The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-11-14
Eleven Murders Within Five
Years the Record.
FIRST KILLING IN 1907
N, Women and Children
Have Been Slain.
Theater Crowds Small, Sleep
ing POrches Vacated.

Wellington. Kan. Nov. 1.-THE re-
lease of Otto McKnelly, the 21-year-
old car repairer, Monday, after a pre-
Hninary hearing before District Judge
Swarts on a charge of having killed his
father, mother and sister in a tent
here the night of September "a, calls
attention to a series of murders in this
city and Sumner county which stands
alone in the state for the number of
murders without successful convic-
tions.
The McKneIly murders bring the
list to eleven within five years In
that time only one man has been
convicted of a charge of murder
while five have been acquitted One
committed suicide, one was released
after a short inquiry and one murder
er escaped arrest after killing John B.
Gates, an Atchison, Topeka & Santa
Fe railroad special agent, and his
identity is a mystery.
Just before the McKnelly murders
Mrs Mary Hayes Hollinger. former
Wellington girl, who had had matrt-
moniaI trouble, was found dead in the
Detroit river. Not long before that
Sam Wood, farmer near Belle Plaine,
had gone to the Matt Manahan home
nearby one night to get even" with
Manahan for a legal difficulty. He
shot and killed James Thompson, q
19-year-old wellington boy, who
worked for Manahan. wellington peo-
pie began to stay in nights The thea
ters and saturday night stores found
ers moved inside. while those who had
been sleeping in tents folded their
tents and came in the house
An Engraver the First Victim.
John r. Kander, an engraver in q
jewelry store, was the first to fall a
victim in Wellington He was an in
offensive, easy going man. His body
was found beside the Rock Island
tracks early in 1907. John MilIard.
the mail carrier, found Kander's body
while on his way to work one morn
inS.
Tim Riggs, a horse trader, was the
next man to fall by an assassin's bullet
in Wellington. He traded in mules and
in deal with Charley Arnold got ths
best of Arnold, SO Arnold believed
He bought a gun and killed Riggs.
Arnold is the only example of what
Sumner county justice can do when it
is aroused He is serving a life term
in the peniteutiary-
.'Buster'' Cam. son OF a welI-to-do
farmer living mile northwest OF
Wellington, was shot one July night in
1909 while driving home from own
A load of bird shot struck him in the
breast. He died in his mothers arms
after telling that J. L Vandaveer had
shot him. The cause was Jealousy.
Vandaveer's wife. a grandm other and
a cripple had gone riding with Cam,
barely 35 years old. Vandaveer was
acquitted by jury
Farmer AIistook Wife for Burglar.
A rev weeks 4LLEE haHQakGCE
killing the neighborhood Of Milan was
shocked one morning to learn that
June Vandervoot, young farmer Hy-
ing five miles south, had shot and
killed his wife. mistaking her for a
burglar. VanderyoOrt could not be
shaken on the stand from his original
statement and was acquitted w. W.
Schwinn, the attorney who cleared
him, tried his first criminal case then
and he has been Otto McKnelly's legal
adviser.
TWO years ago John Roach, Wild
over and a car repairer for the Santa
Fe road, went to wichita and met
stranger. They got drunk Roach, a
weII-to-do man, brought his friend
home from wichita and they finished
the debauch. Late at night a neighbor
saw man leave the Roach house and
heard him groaning and mumbling-
The man staggered, as il he was In
toxicated. When Roach did not ap-
pear next morning an investigation
was made and his body was found
hacked with hatchet-
Jury Freed Another.
That day Earl Porter was found
asIeep on a farm several miles south
of wellington His face was Llood
smeared and he had empty whisky
bottles which bore the same KIND OF
labels that were on those found In
Roachfs room Porter told the jury
in the district court he had been
thrown from a Rock Island train and
had wandered to the farm He was
discharged.
John 3. Gates. special agent for the
Santa Fe, was shot to death eighteen
months ago while he was searching ,
train for car robbers The murderer
never was found.
A negro railroad camp follower
was killed by a construction contractor
on the Midland Valley near Belle
PIaine a year ago, and the white man
was let go after a preliminary hearing
Next came Sam Wood, the Belle
PIaine farmer. who killed himsen al
ter he murdered Thompson, and the
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