Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-02-17
MRS. K|MME[
DECLARES MAN
IS NOT HER SON
Dramatic Scene in Trial Of
Insurance Case at ST..
Louis When Mother and
Claimant Face Jury.

ST.. Louis, Mo-, Feb. 16.-Melodrama
today when Mrs Estelle Kimmel, 6S
years old, and the man, apparently SO,
who is put forward by an insurance
company as her son, George A. Kim
mel, stood side by side before the jury,
and when, after comparing them,
feature by feature, Attorney S. N.
Taylor demanded:
lis that man your son.
"He is not my son." replied the
mother in a hard, firm voice.
my instinct and mother love- she
testified with streaming eyes and
trembling voice. would tell me if he
(meaning the claimant) were my son,
bone Of my bone and flesh of my
flesh. And I would recognize him."
"You feel absolutely sure, then," she
was asked, that he is no longer liv-
ing
Eyes, am sure my son Is dead
She testified that she saw the claim
ant in the Mattawan, N. Y, asylum
and that she decided then the convict
was not her son. He was repulsive to
her, she testified, and he did not know
things in Niles, Mich, that her son
would have known.
Letters written by the claimant and
by her son were identified by the wit
ness, who declared that her son would
not have written the kind of letters
the convict had written. The convicts
words were poorly spelled and kimmel
was mispelled.
On cross examination Mrs. Kimmel
testified that she would not feel
morally bound to return to another in
surance company the money, she re-
ceived from it on her sons life, if the
jury in the present trial found that
the claimant was her son.
Counsel announced that after Mrs.
Kimmel had completed her testimony
and had been cross examined the plain
tiff would close it's case with the read
ing of deposition by H. T. Kimmel,
father of the missing man.
kImmeI's Sister Testifies.
Confronting the Kimmel claimant,
Andrew J. White, who sat few feet
from her In the United States district
courtroom, Mrs. Edna Kimmel Bon
slett yesterday afternoon testified
emphatically that he was not her
brother, George A. Kimmel. Her re-
rudiation of the claimant was one OF
the most dramatic incidents of the
third trial Of the identity mystery and
insurance contest.
Throughout Mrs. Bonslett's testi-
mony the claimant sat leaning eagerly
forward, his hand at his ear, gazing at
the witness, who seldom glanced In his
direction.
Mrs. Bonslett was not asked directly
about the man in the courtroom. but
was asked whether the man she saw
in Auburn prison was her brother.
Insurance Amounts to $4,000.
Mrs. Bonslett is the holder of
policies amounting to $4,000 on her
brothers life, and the other policy or
$4,000, held by the receivers of the
defunct bank of Niles, Mich, with the
interest on the policies. make them
amount to 100000.
Association Avoids Expense.
Mrs. Bonslett in her. early test1-
mony reviewed her brothers life and
said that since he disappeared In 1898
she had not heard from him. The
claimant, according to the testimony,
has not the least resemblance to her
brother. He could not, she testified.
tell her of one thing they did as chill
dren. He volunteered the information,
she said, that he buried their father In
Pennsylvania, when as a matter OF TACT
tov fofhor ia still living .. ..- F.