The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-08-03
JESTER IS ACQUITTED
Jury Finished the Much
Talked of Case
And on the Third Ballot I'm
animOusly Decided in
his Favor
HISTORY Of The OLD CRIME
Jester Arrested Repeatedly
but Escaped and hid
But a Sister Gave Him Away
and the aged Man was
Brought to Trial

New London, Mo-, August ALEX
ander Jester is free. Twelve citizens
OF Rails county, Mo, after hearing
the evidence in the case and four and
half days of argument last night
officially declared him innocent of the
murder of Gilbert w. Gates. They
returned this verdict few minutes be-
fore 9 o'clock. AS soon as the words
mot guilty" fell on the ears of the
audience a yell rent the air that would
| have done honor to the announcement
of the election of president of the
! United States. A rush was made for
the old man, who was sitting calmly
in his rocking chair. He finally sue
ceeded in rising to his feet and then
began the handshaking and con-
CALCULATIONS. 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.
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 and Gilbert w. Gates met near
Fort Scott, Kansas. They travelled
! tnuatb IN n ,nint mann NI;ddla Ccovo
Mo. Here they separated. Gates was
never heard of after. Jester went on
to Indiana, then back to Kansas. Ar
irving on his farm, near Wichita, he
was arrested for the first time for the
murder of Gates. He was handcutfed
and taken to Wichita, where he was
arraigned before Justice of the Peace
Dodge. A requisition was secured
and Jester was taken. to Paris. Mo-
where he was given preliminary
trial and held for the grand Jury with.
out bail. The grand jury indicted
him. He secured change of venue
to Andrian county and was placed in
the Mexico, Mo-, jail. In company
with number of other prisoners he
escaped and returned to his home in
Kansas. After remaining with his
family short time he bid them fare
well and departed on horseback for
Texas. He never saw his first wife
again.
After more than twenty'years had
passed without any word, letter
came to Harvey Jester, then of Kan
sas, from his old father, who was then
in Oklahoma 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 a letter revealing :the identity
Of Jester and telling of the charges
against him.
Sheriff Nelson, of Mexico, Audrian
county, hurried to Oklahoma to get
Jester, who had, in the meantime,
been placed under ARREST. The pris-
oner denied 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 fur
nished a special train to get the pris-
oner out of the Territory. Jester was
brought to the Mexico jail again,
STILL for time, he insisted that he
was not the same man that passed
through the county in 1871 with Gil.
bert w. Gates. He secured counsel
and later admitted that he was Jester
He declared that he had bought Gates