Omaha daily bee., 1909-10-26
JURY IS NOT SELECTED
Trial of Alleged Bandits Drags at
the Start.
SEVEN PASSED FOR CAUSE
Twelve Men Likely to he Secured
and witnesses Called Before
Noon Adjournment is
Taken Today.

The United States court room was
crowded to it's utmost capacity with jury
men, spectators and witnesses yesterday
afternoon to take in the opening events
of the trial of the alleged train robbers
under indictment for robbing the Over
land Limited mail at Lane cutoff on the
Union Pacific, the night OF May o. 1909.
Judge y. u laungef .tIl preside at he
hearing and United States District Attorney
Charles A. Goss and Assistant United
States Attorney A W. Lane will conduct
the prosecution, while ]. M. Macfarland
and H. B. FIeharty of Omaha will look
after the interests Of the defense.
The accused men were brought to the
federal building, each handcuffed to a dep
uty United States marshal, but on enter
ing the court room the handouts wer re-
moved and the prisoners were seated in
the center of the room inside the bar, They
were surrounded on three sides by the
heavy court room tables, outside of which
sat the deputy marshals and detectives.
Each of the prisoners were neatly dressed
and shayen and none of them looked at all
the hardened criminals they are alleged to
be- This was particularly true of Shelton
and GTigware, who looked more like young
clerks. Woods looked like a we'll to do
sporting man, while Torgenson might hav,
been taken for a delegate to one of the
recent conventions held in the city. He
had taken the precaution to have his
crippled ear patched up, so that the de-
formIty could not be noticed. Matthews
looked like a prosperous stockman. Their
attorneys sat inside the rectangle with
them.
The entire afternoon was passed in try
H. ~.
had been examined up to the closing hour
of court at 5 o'clock, when adjournment
was taken until $3.50 o'clock this morning.
Seven of these were passed for cause.
First Testimony Due Today.
! It is probable that the examination OF the
first witnesses will begin about IL o'clock
this morning.
| A large number OF witnesses has already
assembled, many of them being from Idaho
Washington and other western points
where Woods, Torgenson, Shelton, Orig
ware (Gordon) and Matthews have wor
regulations that might be of value in the
present hearing.
A panel OF seventy-five petit Jurymen has
already been called in the case. and 1t IL
believed that a trial jury will be selected
from this number during the afternoon.
~ Among the important witnesses from th'
west are Sheriff c. w. Dyer OF Idaho
Marshal Eugene May of Buhl, Idaho; De
itectives Mcdonald Of Spokane Wash
Asher Rosseter OF St. Louis OF the Pinker
ton detective bureau ana numerous post
office inspectors who were early called fl
the case and through whose agencies tn,
accused bandits were finally arrested.
Woman Important Witness.
An important witness will be Miss Lilllal
Stephenson of Denver, who was photo
graphed with the group of alleged bandit
In that city in an automobile some tim
prior to the robbery in Omaha and from
which photograph the arrest Of Shelter
and Matthews later resulted
The greater interest OF the trial win nat
urally center around the evidence OF tn
small school boys OF Brown Park school o
South Omaha, who discovered the weapon
and other paraphernalia hidden near nea
that school, the discovery of which re
suited in the apprehension to Woods, Tor
genson and Gordon (Grigware). when the
returned to recover the plant.
Should there be a conviction, IL is gen
orally conceded that these little schoC
boys win receive a large portion Of tn
$4,000 reward offered for the apprehensio
OF the alleged bandits.