The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-17
POPE TO PROVE HE WAS ABSENT Husband of Woman
 Held in Clanton. CLAIMS COMPLETE AlBI Trial Will Be Resumed in Chiffon Today. Solicitor Adams Thinks He Has
 Strengthened Testimony in
 Trial For Murder of Ased
 

Clanton, March Is.-(special. )-The preliminary hearing off Mrs. Hattie Pope, who Is charged with the murder | of her aged mother, Mrs. Margaret King. will be continued today. before L.. H. Reynolds, Probate puiEe of | Clinton county.
 Eight or ten witnesses will be heard the case being called today at g o'clock. There are prospects of anoth- CT large crowd. as this is Clifton county's most notable murder case.
 At the hearing on Saturday the fn- ger of suspicion was cast upon Wood son Pope. the husband of the woman who Is charged with the crime. and from the trend of the questioning of the defense. it was evident that Che crime was to be fastened upon some one else, other than the woman who had been held in jail since the day of the murder. If 1t was In the power of the defense to do so
 Friends of Mrs. Pope openly accus- ed the woman's husband with being connected with the crime. and the name of man named Ryan was drought into the case. as having been the instrument by which the murder was committed. Ryan was arrested in Birmingham on suspicious charge, but investigation developed the fact that he was working on the Birmipz- ham chaingang at the time of the murdev
 |. Pope Was in Birmingham. The investigation of the authorities, 1t is stated. also revealed the fact that Woodson Pope on March 1. the day of the crime. was working on & truck farm near Birmingham.
 Solicitor Adams claims to have more conclusive evidence that the aged Mrs. n AtN1.n kr F. of the daughter. Since the tragedy and after the finding of the bloody garments in the trunk at the scene of the murder. there was mystery fla connection with the disappearance of the underskirt of Mrs Pope, which according to the .authorfties would have been bloody. too. as the blood on the calico dress showed that it had gone through the fiimsy material The prosecution claims that upon the oc- casfon of visit to Mrs Pope since the hearing of last Saturday, that she Was asked to remove the undersktrt which she was wearing and 1t had upon t the blood stains which some oe the witnesses testified as having not ed at the time of the arrest.
 It is stated that Mrs. Pope made no enort to explain the stains. which cor respond In location to those of the stains on the garments, which were found in the trunk.
 Parents of Pope
 The mother and father of woodson Pope. who reside at Childersburs. ar4 rived in Clantotf. tonight. The rumored suspicion of their son in connection with the crime. has made them take an active interest in the proceedings at tody's hearing. It Is stated that evidence will be submitted today prov ing an alibi for Pope.
 The defense, it Is stated, win law much stress upon the finding Of the clothes of Mrs. Pope. It was shown by the testimony introduced at the nearing Saturday that the members of the coroner's jury searched the house of the tragedy for bloody garments, and the knife with which the deed was committed. but failed to find the clothes, or the, knife. It Is even stated that the members of the coroner's jury looked into the trunk in question, but failed to note the blood-stained dress which was finally discovered on the following Saturday. It Is the conten- tion of the defense that the clothes were rubbed over the bloody body and then thrown into the trunk with the object in view of throwing suspicion upon the owner of the clothing; and that these clothes were put in the trunk after the woman had been ar- rested.
 The prosecution will endeayor to show today that members of the ooro- ner's jury noticed the tightly folded bundle, which later proved to be the blood stained clothes. in the trunk, but did not think that these clothes | bore any connection with the case, | and. as result, did not make n thor | ough examination. as should have been | done.
 With the new evidence. which the prosecution claims to have on hand, and with the alibi of the two men un- der suspicion. established, interest in the case will be fully as strong today as 1t was Saturday.