The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-05-11
SEARCH IS HALTED
Little Is Being Done at the
Guinness Murder Farm
Toward Unraveling the Mystery
Hanging Over Place.
HE HAS HER LETTERS.
Another Witness Against the
Woman Is Found.
Miner Employed to Wash for
Gold Teeth In Ruins.
HE HAS HER LETTERS.

Laporte, Ind, May 11.-Picking up the
shreds of evidence tending to connect
Ray Lamphere with the deaths of Mrs.
Guinness and her three children and
perhaps also of Andrew Helgelein, is
the main purpose of the authorities
here today. Whether search for more
bodies will be prosecuted has not been
finally determined, Sheriff Shutter yes
terday indicating that further excava-
ton may be postponed until tomorrow.
The sheriff has found difficulty in car
rying on this work because of the NOR
bidly curious persons. who have flock
ed to the place where 10 corpses were
discovered last week. Friday the exca-
waiting in the barn yard was hindered
and Saturday it was halted by the
crowds. 1t is expected, however, that
the number of visitors will be lessened
today, some $4,000 persons having in
spected the grounds yesterday and pre-
sumably satisfied their curiosity.
The grand jury was to have met to-
day to consider Lamphere's case, but
this procedure has been postponed for
a week. Experts who were called into
the affair by Sheriff Shutter advised
this course although Ralph N Smith,
prosecuting attorney for this judicial
district, had announced only a few
hours before the decision was made,
that he was ready to go into court with
the evidence at hand. Since then the
case has been strengthened by the dis
covery of Lamphere's trunk, containing
several letters which are said to estab-
lish his participation in the murder of
Helgelein and by information extract
ed from number Of persons who were
intimate enough with the prisoner to
learn from him much concerning his
relations with Mrs. Guinness.
If the sitting and sluicing of the ash
es in the cellar of the home result in
the discovery of yet more evidence, it
is likely the case will be pushed toward
a conclusion rapidly.
Prosecutor Smith is anxious to bring
Lamphere before jury during the term
of court which opens today and will
endeavor to clear the docket of several
minor cases which are scheduled to
be heard.
Defense Is Kept Secret.
The attitude of the defense has not
been revealed to any great extent. The
prisoner has received stringent orders
from his attorneys not to discuss the
charges against him with any one and
the attorneys themselves have not
committed themselves to a particular
line of action. They have been free in
announcing theories to account for
Lamphere's actions before and follow
ing his arrest and have also given out
have secured and which they say estab-
fishes the fact that Mrs. Guinness and
not Lamphere set fire to the house
The adult headless corpse found with
the blackened bodies of the children
was, they assert, that of another vic
tim of the Guinness woman, the theory
being that the head was severed by Mrs.
Guinness in order that it might be
thought the body was hers. Thus far,
however, efforts to substantiate the
1nvatc hrY
failed, several persons having repudi-
ated interviews accredited to them by
Lamphere's attorneys, while the facts
found by the physicians who perform
ed postmortem examinations on the
corpses do not bear out the conten
lions of the defense. 1t is thought,
however, that Lamphere's attorneys
have concealed carefully the chief
points upon which they will rely, en-
deavoring meanwhile to swing public
opinion in favor of the prisoner.
Political and business friends of the
attorneys have been busy discussing
the case wherever opportunity offered.
the argument being mainly that Mrs.
Guinness was too shrewd a woman to
be caught in fire and that she might
therefore have escaped Prosecutor
Smith denounces these methods, but
there is no gainsaying the fact that the
impression that Mrs. Guinness is still
alive is widespread despite the almost
This circumstance will make the task
of picking trial jury difficult and
there is scarcely a man or woman In
the community who has not formed or
expressed an opinion on the subject
Talesmen from the rural districts, how
ever. may tighten the labors Of the at
torneys in this regard.
A Tuft of Hair.
That Andrew Helgelein did not give
up his life without a struggle, is evil
denced by the fact that in one of his
clinched hands was a brown tuft of
short hair, which is said to be closely
in correspondence with the hair COW
ering the head of Ray Lamphere, who
is being held in Jail here.
This new phase of the mysteries
was disclosed in the deposition of DR..
J. William Myer, one of the examining
physicians who went into an exhaus-
tive examination of Helgeleins body,
After a full report of the heart, lungs,
intestines and other parts of the dis
mernbered corpse, all of which were
found to be in state of almost per-
feet preservation, he states that one
of the hands of Helgelein held the lock
of brown hair. He also made his re-
port on the body of Jennie Olsen, the
IL year old adopted daughter and be-
lieved victim of Mrs. Guinness. This
body also was found to be in good
condition with a few exceptions.
In the case of both Helgelein and the