The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-02-27
DEFENSE COMES NOW.
Jesse James Will Attempt to Prove
an Alibi by Cloud of Witnesses.

Kansas City, Feb. 27.-When the state
rested in the Jesse James case Satur-
day afternoon the trial was just half
over, and the hardest part of the battle
is yet to be fought. The defense opens
today and it is needless to say it will
try to establish an alibi.
Jesse James and a great crowd of
witnesses will testify that within less
than an hour of the time of the hold
up he was in the vicinity of Thirty
third and Troost avenue, four miles
from the scene of the robbery. null
titude Of citizens will say they saw
Jesse James about o'clock of that
night. The mother, grandmother and
sister OF the young man will tell how
they sat on their front porch with Jesse
at Thirty-fourth and Tracy and heard
the explosion of dynamite that wrecked
the express car four miles away.
The defense will endeavOr also to i'm
peach some of the witnesses who have
testified for the state, and will try hard
to show that the whole complicated, in
tricate mesh, in so far as it relates to
the prisoner, is a fiction of detectives,
railroads and others who have entered
into a conspiracy to faSten this crime
on Jesse James.
1t will be conceded by the defense
that W. w. Lowe was in the robbery,
just as he said he was. His entire story
of the hOld-up, down to the minute de-
the defense to be true, with the single
exception of the statement that Jesse
James was one of the bandits. 1t is on
TINS point, and on this point alone, that
the state and the defense will join issue
1t will be claimed by Jesse James law
yerS that COnfeSSOr Lowe simply sub
stituted Jesse's name in his confession
for the name of a robber who was really
there.
A drug store stands on the corner of
Thirty-fourth and Troost, within a
block of Jesse James home. Six or
eight witnesses will testify that James
was in that drug store as late as $40
or 9:15 p. m. on the night of the hold
I'D. The defense will claim that he
could not have reached Belt Line juno
ton, four miles distant, by 10 o'clock.
But in order to meet this claim, the
state has already shown that Livery
man William Self afterwards drove over
the route in twenty minutes with the
same horse and buggy used by the rob-
bers. The drive was made as a test.
The state does not deny that Jesse
James may have been at the drug store
at that hour. On the contrary, Prose-
cutOr Reed maintains that Jesse went
there for the purpose of fixing an alibi.
In his confession Lowe says that Jesse
left him holding the horse block or so
away while he showed up at the drug
store.
Richards, Mo-, Feb. 27-The following
item appeared in the Richards Progress
September so last:
u. II. Hatton, deputy sheriff of Cass
county, arrived here from Harrison
Vile Monday morning and proceeded at
once to StOkeSbury, returning in a few
hours with w. ]. Smith, who for two
years has resided at that place. A little
more than two years ago the prisoner,
who at that time lived in Harrisonville,
broke into a mill at that place and stole
a quantity of flour and was arrested.
After being incarcerated a short time
Smith became i'll and it was feared he
was going to die.
Mr.. Hatton, who was at that time
sheriff, was appealed to by the pris-
oner's friends and finally himself went
on his bond and he was released. He
shortly afterward shook the dust of
Cass county from his feet and came to
the subsequent scene of his capture,
where he worked on the section for a
long time. and this summer went to the
harvest fields of Kansas, since which
time he has been out of employment.
VIM. J. Smith is the witness who
claims to have been a passenger on the
train. When he heard the shots he got
out and was met by a man with shot
gun, who made him get back. This
mans mask was off and he recognized
him as Jesse James. On cross examina-
ton he became badly ratified and con-
tradicted himself and others.