The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-05-29
MITE JURY STILL OUT.
Case of Garden City Boy Who Killed
Father.

Garden City, Kan. May 29.-The
jury in the case of the state against
Samuel Mite who shot his father to
death on the 2sth day of February.
1903, after being ont for thirty-six
hours have failed to agree and the in
dications are that an agreement will
not be reached. While the killing
was apparently deliberate If not pre-
and the sentiment in this immunity
is strong in favor of the boy who did
the killing.
Mite, the father. was man with
anything but an admirable character
and it was his attitude toward his
family which finally cost him his life
at the hands of his son. Ugly stories
had been circulated about the reia-
tions of the father with his eldest
daughter, girl about Is years of age.
| neighborhood in which the family
lived and the mother of the girl as
we'll as the remainder of the family
! lived in fear of their father.
Samuel Mite had been away at the
State university several years and re-
! turned home to find that his father
had attempted to mfstreat a younger
sister. not yet 16 years of age. His
| mother, the testimony in the case
showed, had told him of the actions
| of his father and the son rushed from
the bedroom into the parlor where
his father was reading and blew his
head off with a shot gun.
He then came to Garden City and
surrendered to the sheriff after he had
| told him what had occurred at the
| family home. The actions of the
| father were so well known that the
son and fratricide was Immediately
| released on nominal bond. AS the
| time of the trial approached the SYM
pathy for the self-confessed slayer of
| his father increased and at the trial
/ the courtroom was crowded at all
| times with sympathetic friends.
The pleas of the atecsASIs for the
those of the attorneys for Harry Thaw
who killed White on account of
wrongs which he had suffered at
| Whites hands. The case was ably
prosecuted as well as defended and
| the sentiment of the community was
strongly in favor of an acquittal on
any ground and much surprise Is
expressed that the jury should have
not returned verdict of acquittal.
The case was heard by Judge w. H
Thompson, a formerly of Topeka man,
lwho is Judge Of the Thirty-second jul
idicial district. The fact that num-
her of killings have occurred in the
community in which the Mite family
lives in recent years is thought to have
had it's influence on the jury as well as
the trial Of the case.
Owing to the high standing of Sam
uel Mite in the community and the
lprovocation which was shown at the
Inquest the coroner's jury exonorated
the slayer of his father. Mites repu-
ltation at Lawrence where he spent sew
leral years in school where he finished
the pharmacy course is exceptionally
good and a number of his friends from
that city testified in his behalf
The evidence showed that the Mite
family feared the husband and par
lent and elf-defense also entered large
ly into the defense Of young Mite. The
defense, however. has relied strongly
on the fact that the killing was justi
Iced and that Samuel Mite was tenn
lporarily out of his mind when he fired
1.-THE shot which killed his father.
Samuel Mite was about the last per
lson on earth who would be suspected
of violence when in his right mind. H
Il was slow Of speech, reticent and phleg
lmatic in temperament and of an un
usually even temper A direct opposite
Ito his father in every way. The indi
ications at this time are that there wi
lbe a mistrial and that the matter will
be dropped for want of prosecution un-
, LESS the defendant demands an acquit.
tai