Iron County register., 1905-12-14
The Spaugh Trial.


When the case of the State VS..
VIM. Spaugh, Jr., and Mrs. Mary
E. Spaugh was called in the Rey-
nolds county circuit court Monday
morning Assistant District Attor-
ney Jos. G. Williams of De Soto,
principal counsel for the defense,
asked that the rule Of the court ex-
cluding all the witnesses from the
court room be enforced. When the
sheriff asked all the witnesses in
the case to rise at least have the
audience arose. VIM. R. Edgar
for the State read the information,
a document of several closely type
written pages, and made a state
ment of what the State expected
to prove.
A brief statement of the States
case is this: John w. Polk, sheriff
of Iron county at the time OF the
killing, on May 25th of the pres
ent year, was notified over the
phone that there was trouble near
the depot at Ironton and that his
presence was needed, VIM. R.
Edgar, Jr., son of Mayor VIM. R.
Edgar of Ironton, had had a diff
Guilty with VIM. Spaugh, Jr., in a
restaurant and had phoned to the
marshal for assistance. The mar
shall being out of town Sheriff
Polk whent in his place. The State
claim to be able to prove that VIM.
Spaugh, Jr., phoned to VIM.
Brown to come up at once and that
when Brown got there Spaugh told
him that he, Spaugh, had knocked
hell out of Bill Edgar because
young Edgar's father had prose-
cuted him. While Bill Spaugh
and Brown were standing on the
front porch of the Spaugh residence
Sheriff Polk approached. Bill
said: "there comes Polk and I
don't know whether l will go or
not" Sheriff Polk said, 81 want
to see YOU" Spaugh asked him
if he had warrant. The sheriff
replied: "It doesn't make amy
difference whether | have or not, |
want to see you. Spaugh turned
and went into the house, the sheriff
following. The first shot was
fred from a shotgun the load mis-
sing Sheriff Polk and striking the
floor of the porch. Other shots
followed in rapid succession
and when the neighbors rushed in
Sheriff Polk was found lying ON
his face just inside the kitchen
door, covered with blood. He had
been shot under the arm with a
shotgun, once through the body
from the rear, the bullet passing
through the heart, and another
through the head from the rear,
the bullet lodging in the left
temple.
The Spaughs made their escape
and were captured six days after
ward and lodged in the Ironton
Jail where they remained until an
effort was made to lynch them,
when they were taken to st. Louis
for safe keeping.
The court room was crowded
to it's full capacity, there be-
ing many visitors from Iron coun-
ty. While the feeling of the
friends of Sheriff Polk is very bit
ter against the Spaughs, there is
disposition to let the law take it's
course and there is very general
satisfaction expressed I that the
jury selected to try this case will
give the defendants a fair and i'm
partial trial. The jury is COM
posed of farmers, none of whom
are over fifty years of age and all
married men. These men COM
pose the jury: Henry Baker, AL
bert Bowles, Albert Chitwood,
Price Wadlow, VIM. Brown, Sam
Black, A. K. Smith, Jasper Col
yott, Harve Blankenship, G. w.
Hodges, and j. w. Brewer. At
noon only three witnesses had
been examined, all relative to the
trouble between young Edgar and
Spaugh. "
VIM. R. Edgar testified that he
was in Robert Rasche's restaurant
listening to a graphophone when
Bill Spaugh asked Rasche to play
something fast. Rasche complied
when Spaugh seized Edgar and
waltzed around the room once or
twice. Edgar got loose and told
Spaugh to let him alone. Spaugh
spoke something in an angry tone
when Edgar asked him what was
the matter. Spaugh replied that
he didn't like Edgar's looks and
the more he looked at him the
worse he hated him, and struck
Edgar hard blow over the left
eye, knocking him over on the
table. Rasche then caught Spaugh
and Edgar went to the depot and
telephoned for the marshal.
Rob't Rasche and Ernest Rieke
were next called. They corrobor-
ated the testimony of Edgar.
Young Rieke proved to be very
strong witness and the severe
cross-examination failed to shake
him particle.
Brown gave his testimony in a
kind of halting manner and at
times was so scared he could
hardly talk. The fact that he was
arrested and was in Jail for awhile,
suspected of being an accessory to
the murder Of Sheriff Polk, may
have the effect Of weakening his
testimony with the jury. 1t was
brought out on his own testimony
that he has served a term in jail
since for shooting craps.
pr. Ira A. Marshall testified con-