The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-15
THE MYSTERY OF A KEY
IT IS ADDED TO COMPLICATIONS OF
MOORE MURDER CASE.
Preliminary Hearing of the Dead
Woman's Husband-De Ruiter On
the Witness stand.


Unexpected legal distractions now con-
front the attorneys for the defense in the
Moore case. and the cause of it all rests
i'm Derk DE Ruiter. The attorneys for the
defense hoped to clear Moore at the latters
expense but, being compelled to subpoena
De Ruiter as their own Witness they found
they could not set their plan on foot. The
only way the alleged evidence could be Sc
cured was by impeaching their witness, con-
trary to law, and propounding to him ques-
tions which the court pronounced as ir-
relevant, ard it looks as if nothing would
be accomplished at the preliminary hearing
favorable TO Moore's interest.
After an all-day duel between Prosecutor
Wiltsie and Attorney Harding, which Will
be continued to-day, it became apparent
that the defense was less anxious to estab-
fish Moore's innocence than to worm out
the whole force of the evidence in posses
sion Of the prosecution.
The main prop to the case of Moore was
the expressed ability of his counsel to prove
by the relations existing between members
of the family that the circumstances point
cd more strongly toward another than
by placing Derk De Ruiter on oath in court
the defendants attorneys found themselves
confronted with problem. The prosecu-
tion refused to summon him and the defense
was compelled to, thus making him their
witness and tying their hands so far as
being allowed any opportunity to extract
information favorable to them was con-
cerned. as Mr. Wiltsie refused TO allow
a,
Mr.. De Ruiter was. Therefore, after pro-
longed wrangle, court was adjourned until
this morning
MOORE SELF-POSSESSED.
When the case of John o. Moore was
called, yesterday morning, the Police Court
was well filled. The witnesses present COM
prised Sergeant Clawson. of Cincinnati;
Henry Post the murdered woman's father,
and Harry Moore. the defendants son. all
for the defense, and Coroner Brayton, Dr.
De Haas and Detective Gerber. for the pros
ecution. All were sitting close together
when Moore was led in. The latter was re-
markedly self possessed and calm. and he
bowed and spoke to acquaintance with the
air of a man out for pleasure rather than
one facing such an awful charge. Mr..
Harding, for the defense, asked if sub
pena had been issued for Mr.. De Ruter,
saying that il not he wanted one issued.
Continuing, he said that the defense desired
to plead not guilty to both the old and the
amended accusations charging Moore with
the murder of his wife. The distinction be-
tween the two indictments was that in the
original one it was charged that the instru-
ment , OF death Was the the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. hoa ar
IAN unknown weapon was the one that
killed Mrs. Moore. The defense then asked
that the witnesses be separated, and they
retired accordingly.
CORONER BRAYTON'S EVIDENCE.
The state placed Coroner Brayton on the
stand as it's first witness. When asked
about the autopsy on the murdered woman
body, the coroner stated that he had made
one in company with Drs. DE Haas, Sluss
and Wynn on April 9. In describing the
house and the scene of the murder, he said
that he found the body lying on the bed,
which was much blood stained with the
woman's hands clenched into the pillow in
which her face was buried The wound, he
said while displaying somewhat ragged
edges, was a fairly clean one, and was
probably made by blunt instrument with
sharp corners, such a one, in fact, as the
branding iron found in the horse.
He further testified to the attempt to find
blood corpuscles the branding iron by a
chemical and microscopic examination,
which was unsuccessful. During his discus
sion of the branding iron, Messrs; Harding
examined the instrument and Moore seemed
much interested in it.
DIR. Brayton said he did not think the
branding iron caused the principal abrasion
below the death wound, as there was a.
round depression about the size of a B.
cent piece, such one as the ball of the
thumb would fit into. In trying to fix the
time of death, Dr. Brayton said that his
examination of the contents of the stom-
ach showed the undigested food to be easily
recognizable and that in his opinion, the
murder had been committed from an hour
and a half to three hours after dinner. The
first that he saw of Moore on the day fol-
lowing the murder was when he was
brought in by Chief Colbert to where his
wife's body lay dead. In response to an in
quiry from Mr.. Harding, he said that the
first person in the room on that day was
Mrs. Moore's father. Henry Post. He also
thought the death blow was received while
lying in bed in the position in which the
body was found
THE DEAD WOMAN'S FATHER.
Henry Post, the third witness, stated that
on Friday Mrs. Moore prepared dinner,
which he ate alone, about IL o'clock, as
Mrs Moore was dressing 10 go out at the
time, and did not eat until later Before
he had finished and made arrangements to
go down town, Mrs. Moore went up stairs
to lie down. AS he left the house, his first
impression was that he locked the door and
put the key in a tub of water but on Sec
ond thought he said he was about sure that
he left the key in the door. because he went
back opened the door and called to his
daughter that he was going down town.
His best impression, therefore, was that he
left the door unlocked. His story of enter
ing his daughters room next morning and
finding her dead was substantially as al
ready printed in these columns. On entering
the room Saturday morning, not expecting
to see his daughter, he looked at an object
in the bed which he instinctively felt was
her. He called to her several times, and
finally went over to the bed and laid his
hand on her when he at once saw that she
was dead
AS the oil man reached this point in his
story Moore buried his face in his hands
and wept, shaking from time to time with
conclusive sobs.
THE KEY THAT DISAPPEARED.
Mr. Harding asked the witness what he
knew concerning a door key which was lost
some time previous TO the murder. He at
once stated that for three weeks before
that time a duplicate key had been lost
and no one in the house knew where it
had gone Ii was a back door key and