Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1900-04-06
coroner's Jury Returns a Verdict in TIL
Death Of August Stark Friday
Morning. |
Find that He Came to His Death from
Blows and a Bullet Wound in
the Head.
Jury Charges James M. Jenkins and Ira
o. Jenkins with the Murder and
They Are Arrested.
Prisoners Are Arraigned Before Justice
Tibbils this Afternoon and Case
Continued.
(From Fridays Daily.)

<frOm Fridays Dltly.)
The %coroner's jury that has been in
~vestigating the death of August Stark
whose dead body was found in the
Casino coal mine on Monday, March
10, this morning returned a verdict
charging James M. Jenkins and Ira o.
Jenkins, his son, with the murder of
the deceased young man. The YER
dict of the jury was rendered after a
full and careful Investigation of the
a s me formal verdict recites the
fact of the inquest and that the de-
ceased, August Stark, came to his
death from blows inflicted with some
weapon, h nature of which was un-
known to the jury and from a bullet
wound in the head, which passed
through the brain of the victim and
caused death. The verdict further
states that the jury charges James M.
Jenkins and Ira O. Jenkins with the
crime of murder. The verdict was
signed by D. ]. McGillis, John Wray
and William Walton as jurors and at
tested by Coroner White. Immedi-
ately upon the return of the verdict,
Coroner White issued a coroner's war
rant of arrest for the two men, who
are still held in the county Jail and
they were placed under arrest charged
with murder.
The two Jenkins have been under
suspicion since the first discovery of
the body by Coroner White, and the
statements made by father and son to
the coroner. Their evident confusion
OF detail and the manner in which they
told heir stories rendered them OBJ
jects of suspicion as knowing more
with reference to the case than they
disclosed. Upon on of the principal
matters in connection with the crime,
the finding of the body, they were en-
tirely at variance, and continued so
In their testimony before the coroner's
jury. One of them stated that the
body was found Sunday afternoon by
the two together and the other that it
was not found until Monday morning,
and by only one of the two men.
Other circumstances are the variety of
incident with which they garnished
their stories. The fact that the young
jenkins and Stark were at Wilton Fri
day, and that Jenkins, according to
testimony, was trying to get Stark
drunk, with the intention, as he
stated, of getting out of him some
money that he (Stark) owed the Jen-
kins; the further fact that father and
son came to Bismarck on the following
day, and that the son was liberal in
the spending of money at various
places; their first denial of having
had pistols and their subsequent ad-
mission of their possession, and the
revealing of the places where they
were hidden; the fact that one of the
guns found bears the same calibre ball
as that found in the head of Stark, and
that it was loaded with a peculiar
cartridge, which is the same as that
taken from Stark's brain. And an
other peculiar circumstance is that
both father and son, claiming that
they thought Stark was killed with an
axe or some such weapon, not know
ing that he was shot, should have so
carefully hidden the pistols about the
place, when, as they say, they did not
know Stark had been killed by a bull
let. These are some of circumstances
that led the coroner's jury to render
such a verdict as was found.
The two men were arrested on the
coroner's warrant and arraigned be-
fore Justice Tibbils this afternoon.
The finding of Tile coroner's jury was
read by States Attorney Allen. The
case was continued until April Z, in
order to give the prisoners opportun-
ity to secure counsel.