The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-03-18
sTATENIENr OF wITNEssEs.
They Seem to Indicate Shooting Was
UnprOVoI1ed.

The sworn statement of Charles
Owen, an eye witness to IT, shooting,
was taken at 1 o'clock this morning
at the dance hall by Coroner H. H.
Keith. 1t follows:
Il and Frank Snoddy and Frank
Wilkerson were coming vi the stairs
and met Dave Bragg. Frank Wilker-
son spoke to Frank Snoddy. Dave
Bragg turned and said, Did you
speak to me?' Frank W;lkerson said,
4 viii speak to you any time 1 want
to- Frank Wilkerson turned and
stood a minute. Dave Bragg went
down stairs. around the corner and
came back and shot Frank Wilkerson
two times. Not word wa said until
after the shooting and then Frank
WiIkerson said. Boys, he shot me-
Some one asked him who, and he said,
Dave Bragg"
Another sworn statement was OBJ
tanned by the coroner from Will Cook,
who will be one of the principal wit
nesses in the case. Hi statement is as
follows:
81 was at the boarding place of
Dave Bragg just before we started for
the dance. I saw him take the revolt
yer out of his grip ana put it in his
pocket I asked him what he was go
ing to do with it and he said he might
need it, and he asked me if Frank
Wilkerson was going to be at this
dance
c. w. jackson of 116 West Railroad
street, in North Topeka, who says he
helped lay the dying man down at the
top of the stairs and that Wilkerson
told him Bragg had shot him
J. D. Patterson of Valencia told
Keith that Bragg had come to him
earlier in the evening and asked him
where he could get some whisky. Pat
terson told him he did not know. but
that he could take a little from his
kr.., for L
lows and that in his opinion that was
all the liquor the man had.
These staten ents, secured by DR..
Keith while the body of Wilkerson
still lay in the dance hall. make a
pretty complete case in themselves and
seem to cover all the angles of the
killing. The doctor says he did not
learn that the trouble was an old ri
valry over a girl.
David Bragg is not talking any
more. He seems to have regretted
that he talked so much last night
when brought to the county Jail by
Deputy Rhinehart of Silver Lake. I'm
der Sheriff and Jailer Henry Bayliss
said today that the young man, when
brought in last night, was moaning
aloud and holding his chest with both
hands. Asked what he was whining
about, he replied that Wilkerson had
kicked him in the chest and broken
in his breast bone and that he had hit
him behind the ear and raised a great
lump.
Bayliss could find no mark on his
head and called a number of doctors
but none could be aroused until nearly
morning, when DR.. c. NJ. Hensley. the
county physician, came to the Jail to
examine the mans alleged wound. DR.
Hensley found depressed spot OF
about three inches in diameter over
the lower end of the sternum-the
breast bone-but there was no abra-
sion of the skin above it and no red
ness of the skin as a recent kick
would have left. The doctor gave il
as his opinion that Bragg was injured
on the breast some time in his in
fancy. The spot is considered no evil
dence that Wilkerson kicked him OF
struck him.
Bob Alexander, a farmer of neal
Valencia for whom Bragg had work
ed until recently. visited the boy al
the jail today. He says Bragg anC
wilkerson had had a falling out some
time ago.
The post mortem examination hello
by Keith this morning at Penwell's
undertaking rooms revealed the track
of the two bullets. One had passed
through the right forefnger back oi
the first Joint and the second had en-