The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-01-22

BEGINS AT PLATTSBURG,
MISSOURI
IS CHARGED WITH MURDER
Relatives of the Dead Man Assert
Their Belief That the Accused
Woman Did Not Murder
Her Husband.

PLATTSBURG, Mo, Jan. N.--Mrs. Ad-
Gle L. Richardson faced jury of farm
ers in the circuit court here today ana
her trial for the murder year ago last
December of her husband, Frank W.
Richardson, a merchant, at their home in
Savannah, Mo-, began liz earnest. Mrs.
Richard was surrounded by her three
youthful sons and several other members
of her family and that of the man whom
she is charged with numbering, including
his brother, John D. Richardson, OF Chi
cago.
The prosecution, under the indictment
of murder in the first degree, is based on
the proposition that the prisoner either
killed her husband or knows who did
The belief that all members of the Rich
ardsoH family have all along expressed
in the innocence of the widow seems to
be mistaken by the recent arrest Of Stew
art Fife, the former business associate
of Richardson. Mrs. Richardson still adj
heres to her story, made at the time of
the shooting, that she was alone in the
house when she heard a buggy drive up
and her husband enter the hall; that she
heard someone say, HAS it come to
this?'' and that the pistol shot was fired
by some one unknown to her as he enter
ed the door to the parlor bedroom, where
she awaited him. No one has professed
to believe that Mrs. Richardson fired the
fatal shot, but the state has expected
that in defending herself against the
charge she would be forced to tell who
did.
Mrs. Richardson has aged perceptibly
in the last year, and when she entered
court today her features showed plainly
the result of the strain she had under
gone. She held her youngest boy in her
lap during the session of the court today.
When the indictment, charging her with
'maliciously and deliberately numbering
her husband" was read she displayed
no emotion nor later when Attorney &.
F. Booher, in the statement of the case
for the state, said:
LAS a motive we will try to show that
Mrs. Richardson was unduly intimate
with Stewart Fife and we expect to show
that Fife was in the neighborhood of the
house that night
l Mr.. Crowley told of going with Rich
arGson from his home early in the even
ing to Richardson's store. The children
had gone to the entertainment and Mrs.
Richardson remained alone. He was at
the house after the murder and said Mrs
Richardson was Frustrated. He told of
making an examination of the premises
and of discovering fresh buggy tracks in
the snow. A. w. Brewster, state senator,
who is one of the attorneys for the de-
Tense, insisted upon being allowed to
question the witness IN regard to Mrs.
Richardson's character and reputation,
but the court would not allow it at this
time.
Bessie Phillis was called, but did not
respond, and an attachment was issued
for her. Bessie Phillis was domestic in
the Richardson home at the time of the
murder and at the coroner's inquest gave
testimony rejecting on Mrs. Richardson's
relation with George Crowley.
NJ. E. Brown, a clerk in Richardson's
store, told of Mrs. Richardson teIephon-
ing that Crowley had left his gloves at
the house and that she would bring them
n Tho ct