Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-08-09
COL 0 LOVE ! |. !.
Continued from Page -


told regarding the purchase of re-
volvers. When questioned about the
matter he told of the purchase Of
three revolvers in Minneapolis. His
story regarding these was verified.
He stated those were the only pistols
he had purchased, but later investiga-
tions disclosed that he had secured
three more in St. Paul. This appears
to have been established beyond doubt.
The gun with which the murder was
committed was not left with the body
so that the suicide theory could be
more easily established, but a .e-
volver had been thrown quite a dis
lance from where the body was found,
and the disposition Of the gun ap.
peared to have been an afterthought.
Another peculiar affair in connection
with the revolver that was found, is
that it Is claimed the crime was not
committed with it at all, but with an
other gun, which was carried by the
colonel, and which was later secured
from him by the detective, who substi-
tuted guns and found that the gun
carried by Lovelace contained an
empty shell, which formerly contained
a bullet similar in size to that with
which the crime was committed.
The examination of the body when
found in May disclosed the fact that
William Lovelace might have been
strangled and then shot. This is the
theory of the prosecution.
William Lovelace disappeared the
night of March 7. He had been ii
during the day and evening and had
made frequent trips to the clubhouse in
the rear of the store. About II o'clock
that night, after he and the other
clerks had retired, young Lovelace
arose from his bed and went out of the
rear door of the store, leaving the door
Slightly ajar. When he failed to re-
turn another clerk made a search for
him, and failing to discover him, shut
the door and retired for the night.
1t is a theory of the prosecution that
the murderers waited in the rear of
the store, expecting their victim to
appear and that he was strangled, DOS
sibly into Inconsistencies, and then
shot through the head to make his
death doubly sure. His body was then
removed to the place where it was
found several weeks later.
Some blood had been spilled in the
clubhouse and boards containing blood
stains were removed and concealed.
The defendant plans to establish an
alibi by the claim that he was in St.
Paul on the night that the victim dis
appeared. 1t is asserted that the in
vestigation OF that story proved it
false and that it has been clearly es,
tablished that Col Lovelace was at
home on the night that his nephew
had disappeared and had charged his
nephew with embezzlling some of the
funds from the store. H.
The evidence against the defendant
Is all of a circumstantial nature, but
the prosecution claims to have
strong chain of discriminating matter,
much OF which has been withheld
from the public.
The motive for the crime, it IS
claimed, is apparent both from the
fact that the defendant felt that his
store was being looted by his nephew
and from his jealousy of his nephew
because OF the alleged intimacy be-
tween the murdered man and the de-
PENDANTS pretty young wife.
The dead man was apparently not
alone IN plundering the store, as rela-
lives Of Mrs. LoveIace are charged