The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-22
ON TRIAL FOR MURDER
MRS. RICHARDSON CHARGED
 WITH KILLING HUSBAND.
Proecuting Attorney Announces That Sensational Developments Will Be Disclosed by Evidence
 in Plattsburg, Mo, Case.

Plattsburg, Mo, Jan. H.--Mrs. Addie L. Richardson. faced jury of farmers in the Circuit Court here today and her trial on the charge of murdering, year ago last December, her husband, Frank w. Richardson. merchant, at their home in Savannah. Mo, began in earnest.
 Mrs. Richardson was surrounded by her three youthful sons and several other members of her family and that of the man who she is charged with murdering, including his brother. John D. Richard son of Chicago The prosecution under the indictment of murder in the first de- gree is based on the proposition that the prisoner either killed her husband or knows who did The belief that all mem- bers of the Richardson family have all along expressed in the innocence Of the widow appears to be unshaken py the recent arrest of Stewart Fife. tho former business associate of Richardson.
 Mrs. Richardson still adheres 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 some one say, Has it come to this!
 and that the pistol shot was fired by some one unknown to her as he entered the door of 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. Mrs. Richardson, held her youngest boy in her lap during the session of court today. When the indictment charg- ing her with "Maliciously and deliberate ly murdefing her husband was read she displayed no emotion, nor later when Attorney c. F. Booher. in the statement of the case for the State said: As 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"
 We will show" said MT. Booher, that so far as the State is able to pre- sent 1t, the defendant was the only per- son in that house at the time. As a motive we will try to show that Mrs. | Richardson was unduly intimate with | Stewart Fife, a clerk in Richardson's | was in the neighborhood of the house | that night
 Stewart Fife was arrested in Wash | ington recently charged with complicity | in the crime and brought back from the l East Sunday night.
 George D. Crowley, a former business partner of Richardson, was the first wit | ness called. The taking of evidence began this | afternoon. Mrs. Richardson was appa- rently unaffected by the reading of the indictment which charged murder in the first degree. c. F. Booher in present. l ing the case for the State, told of the | murder at the Richardson home on the night of December 24 1900. Richardson had planned to accompany her to a Christmas entertainment. At the last moment she telephoned to him at the store that she had decided not to go. Twenty minutes later" said he, "Richardson was dead man in his own home.''
 Richardson was shot and killed as he was about to enter his wife's bed room. |
 Mir. Crowley told of going with Richard son from his home early in the evening 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 prcstrated He told of making an examination of the premises and of discovering fresh buggy tracks in the snow Bessie Phillis was called. but did not respond and an at tachment was issued for her Bessie Phillis was a domestic in the Richard son home at the time of the murder and at the coroner's inquest gave testimony reflecting on Mrs. Richardson's relations with George Crowley.
 M. E. Brown, a clerk in Richardson's store, told of Mrs. Richardson's teIe- phoning that Crowley had left his gloves at the house and that she would bring them to the store.
 Mrs. Richardson Is specifically charged with firing the shot that killed Frank Richardson. Fife is charged with doing the same thing. Mrs. Kerr, next-door neighbor of the Richardsons, to whose house Mrs. Richardson went to telephone before and after the killing, was asked if she heard the sound of shot, testified that she heard a peculiar sound, after which she heard the sound of buggy wheels driving away.
 Although Mrs Kerr was subpoenaed by the State. she proved a strong witness for the defense. Her testimony had a tendency to revive one of the earliest theories advanced-that Richardson was shot by some one who drove away in a