The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1915-02-20
END OF A FAMOUS KIDNAPPING
- CASE &&#~

Little more is likely to be heard
| Of the remarkable Walters-Dunbal
kidnapping case, except by way OF
! historical "reminiscences and compari
| son. s...
| 1t will be remembered that W. c.
| Walters, an itinerant tinker, was
arrested in Mississippi and charged
with kidnapping eive-year-old Bobbie
Dunbar of Opeicusas, who disappear
ed at swayze Lake, st. Landry par,
ish, where his parents were spending
the day fishing and picaicking. Wal
tiers had boy in his possession who
was identified by the Dunbars as
their child, but who was claimed by
the accused and other witnesses to
be the illegitimate son OF Julia An
derson, a North Carolina woman who
had given him to the tinker. The
mother of this wait was as positive
in her identification of the child as
her own as were the Dunbars and
their intimate friends and neighbors
that the boy was Bobbie Dunbar.
The trial at Opelousas resulted in
a jury verdict of guilty being rem
dered against Walters. On appeal
to the supreme court of Louisiana,
that tribunal at first pronounced the
law under which the prisoner had
been convicted to be unconstitution-
al. Subsequently a rehearing was
granted and the court reversed its
former decision as to the constitu
tionality OF the act, but remand
ed the case for new trial on three
grounds, namely: i, that the dis
trict judge erred in charging the
jury that all persons connected With
the kidnapping were principals; 2,
that upon the state rests the burden
Of proof to show that Walters ac-
tually stole the child; 8, that sep
arating the jury by allowing them
to sleep in different rooms at night
is not in conformity with law
There is no probability that, the
prosecution could come any nearer
proving the actual kidnapping on a
second trial than it did before, hence
dence adduced at the first trial
would be practically certain to re
suit in another annulment of the ver-
dict on appeal to the supreme court.
Furthermore, st. Landry's treasury
is in no condition to meet the ex-
pense Of another trial, which would
be $4,000 or more, hence the judicial
authorities of that parish are more
than willing that Walters shall be
released on nominal bond The
of such a proceeding would
ha bo+
it's virtual termination and would
henceforth figure only on the dead
docket CT the lower court.
In some respects-notably that of
the wonderful similarity of the two
boys, which produced a mass of con-
flictlng testimony as to the identity
Of the one found in the hands of the |
accused tinker-the Walters-Du bar
case Will go down in legal history
as one of the most remarkable of |
its kind on record. That more or
ess casual observers should disagree
IN such a point is not strange, per-
aaps, but it is little less than mar
Telous that each of the two mothers,
both apparently sincere and truthful,
should declare under the sanctity of
In oath in a proceeding involving
he liberty and possibly the life of
! fellow being, that the child pro-
tuced at the trial was her very own,
zone of her hone and flesh of her
lesh.
The judgment Of the jury and
doubtless of a great majority of the
people most familiar with the facts
II, this noted case, confirms the posi-
I've conviction in the minds and
hearts OF the Dunbars that their boy
las been restored to them, yet
here will always be some basis for
Ioubt On this question as long as
he mystery Of the whereabouts and
ate of the Anderson child remains
Lnsolyed.