The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-08
Atchison Youth Says He Caused
Death of Hrs. Jerome Hoover.
Roy Claims However That the
Shooting Was Accidental.
CORONER's VERDICT.
Showed That Murdered Woman
Was Afraid of Her Slayer.
Further Developments Promise
to Make Case More Sensational.

Atchison, Kan, March 8.-Carl Hale
has confessed to his uncle, Roy Hale
iapd to Sheriff Taylor that he caused
the death of Mrs. Jerome Hoover, who
was found dead in her kitchen with g
bullet hole in her head Wednesday ev-
ening, but that it was accidental
The Hale boy says he took the mail
from the Hoover maiIbox into the
house, and found Mrs. Hoover frying
meat and that he went out and around
| the Kitchen and shot at dried up peach
es on tree four times. and returned
! nome. When he heard of the death of
Mrs Hoover in the evening he became
| fearful that he had killed her. Mrs.
Hoover was killed while washing dish
es.
| The rifle he used was locked in a
small room where his aunt, Mrs. Roy
! Hale, kept her china and linen He
says he found the door unlocked, went
IN ana got the gun and put it back
when he was through with it, locking
the door as he came out.
| Lfapdoor leads from this room into
the cellar, and the theory of Sheriff
Iaylor IA is that Hale gained entrance to
the room through the trapdoor.
After making his confession young
Hale broke down and wept bitterly.
Further details are expected.
This Clears the Mystery.
Inc confession of young Hale re-
| moves al oouDr as to now Mrs HOOV-
er met her death last Wednesday. At
! tirst 1T was thought that she had died
\ OF heart failure and this was the gem
eral opinion until the undertaken in
| cred rifle bullet wound behind Mrs,
| Hoovers right ear.
| This led to Investigations in which
| the officials suspicioned young Hale
and the evidence against him, most of
Which was circumstantial, was never
theless so strong that he was held re-
sponsible by the coroner's jury for the
death of Mrs. Hoover.
He Had Been Arrested.
Young Hale was arrested Saturday
evening following the verdict return
ed by the coroner's jury which decided
that for its purposes at least, Mrs.
Jerome Hoover came to her death from
bullet wound in the head, the bullet
fred by Carl Hale with felonious in
tent"
The inquest brought out testimony
which had been entirely unexpected.
The most important fact yet found in
the case came out incidentally when
the widower testified that his wife had
feared the Hale boy and that Hale had
once torn the family washing from the
line and thrown it into a mudhole. The
husband failed, however, to show any
evidence of a hatred deep enough to
have led the boy to kill.
Mrs. Fred Rick, a neighbor of the
Hoovers. testified that she saw Carl
Hale at the mailboX in the road at
about 10 o'clock Wednesday morning
and that he had a rifle in his hand at
the time. Hale admits that he was at
the mailboX and says he carried the
mail to Mrs. Hoover at 10 o'clock, at
which time she was alive. He denies
that he had the rifle out of the house,
however.
Mrs. Rick and her son. Earl, also tes-
titled that the boy had visited their
house Wednesday afternoon and spent
n II a 10
also denied on the stand.
John Scott, another farmer of the
same neighborhood, sWore that he saw
boy with rife at the Hoover mail
box Wednesday morning, but he said
he was too far away to be able to
recognize the boy.
Mr.. Hoover and neighbors testified
identicallv that it was most unusual
for the Hale boy to take the mail to
Mrs. Hoover, whom he disliked. 1t also
was shown that no mail had been
found. The husband swore that his
wife had always been little afraid of
the boy, but he was unable to tell just
why.
The most puzzling feature of the case
involves the firing of the shot itself. 1t
was pointed out that if the boy had
been in the Hoover kitchen when he
| fired the fatal shot there probably
would have been evidences of powder
burns about the wound, since the
kitchen is small and Mrs. Hoover evil
IDENTIFY was in the center of the room
when killed. There were no evidences
of this powder burning.
May Have Shot Through Window.
Two broken panes of glass in win
dow opening into pantry, adjoining
the kitchen on the north, may offer an
explanation. With the pantry door
open a bullet might have been fired
from the outside into Mrs. Hoover's
head. Evidently she was washing
dishes at her kitchen table when the
bullet struck her, with right side and
back toward the pantry window, sol
that bullet from that direction would
have struck her where she was hit, be-
hind the right ear. Young Hale might
have shot either from the road or a
clump of evergreen trees in the Hoov-
er yard. The pantry door was closed
when the body was found. but high
wind may have accounted for this.
The possibility that Hale might have
shot at a bird in these trees and ac-
cidenta1ly sent the bullet through the
broken window, has been an impor
tant feature in the case
The robbery theory, which had been
held by some until after the coroner's
inquest, is now discredited. Hoover
testified that his wife told him she had
$25 in a little savings bank in the
house. He had never seen the money,
and the safe showed no signs of hav-
ing been entered. 1t was locked when
found.