Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-01-15

and children.
(e) The shooting at and slightly
wounding of Preciado.
These crimes were certainly COM
mitted by somebody.
The cartridges used will go into one
other rifle used in the United States
when specially chambered-the Win
chester of the '95 model-but it will
rarely If ever go off when in it; and
moreover, the bullets picked out of
the buildings show the markings of
the four so-called lands" which come
from being fired through the Spring
field, but not through the Winchester,
the latter showing six. The bullets
Which | herewith submit, which were
found in the house could not there
fore have been fired from Winches-
ter OF any other sporting rifle, al
though the cartridges might have been
put into a Winchester model of '95.
The bullets might have been fired
from a Krag, but the cartridges would
not have gone into Krag. Taking
the shells and the bullets together, the
proof is conclusive that the new
Springfield rifle was the weapon used
by the midnight assassins, and could
not by any possibility have been any
other rifle of any kind in the world.
This of itself establishes the fact that
the assailants were United States
soldiers, and would be conclusive on
this point If not one soldier had been
seen or heard by any residents in
Brownsville on the night in question,
and if nothing were known save the
finding of the shells, clips and bullets.
Testimoy Of Eye Witesses.
Fourteen eye witnesses, namely:
Charles R. Chase, Amado Martinez,
Mrs. Kate Leahy, Palermo Preciado,
Ygnacio Dominguez, Macedonia RAJ
mirze, George w. Kendall, Jesse Mar
tinez, ]. P. Mcdonald, F. H. A. San
born, Herbert Elkins, Hale Odin, Mrs.
Hale Odin and Judge Parks, testified
that they saw the cssailants or some
Tof them at varying distances, and that
they were negro troops. most of the
witnesses giving their testimony in
such shape that there is no possibility
of their having been mistaken. Two
other witnesses, Joseph Dodin and
Genera Padron, saw some of the as
sailants and testified that they were
soldiers (the only soldiers in the
neightborhood being the colored
troops.) -Four other witnesses name
ly, s. G. Moore, Doctor Thorn, Charles
s. Canada, and Charles T. Hammond,
testified to hearing the shooting and
hearing the voices of the, men who
We're doing it, and that these voices
were those of negroes, but did not ac-
tually see the men who were doing the
shooting. About twenty-five other wit
nesses gave testimony corroborating
to greater or less degree the testi-
mony of these who saw the shooters
or heard them. The testimony of these
eye and ear witnesses would establish
beyond all possibility of contradiction
the fact that the shooting was COM
mitted by ten of fifteen of more of the
negro troops from the garrison, and
this testimony Of theirs would be
amply sufficient in itself if not a cart
ridge or bullet had been found ;
exactly as the bullets and cartridges
that were found would have establish
ed the guilt of the troops even If not
single eye witness seen them or 9th.
''ASANSNA'So
The testimony of witnesses on the
position of bullet holes show that Is
or 20 OF the negro troops gathered i'll
side the fort, and that the first shots
fired into the town were fired from
within the fort; some of them at least
from the upper galleries of the bar
racks.
Threw Town in Terror
The testimony farther shows that
the troops then came over the falls,
some of them perhaps going through
the gate, and advanced a distance of
three hundred yards or whereabouts in
to the town. During their advance
they shot into two hotels and some
nine or ten other houses. Three of
the private houses into which they
fired contained women and children.
They deliberately killed Frank Natus,
the bartender, shooting him down
from distance of about Is yards.
They shot at a man and women, Mr..
and Mrs. Odin, and their little boy, as
they stood in the window of the Mil
Ter hotel, the bullet going less than
two inches from the head OF the wom-
an They shot down the lieutenant Of
police, who was on horseback, killing
his horse and wounding him so that
his arm had to be amputated. They
attempted to kill the two policemen
who were his companions, shooting
one through the hat. They shot at
least eight bullets into the Cowen
house, putting out a lighted lamp on
the DINING room table. Mrs Cowen
and her five children were in the