The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-02-11
Che aahita nailu Eagles Sunday yorina February 1900


had five thousand dollars in it.
There has never been a perfect crime
committed; somebody has always blum
dered. Sometimes it was in a single
look, the careless toss of a head, a word
Among those who said they believed
that Eyre would one day return, 10 be
startled at the search made for him.
were the Pierces So thoroughly con-
WINGED were they of this, declared they
that to search was useless. And people
began to look at them askance for ii
was known that al least "Jim" Pierce
had frequently been ducking with Eyre
Indeed, Pierce admitted that he had been
engaged to go with him on December p
but said he had not been able to keep it.
Scarce had suspicion pointed in the di-
rection of the Pierces than the Ladomus
boat was found floating on the bosom of
the Delaware. "Jim" Pierce admitted
that it had been set adrift by him, but
declared that he had found it. On the
bottom of the skiff, dyed so deeply in the
wood that nothing could erase them,
were blood red blotches These Pierce
said were wade by duck blood, but chem
lists said human blood had stained the
boards. Pierce was arrested on a charge
Of larceny, and the first man to offer to
go his bail was a brother of Thompson
Heacock, the victim of Judge Clayton
shotgun twenty-four years before.
All this was but by-play. The mystery
Of Eyre remained as deep as ever.
But the waters were to give up the
dead. What dredges had failed to do,
what scores of men had left undone, the
tide itself performed.
Along the shore of Raccoon Island, a
place of rushes and marshes, John Kar-
nan wandered, gathering firewooG. It
was on January q, month to the day
since Eyre had disappeared. The police
and the missing mans friends had given
up the search. The murderer, If murder
it was, they admitted must go forever
unpublished
Karnan saw but a few feet from the
shore, he thought, a bigger piece of wood
than the faggots he had His boat hook
sank into the object and slowly it was
dragged ashore. There before him lay
the water swollen features of George b
Eyre; there was the dark blue sweater,
the hunting coat the knickerbockers and
the cunning boots Eyre had worn when
last he was seen alive.
And there tied about the legs with a
fsherman's knot was boat rope Dang
ling in the water Karnan saw attached
TO the rope a moose. Then it was plain
why George Eyre's body had not been
found. It had been anchored by a stone
to the bottom of the Delaware.
But it was not until the coroner had
drawn the body upon the land that a hole
as big as an orange and located At exact
~ the same point of the one in the first
Raceoon Creek tragedy was discovered
in the back of Eyre's head. And from
this hole as the remains were placed Up
on a board ratified blood-begrlmed grains
of ducking shot There was no mistak-
ing the identity of the body. Dozens saw
and recognized it
AS the victim, enclosed in a heavy
casket. was being taken
from his nlotherisy home to be laid beside
his father in Chester Rural Cemetery.
Jim Pierce. standing on the eailroad
tracks, watched the hearse go by. And
that night he was arrested. So was his
brother Amos.
Silently the arrests were made. Scarce
a word was spoken. Both men knew
precisely what the officers had come for
and why. They marched along without
a protest. but once inside the City Hall,
once the heavy doors had closed upon
him, Jim Pierce tainted dead away.
"And what next did he say?"
It was at the hearing. Hundreds had
pushed and cuffed their way ins.o the lit
tie basement room which serves alder
man Smith as an office Behind a small
desk the prisoners, James and Amos
Pierce, their attorneys, their caTeVNorn
wives, and their aged, lettering father
close about them. At the left sat Dis
trict-Attorney Smith, Chief OF Police
Berry and several others. In front uDcn
a common chair was seated a young w.
man just turned twenty-five. The W, rid
had been harsh with her. She had strnk-
ed it wrong and each stroke had been
This woman had been pretty.
She was pretty still, but the beauty was
fading away. Her eyes had lost their
lustre and her lips were almost blue. She
was Mary Cowan, and it was to her that
the question was addressed.
land what next did he say?" queried
the District-Attorney. almost careleSsly.
He said-Jim did" faltered the wit
ness-she looked at one Of the prisoners
and tears gathered in her eyes IS her
killed young George Eyre and that he
and Amos. his brother had sunk the body
in the Delaware at Raccoon Greek.
when was this?"
ION Friday night. December p And
OH you should have seen him whea Re
sai5 tt!'
Then followed a recital so vivid and
that the spectators forgot to
iostle one another; forgot that they Lad
stood two hours and had been weary
with standing.
Mary Cowan said she lived st No Il
TatnaH street. Wilmington. She Eai fer
merly resided in Chester in a little cabin,
since removed to Raccoon Creek-that
cursed creek seemed TO triclle every
where. 1t was in this cabin that she met
Jim Pierce a year before.
And he was one Of your friends?''
softly queried the District-Attorney.
''XsE.'
on the evening OF December -. the
Cowan woman declared Pierce called up
on her at Wilmington. His pockets bulg-
ed with plumber and he was possessed
with a madness she had never seen him
have before He wildly walked about
the rooms and Railways. He seemed
pursued by a raging demon. There We're
callers in the parlor, but Pierce would
not join them. Finally he Went into
bed chamber, sat down and gazed, ter
ror stricken. into a corner. as though his
eyes were riveted there
81 came 70 him" said Marv Cnwan