The Lamar register., 1904-04-06
CONVICT THREE
MEENAN MURDER CASE VERDICT.

Two Tuttlss and Elmer shanks Con-
victed.-Punishment Fixed at I'M
prisonment for life.-Frank Irwin
Acquitted.
Denver, April "A News special
from Akron, Colorado, last night says:
For the murder of Joseph Meenan,
George l. Tuttle. Perry Tuttle and Ell
mer Shanks were found guilty of MUIR
der in the first degree and their pun
ishment fixed by Imprisonment for
| life. Frank Irwin was acquitted.
The verdict was returned by the
jury last night, and the news of 1t ere
ated the greatest kind of excitement.
Attorneys for the defendants were
| given ten days in which to file mo-
tion for new trial. Bail was refused
all defendants. Judge Armour, how
ever, intimated that later he might al
low George Tuttle to give bonds pend
ing the hearing on the motion for a
new trial.
I'VE, the jury, find the defendants,
George Tuttle. Perry Tuttle and Elmer
Shanks, guilty of murder in the first
degree, and the penalty shall be i'm
| prisonment for life in the penitentiary
at hard labor" Such were the words
the condemned men heard from the
lips Of Clerk Pickett. Frank Irwin
was acquitted.
District Attorney Pound Immediate
ly requested the court to enter judg-
ment on the verdict Mr. Murray, at
torney for the Defense scarcely able
to suppress his emotions, pleaded for
time to file motion for a new trial.
Judge Armour requested this to be
done within ten days. With much
earnestness Attorney Murray implored
his honor to admit the convicted men
to bail. The request was granted as
to George Tuttle, pending hearing on
the application for new trial, and his
bond fixed at 100000.
At midnight the bond had not been
made, but probably will be in the
morning.
Judge Armour declined to admit the
other two men to bail, and all of them
were remanded to the custody of Sher-
ir Ball, with instructions to at once
place them in the jail, but since
Washington county has no Jail, the
sheriff will doubtless take them to
Denver at noon tomorrow.
The jury was out scarcely six hours.
and at O'Clock the word went out
that the jury had agreed. The fore
man announced the verdict as above
stated. The jury was polled, and each
man answered unhesitatingly that
such was his verdict.
George |. Tuttle, the eldest of the
convicted men, in this. the declining
years of his life, bowed his gray head
and moaned out his agony "Oh, my
God" while the bronzed faces of the
two younger men, both cowboys, be-
came ashed in their deathly pallor. The
aged mother of Perry Tuttle the wife
of George |. Tuttle, and his daughters.
presented a pitiable spectacle as they
sobbed in anguish.
Shanks. friendless and alone with no
one to offer consoling words, stood
apart from his companions, almost stu
pefied, wholly unable to move muscle
while the verdict which meant SO
much to him was being read.
Thirty-two days were consumed in
impanelling the jury and trying the
case. Every technicality known to the
criminal law was invoked by the de
fense in its efforts to prevent trial
Influence of great weight has been ex-
erted, but all to no purpose. The Grim
inal annals of the state afford no more
brutal a crime than this. A young
man, just on the eve of his marriage.
shot down from the back without
chance for his life, by an assassin
lying in ambush. The murdered man,
scarcely quarter of a mile from his
home, was riddled with bullets, and
then, as disclosed by the testimony
after he had fallen PROSTATE upon his
face. the murderer bent over the dead
man and fired shot through his head
with Meenan's own revolver The ma
lignit.', the horrible cruelty of the muir
der aroused the deepest Indignation.
District Attorney Pound and Special
Prosecutor Ralph Talbot conducted the
prosecution. The crime was the out
come of a range feud begun in Decem-
Der, 1902, which has already cost two
lives and three men to receive senten-
ces of life imprisonment Whether the
feud is at an end cannot be predicted
as each side is exceedingly bitter to-
ward the other, but an earnest effort
will be put forth by the best men in the
community to call a halt Perry Tut
tie, one of the convicted men, is
scarcely 80 years Of age, his wife is
county superintendent of public in
struction. Shanks is only "a years old,
a perfect specimen of physical man
hood. George l. Tuttle, formerly sher-
iff of the county, is one of the best
known men in eastern Colorado. The
verdict created tremendous sensation
throughout this community and much
sympathy is felt for the female rela-
tives of the convicted men. To Mrs
John Irwin it is indeed a crushing
blow. First her husband was killed by
Meenan and that loss is now aug
mented by the conviction of both her
father and brother.