Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-10-02
ALLEGED ROBBERS DEPEND
UPON THEIR ALIsl AS A DE-
FENsE IN cENTERvILLE
GOT BILLS GAMBLING
Officer Murray of ottumwa Puts New
Light on Their Experiences Here
Says He Took Whitehall and An
other Man to the Wabash Train.

centerville, Oct. 1.-(speciaD-
Whether Ernie Johnson, Billy Stanton
and Homer Whitehall robbed the Udell
Dank the night of Dec. 18, 1905, getting
$500 in gold, silver and currency, and
then passed powder burned bills at
Laredo, and Chillicothe, Mo-, leading
10 their arrest, or whether at the time
OF the robbery Stanton was asleep
drunk at the Brown boarding house
IN Central addition, Ottumwa. and
Johnson and Whitehall at the Milwau-
kee Junction, watching for a Milwau-
kee freight to catch ride south is
the question that will go to the jury
to solve sometime today. The case
was gone over in details last week in
court before Judge SIoan with T. G..
Fee, county attorney, assisted by ]. M.
Wilson, ably prosecuting, and the keen,
experienced and successful criminal
lawyers, Howell & Elgin, using their
consumate skill to prove an alibi
Numerous Ottumwa witnesses were in
troduced for the latter purpose, the
defense maintaining that at the hour
of the robbery the three men in GUS
tody were in Ottumwa. Clarence SUIT
ton. at that time bartender In the Log
Cabin saloon, says they took Stanton
out OF his place drunk at 10 p. m. Mrs.
Brown says they brought him to her
house in Central. addition between IL
and l o'clock, and then Johnson and
Whitehall left. Pat Quinlan says they
passed through his room at Browns
to put Stanton to bed. And the way
they all.remember the date is because
1T was at the time Mr.. Brown was
locked, up in the city calaboose for
drunkenness, disorderly conduct, beat
ing his nephew, etc.
CircumstantiaI Evidence.
The state, however, has chain of
circumstantial evidence tending strong
ly to establish the guilt Of the accused
men. Their theory is that there were
four connected with the robbery a mys-
terious fourth man escaping when the
arrest was made. Dr. Replogle, Of
Udell, saw three men answering the
description of these men going down
the street OF Udell half hour before
the robbery one with light overcoat,
and two with dark ones, such as they
wore. George Elgin saw four men en-
tering Mystic the morning after the
ner buckets or any of the marks of
miners. They were coming up the
track from the direction of Udell, 12
miles away, across country. One wore
a light overcoat resembling Ernie
Johnson's. They frequented tigers at
Mystic and got away the next day,
Stanton carrying doll carriage, and
Whitehall a dinner bucket, Johnson
walking to Rathburn and getting on the
Milwaukee train. all going to Laredo.
The defense claims the deception was
to assist them in getting up a gambling
game on the train SO as to fleece some
fourth party. Bills passed by them at
Laredo and Chillicothe we're secured
and fragments found In the Udell bank
where the safe was blown up that fit
ted them perfectly The defense claims
that they got these bills gambling. At
ter arrest an attempt was made to
photograph them for Identification, but
they resisted so that the sheriff was
obliged to call in deputies to hold them
while the photos were made. The ac-
cused got their faces in such shape,
however, that they are scarcely re-
cognizable. The state claims this is an
evidence of guilt and the defense that
they did not want to go into the rogues'
gallery when innocent.
Turns Down Father.
But the most remarkable incident of
the whole history Of the case was a
few weeks ago when Detective Reno,
representing the Bankers Casualty
Co., took Stanton from the jail here to
Rockwell City, to attempt to associate
him with robbery there and passing
through Des Moines he was positively
identified by man claiming to be his
father Several persons claiming to be
school mates and companions there al
so said they knew him. But Stanton
stoically denounced the old man as an
imposter and told his alleged compan-
ions he didn't know them. The old
man in tears emphatically maintained
he was his erring son. The accused
man, however, says his father died
years ago in Cincinnati, Ohio, and he
has been travelling horse trader and
professional gambler since. This evi
dence, and that of the photographs, did