Omaha daily bee., 1909-10-27
JURY FOR ALLEGED BANDITS
Twelve Men to Try Train Robbery
Case Are Selected.
TRIAL ON IN FEDERAL COURT
District Attorney GOss Makes State
ment of Governments Case and
While Doing So Defendant
Laughs Heartily.

After summoning a venire of fifty-two
federal petit jurymen, the examination of
which occupied just twenty-four hours,
these twelve men were selected shortly
before noon Tuesday to try the case.
J. c. Robinson a seedman of Waterloo.
Charles f. Martin, retired farmer of
Benson.
William Schroeder of Schuyler, a farmer.
j. Mcnamara, a retired farmer of Wis
ner.
Melvin e. seeley, a retired farmer of
Fremont.
c. w Eckerman collector and salesman
of the Payne Investment company, Omaha.
r. c. Marison, carpenter, 2421 Templeton
street, Omaha.
w L. Burgess of the Burgess
John l. Davis, hardware merchant of
6. II. Rose, salesman, 1924 Lafayette
c. z. Keys, farmer of Springfield.
Nelson r. Smith, farmer of Homer.
The remainder of the panel of ninety,
drawn for the term were excused from
further service by the court and were
discharged.
Shelton Laughs mt GOss.
District Attorney Goss then submitted the
statement of the governments side Of the
case to the jury, following the reading of
the indictment.
D. w. Woods and Fred Torgenson, pris-
oners, paid the closest attention to the
opening statement of Mr.. Goss and seemed
particularly interested in that portion Of
the statement relating to the finding Of the
masks, guns and other paraphernalia of
the robbers near the Brown Park school
house. Grlgware also manifested consid-
cradle interest In this part OF the state
ment. Matthews, If at all interested, re-
NAMED perfectly stoical and gave no sign.
pIa vafaw 70 ekn
being seen at Fremont the afternoon, pre-
ceding the robbery, caused Shelton to mani
fest considerable levity, which was checked
with sharp asperity by his attorney.
Interested spectators in the court room,
which was as usual crowded. were the
father and brother OF Grigware from Spok-
ane.
The defense made no Introductory
statement to the jury preferring to let
the government show its hend and then
/ proceed along its lines of defense ac-
cordingly.
| Court resumed at 2 o'clock, following
! the noon recess. and some brisk legal
sparring was INDUCED in. Mr. MacFarland
/ for the defense objected to the govern
ment witnesses being permitted in the
court room during the taking Of testimony
| by the other witnesses. Itw as apparent
that this would exclude some Of the gov
ernment officials who are members of
the court A compromise was finally ef-
/ fected, permitting the federal officials
who were witnesses in the case to re-
main in the court room. All others were
I excluded.
Engineer Tells Graphic story.
/ The first witness was A. r. Meikeljohn,
engineer OF the Overland Limited. He told
a graphic story Of the holdup. How his
attention was first directed 20 the man
with a gun by his reflection in the glass
Of the cab window. The flrebcx door was
open, throwing a strong light on the ban
/ dit AS the engineer turned the bandit
poked an automatic pistol into his face
and informed him that he meant busi-
ness. moment later a second bandit slid
down off the tank into the cab and COW
ering Fireman Prowl ordered him 10 hold
up his hands, at the same time covering
Continued on Second Psge.)