The Prescott daily news., 1909-02-06
THE MYSTERIOUS
 MIR. BANNISER
Review of Peculiar Murder Case at Hot Springs Which Is Attracting Inter-
 national Attention.
Special to the News.

Hot Springs, February 6.-The last hope of the mysterious pris- oner held by the authorities of Garland county in an effort to connect him with the atrocious deed which on July last spread q wave of actual horror through this community hinges upon the action of Chancellor Curl today. The Chancellor is asked to issue a writ of habeas corpus to re- lease Bannister from the custody of Sheriff Houpt whose deputy the sheriffs brother, Bannister ayers Kidnapped him from the au thorities in Texas, Chancellor Curl has already once refused to issue the writ but Bannister's att torneys have prepared an a. mended petition introducing new points which they hope will prove effective.
 The most interested spectator in the court room today was a prepossessing young woman quietly dressed and silent. She has given everything she pos ses,ses in her endeavOr to save the prisoner, even her honor not having been considered too dear for her to sacrifice, Everyone in terested in the case here and the friends and acquaintanceS of the Bannisters, back in Oklahoma had looked upon 'her as the wife of the man twho called her such. But when she found her te;Sti- mony barred on the witness stand because a wife is not pelr- mitted to testify for or against her husband, she heSitated a moment and then exclaimed "I am not his wife excepting in name" Her subsequent story of her life with this declaration ere ated a sensation, but the object she had in view was not accom- plished. Her testimony was dis regarded.
 Whether the prisoner is Ar thur Bannister, as he ayers he is, or whether he is Archie Ban mister, the brother of Arthur, as the prosecution maintains he is is the question at issue.
 Despite the fact that the man who murdered Mrs. Ada Peich- CTS and then kidnapped her small daughter was a familiar figure to scores of Hot Springs people, especially to those who lived in the neighborhOOd of the little cottage on Kirk street, Bannister made his home in the absence of Mrs. Reichers' husband there has been a remarkable lack of unequivocal testimony that the prisoner and Archie Bannist- CT are identical. Those who Wn- der commonplace circumstances would say they were one and the same person perhaps are slow a bout making an Identification which might cost an innocent man his life.
 And Bam.ster isn't giving any person an opportunity to work up a case of mistaken identity The night before he was to be given a preliminary hearing he obtained a razor and in his dark cell without father he shaved his face clean of a beard which was. about the same length as that worn by Archie Bannister the day of the murder.
 With a towel forced down her throat the length of the handle Of a hammer with which she was afterward ispatched the wo- mans body was found by ven- turesome boy in her little cot tage on Kirk street, on the after noon of July 7. All during the preceding night her two little children had Slept in each others arms on the door step of theIcot- tage not knowing why they were locked out nor that their moth CTS cold body was lying a few feet away With Gear-stained faces the half-starved tots told a neighbor' woman, who had talk en them to her home after she had discoyered them asleep on the door step early in the morn ing, how Mr .BanniSter had talk en them to Wilmington Park to see the moving pictures and to ride on the Merry go-round the day before; how he had left them and gone away with their sister. This was before the body was discovered A few hours later the dreadful story began to unfold.
 The near-tragedy which was onacta1t hon ,Nrs Rpicbnps