The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-08-02

As soon as the words mot guilty" fell
on the ears of the audience yell rent
the air that would have done honor to
the announcement of the election of a
president of the United States. A rush
was made for the old man, who was sit
ting calmly in his rocking chair. He
finally succeeded in rising to his feet
and then began the handshaking and
congratulations. His two sons. Harvey
Jester and William Hill, greeted their
father very heartily. As Jester shook
hands with the people he would say
God bless you" He insisted that he
had told them all the time that he
would come out all right, as God was
with him.
Jester spent the night at the
Afford house with his two sons and his
daughter, Mrs. Killbrough. 1t is stated
that he will accompany his chief attor-
ney,, P. H. Cullen, to Mexico, Mo-, to-
day. His sons declare that their father
will return to Norman, Q. T., and spend
the rest of his days in peace.
The jury took three ballots. The first
was to for az ,iuittal; the second 10
to 2, and the last was unanimous for
acquittal.
This is the end of the most remark
able case in many particulars ever tried
in the United States. 1t began in the
winter of 1871, when Alexander Jester
ard Gilbert w. Gates met near Fort
Scott, Kan. They Travelled together to
O., point near M1QQi0 Grove, MO. yt1GT6
they separated. Gates was never
heard of after. Jester went on to In
diana, then back to Kansas Arriving
on his farm. near Wichita, he was ar
rested for the first time for the murder
of Gates He was handcuffed and taken
TO Wichita, where he was arraigned be-
fore Justice of the Peace Dodge. A
requisftion was secured and Jester was
taken to Paris. Mo, where he was
given a preliminary trial and held for
the grand jury without bail. The grand
jury indicted him He secured a change
of venue to Audrain county and was
placed in the Mexico, Mo, Jail. In
company with number of other pris-
oners he escaped and returned to his
home in Kansas. After remaining with
his family a short time he bid them
farewell and departed on horseback for
Texas. He never saw his first wife
After more than twenty years had
passed without any word, a letter came
to Harvey Jester, then of Kansas, from
his old father, who was then in Okla
ho1na living under the name of w A
Hill. The son went to his father All
was quiet for few years, when his
sister. Mrs. Cornelia Street, wrote
letter revealing the identity of Jester
and telling of the charges against him.
Sheriff Nelson, of Mexico, Audrain
county, hurried to Oklahoma to get Jes-
ter, who had, in the meantime, been
placed under arrest. The prisoner de-
MED that he was Alexander Jester John
w. Gates, the steel magnate and brother
of the alleged victim also hurried to
Oklahoma identified the old prisoner
and furnished a special train to get the
prisoner out of thesterritory. Jester was
brought to the Mexico jail again. Still,
for a tfme he insisted that he was not
the same man that passed through the
county in 1871 with Gilbert w Gates
He secured counsel and later admitted
that he was Jester. He declared that
he had bought Gates out.
His ease came up at the next term
of Audrain county court. The old II
Indictment was nolle pressed and Jester
was re-arrested and taken to Paris. Mo.
During October last year he was given
another preliminary hearing. He was
again held without bail. After another
change of venue his trial began ON July
9 and lasted twenty-one days The wit
nesses were brought here in large num-
bers from Kansas. Texas. Illinois, Ar
kansas and different parts of Missouri
1t has been very expensive for the state
of Missouri. as well as for John W.
Gates, who has furnished almost un-