told Miss Babcock wild stories about
his fathers life being threatened by
negroes. They also produced numerous
letters which Collins had written to the
negroes whom he had hired to kill his
father in fact, the story of the negroes
was .corroborated in every detail and
they even produced the watch and dia-
monds which Collins had given them as
| a pledge for the money which he prom
ised to pay when he should realize upon
his fathers life insurance.
Miss Babcock was among the wit
nesses for the state, and told of the
wild stories which Collins had related
to her about the threatened assassina-
tion of his father.
Mrs. Collins, the youths stepmother,
who lay beside her husband when he
was shot, has from first to last urged
the innocence Of her stepson, and in all
her testimony there was not one word
which would implicate the youth.
The jury which returned the verdict
of guilty deliberated about five hours.
But one ballot was taken, the verdict
being unanimous from the first.