The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-23
MIR. Taylor Giving Two Days so study
Of Locality i'm Which Nora Kifer
Was Killed.
STATES STORY AND THEORY
CIRCUMsTANTIAL DESCRIPTION OF A
MYSTERIOUS CRIME.
How Joseph Keith Is 40
Have Rid Himself Of a Oub
some Girl.

willie yesterday morning to spend two days
studying the locality involved in the Ia
nous Keith murder case. which is pending
I'm the Supreme Court. The practice Of at
torneys in lower courts going over the
ground in dispute in a case about to be
tried is common enough. For the attorney
general of d State. however. to traverse
the territory concerned in a murder is I'M
common. As a rule, when a case is APP
pealed TO the higher court. the record is
presumed TO furnish sufficient basis for
any argument that may be made to or
brief that may be filed in the court.
The attorney general regards the Keith
case as one OF exceptional importance,
however, and does not mean to leave any
stone unturned that might lead to the ade-
quate punishment of the man who commit
ted what is regarded as one of the most
brutal crimes in the annals of Indiana
criminology. Another feature that adds
Importance TO the Keith case is that be-
fore 1t no capital case had been appealed
TO the Supreme Court of Indiana for at
least a decade.
The brief of the State has been prepared
by Mr.. Taylor, assisted by his deputy, Cas-
sius G.. Hadley, and ii is now in the hands
of the printer. 1t will be filed in the office
of the clerk OF the Supreme Court this
week. 1t is an exceedingly voluminous
document, containing about 80 printed
pages. The brief sets forth an abstract of
the evidence, a statement of the points to
be argued and the argument Of the case.
Two parts OF this document that are of
special interest are those which furnish the
story of the tragedy and the States theory
of the case. The story of the tragedy, as
written by Mr.. Hadley, is as follows:
In the afternoon of April 3. 1900, about 4
o'clock Nora Kifer 6he victiml arraved
herself in her best inery. She clothed her
self in a pink silk shirtwaist. a black satin
dress skirt and slippers with two instep
straDs; told her mother she was going to
Elberfeld 10 a spelling match, and started
,Out the lane leading to the tOwpath and
the Elberfeld road. She stopped at a neigh
about an hour. She went on and down the
towpath. She was observed by three per
sons on the tOwpath a short distance from
the bridge. She was seen TO enter upon
the bridge just at dusk. stop there a while.
and then step off the west end Of the bridge
and disappear. This was the last time she
was seen alive.
ION the morning of the 23d OF May. 1900.
some farmers passing over StevenS'S bridge
boat was procured and the body drawn
ashore. The body showed signs of decom-
position. and clearly indicated that il had
been submerged in water a great while.
All the hair had gone from the body and
the skull was crushed TO fragments. The
coroner was notified. Zachariah Kifer
heard of the finding of the body. and he,
with some of his neighbors and kinsmen,
went to Evansville and positively identified
the remains as those of his daughter. Nora
Kifer. on the 18th day of May. 1900. APP
pellant Joseph d. Keith was arrested for
the crime"
THE STATES THEORY.
1t would not have been necessary for the
State to formulate a theory OF the case
had the evidence been direct instead of cir
cumstantial. But the murderer took care
to kill Nora Kifer at a time and place when
he felt certain no human eye would witness
the crime. Hence the State. in order to con-
vict Keith, must show that all the known
circumstances of the case indicate beyond
a reasonable doubt that he killed the young
woman. The States theory of the Keith
case as set forth in the printed brief is as
The theory of the State was that a GRIM
inal liaison had existed between deceased
and appellant since some time in the fall
of 1899; that deceased had extorted money
from him from time to time. She was not
discreet, and talked of her intimacy among
her friends in the neighborhood. 1t became
current gossip. 1t reached the ears of APP
~pellant's wife and caused trouble in the
family. As the spring of 1900 approached
her demands became more importunate, she
threatened him with suit for seduction or
bastardy. and his fears of exposure CORE
SpOndingly increased. He was torn and dis
tressed by the conflicting emotions of fear
of exposure and his determination not Ia
accede to her demands for more money.
She returned to her home from Evansville
on March 81, after a somewhat sensational
refusal TO marry n Mr.. Clark in Evansville.
Keith thought this a elimination of his
roubles and he determined TO in some way
put an end to 1t all. He wrote a note and
sent il to her by his son Jesse. in which he
asked her TO meet him at the bridge at
dark.
She went TO the bridge. and he met her
there. prepared TO commit his helish deed.
He decOyed her into the thick woods along
the canal beank near the old well. There ne
beat her head into a pulp with an old claw
hammer, tied a rope 10 her neck, which
was fastened TO a t"hirteen-pound stone.
took off her dress-skirt, her hat and her
slippers and cast her body into the old well.
together with the hammer. He took the
clothing he had taken from her and started
toward his clearing. where he had log
heaps burning. On his way he unconscious
~ dropped the slippers. The remainder OF
the apparel he burned in one of his los
heaps. The body remained in the old vel
completely submerged until the night of
May %. when the talk OF the neighborhood
became sO'persiStent and the determination
of the father To search the surrounding
country SO strong that Keith became
alarmed and determined to remove the
body to a place remote from the neighbor-
could be more readily accounted for with
out connecting him with IL.
pigeon creek was a deep. sluggish
stream. Stevens's bridge over il was i'm a
secluded spot and near Evansville. where
she frequented. So. on the evening of the
I'D. he drove his buggy down the Elberfeld
road. across the cana bridge 10 the old
wagon trail. down this trail TO near the
canal and also near the old well. With a
pair of graphing hooks Of his own make
he hshed out the body. placed IL with the
stone in his buggy. threw the %grappling
hooks into the well and made a wild drive
over the. Elberfeld road. through Gabtown
through McCutcheonsville, over the Oakhil
road. 70 Stevens's bridge. There he threw
the body from the bridge into the water
below. In the darkness he could not tel
whether the body vas completely sub
merged. so he determined 10 drive on into
Evansville. remain over night and return
there early the next morning and satisfy
himself as 10 this fact. Returning early
the next morning. he discovered that the
body was not completely covered by the
water. but he could not remedy this mis-
chance. and came on home and proceeded
to remove all traces Of the nights exploit
He washed the carpet and painted his
buggy. and felt that he was secure from
the avalanche
THE GROUND COVERED.
When Mr.. Taylor returns to indianapolis
tonight he will have visited the homes o.