Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1904-08-04

in the penitentiary for eight wears
AS the occurrence took place some
time ago brief history of the case
may be of interest. Adam Miller was
German who was working here for
Jacob GRADER. He sent for his wife
who lived in Hungary to join him here
and sent her the money to come with.
With Mrs. Miller came a nephew of
Adam Miller whose name was joseph
Till. When the wife and Till arrived
they were staying for the time with
some Hungarian people living a mile
or so from the city until Miller should
get a pace to live for Himself. One
evening he started out to visit his
wife with horse and sleigh. Late
that night the people of the house
went out and found the horse and
sleigh in the yard. They knew it to
be Miller's and two of the men in the
house got in and drove to town in
search of Miller. They found Miller's
cap on the road half mile from the
house. They did not find Miller at
his usual place of residence in town
and then went to another Hungarian's
in another direction and not finding
him there returned home and went to
bed. Next morning the body of Adam
Miller was found lying stretched out
on two small logs lying close to the
side and far corner of the barn on the
premises of Paul Bedosh where Mrs.
Miller was stopping. On examination
q bullet was found in the temple of
Millers head and a knife cut also in
the same wound. That Miller was
murdered there was no doubt Till
was arrested and tried for the murder.
The evidence showed that Till had
purchased a revolver from T. L. Price.
That he owned peculiar knife. That
he had denied the purchase of the
revolver or the ownership of the knife.
That he went out Of doors during the
evening and remained for some time.
The motive was supposed to be that
Till was in love with Miller's wife
who was but few years the senior
of Till and who was fairly good look
ing woman. This motive, however,
though a matter of common rumor
was not in evidence at the trial. Till's
evidence on his own behalf was that
he purchased the revolver at the re-
quest and with the money of another
Hungarian named Smith. The knife
and revolver were both produced by
the other Hungarian some time after
the murder in somewhat peculiar cir
cumstances, the knife in particular
being claimed by them to have been
found in the road near the scene Of
the murder where scores of people
had walked and looked without seeing
anything. The evidence was very
difficult to get before the jury in in
telligible shape as many of the most
important witnesses were not very
bright but understood clearly the pis-
sibility of suspicion being attached
to themselves as participants. Be-
sides this most of them spoke dia-
lect but imperfectly understood by the
interpreters and in some cases the in
depreciation had to be made through
two languages and as many interpre-
tiers. This completely bafled the pur-
poses of ordinary cross-examination
Looking at the evidence as produced
before the jury the strongest point
against Till was the purchase of the
revolver, while on the other hand the
weakest place in the prosecution was
the utter absence of any motive prov
en-. The stories of the Hungarian
witnesses both before and at the trial
were very mixed as to details, and
were apparently given with a fear of
discriminating themselves and certain
ly with the idea of proving Till guilty.
They had reason to fear because it.
was proven on the trial that number
of them had been quarreling with
Miller the day before on the streets
here The jury found Till guilty and
fixed the punishment at life imprison-
ment. Chief Justice N. G. Young was
then states attorney and Hon. w. J.
Kneeshaw now Judge of this district
was the attorney for the defense. The
Austro-H Hungarian government, Bishop
Stanley and a number of other promi-
nent persons have been interested in
getting Till's case presented before
the board of pardons It was heard
once by Governor Fancher and re.
fused by him.
Proposals for Construction.
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