Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1903-10-10

of articles which had been taken from
the body of his father, 1 was strongly
confident that he was the murderer.
It seemed to me impossible to evade
the conclutive evidence of guilt. But
when | went to Wright's house to
look for his pistol I accidentally dis
covered that it had been taken away
and very pretty revolver with an
empty barrel had been placed in it's
stead. [ thought the case over this
way: This pistol thus substituted
tells the story of the crime. 1t an
nounces it's responsibility for the
murder of John t. Wright. It's pres
ence here is intended to implicate
Herbert Wright in the crime and to
shield the real murderer. / became
at once satisfied that we Of the po-
lice force had been way off the track,
and proceeded to thorough inves-
tigation OF the case. AS soon as was
employed by Mr.. Everett took steps
to find out the source of all the
startling things that had happened to
those of us who had manifested an
undue interest in the crime. Herbert
Wright had narrowly escaped death
from poisoning; Irving Warde had
come near being assassinated, and [
had been dropped from the police
force. My own case being the sim
plest L sought to unravel it first.
The first substantial discovery
made was that Pat Kernigan was
stakeholder in the Shelby County
Real Estate & Investment company.
Then letter of inquiry to a friend
in Denver showed that he was also
a stakeholder in the Diamond Mining
company. Consequently he was a
man whom James Franklin would be
likely to control. In order to satisfy
myself [ went to Kernigan. He's
politician, as everybody knows, and
likes to keep on good terms with all
men, and he told me quietly that Col
Franklin had requested my dismissal
and the appointment of my successor,
and that he was under such obliga-
ton to the colonel that he could not
refuse to use what little influence he
had with the mayor. [ then went to
Col. Franklin and asked him why he
had requested Kernigan to bring
about my dismissal. Well, by playing
one against the other / secured the
information [ desired-namely, that
Col. Franklin was at the bottom of
my dismissal, and that it was all on
account of my distasteful activity in
the Wright case. From that time on
Col Franklin played very important
part in all my considerations; and
every effort of mine was directed to-
ward unmaking him.
"There was plenty of hard work of
a pretty character to do. For in
stance, / went to every shoe store in
the city in search of pair of arctics
of particularly broad and square
toed make, but only at Hauptmann's
could | find them. Having settled this
point / had no trouble in ascertaining
that pair of these arctics had gone
to the office of Col. Franklin Then
[ took that unidentified watch and
went from jewelry store to jewelry
store until at last [ was fortunate
enough to find the man who had sold
it. Again / ran across Col. Franklin
as the purchaser. The unidentified
diamond pin was also traced to him.
A good deal of minor information was
incidentally picked up, which has
been found to fit in the case. I paid
visit to Uncle Dick Norris, and
again crossed the trail of Franklin,
learning that he had been in the
Bayou woods on the day of the MUIR
der. In the meanwhile I studied at
odd times the lives and careers of
Old Tom, Bob Padgett and the red
flannel shirt man, and learned that
all of them were in communicate ton
with the man whose presence seemed
to pervade the case from end to end.
ITO Be Continued