The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1907-10-03

morning meal, Johanson sitting on
the bed, near the table,
Mathieson testified that he in.
tended to 60 out to hunt some
rabbits and that Johanson took the
gun and showed him how to work it;
that he took the gun from Johanson
after Johanson had put a cartridge
in it.
Mathieson stated, positively, that
he placed the gun on the table and
that in some manner, unknown to
him, it was discharged, the entire
charge hitting Johanson, who was
sitting on the bed.
When the shot hit Johanson, he
fell on the bed; he said nothing and
did not move, simply laid still.
Mathieson says after Johanson
was shot, that he went outside and
stood in the open air for ten or ff-
teen minutes. He did not feel good.
He afterward went in and looked at
Johanson and spoke to him, but
received no answer. Mathieson then
put on his clothes and went to
Tenstrike, touching nothing in the
room. He pulled the door to, and
locked it, before going. 1t took
him two hours to walk to Tenstrike,
giving as an excuse that he felt bad.
Mathieson stated that he drank
much after that, because he did not
feel good, and did not know what to
do. The next night he went to the
shack where he and Johanson had
lived, having decided what he would
do.
Mathieson went into the house,
lit the lamp and looked at Johanson's
body on the bed. He lifted the
body off the bed and took it to the
lake and tried to put the dead body
Of his friend and companion in
water hole. The hole was too small,
so he took off what clothes there
were on Johanson's body and was
then able to shove the body under
the ice.
Mathieson was asked here by the
council, why he wanted to put the
body of his friend under the ice.
Mathieson answered that he did
not know; that he thought that was
the best he could do. T.
After he had put Johanson's body
under the ice, he returned to the
cabin. He took some of Johanson's
clothes and the blood-stained bed
blothes, placed them in a sack and
took them into the woods, four miles
away, and hid them. He hid the
gun in the bed and afterwards took
some more of Johanson's clothes, put
them in a sack, and on his way to
Tenstrike, threw them in a creek.
Mathieson testified that he found
Johanson's pocket-book and kept it,
and went to Tenstrike, where he
drank very heavily.
At this point court was ad journed
until 9 o'clock this morning.
When court convened this morn
ing Mathieson was again placed on
the stand to give testimony in his
own behalf.
He stated that he left Tenstrike
and came to Bemidji, and spent
some time here, drinking, gambling
and having a good time" generally.
He cashed the checks belonging to
Johanson and blew in' the pro-
ceeds. When he was broke, he was
advanced enough money to take him
to Portland, Oregon. While he was
at Portland, he wrote letters to Ten
strike, in an attempt to get more
money, which belonged to Johanson.
These letters proved Mathieson's
undoing; as through them the
officers we're given very good clue
as to his proba bic whereabouts.
The witness told of his subsequent
arrest and of the confession he made
in Portland, ,wherin he told how Johan-
son was killed, ,thisstatement agreeing
in the main with the evidence given
at last nights hearing. !
County Attorney, Henry Funkley,
gave Mathieson very rigid cross
examination, touching on every point
of his story, from the time he was
born until the beginning of the
present trial. Nothing materially
new was brought out by the county
attorney, and Mathieson's original
confession remained almost un-
shaken.
County Attorney, Funkley, dwelt
particularly on the event, at the
time that the actual killing of Johan-