Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-01-01
STATE EXAMINING WITNESSES IN
MENziE MURDER TRIAL At
WHEELER. s. D.
ANlMosirY AGAINST STATE
ATTORNEY Is APPARENT
Hostility Of Persistent Lawbreakers
shown-Prosseutor Especially Active
Against eootlesgers and Gamblers
Trial Attracts Spectators From Dis
tant Points Who Ignore Snow Drifts.

continuing the effort to establish the
| fact Of murder in connection with the
death Of w. H. Menzie, d former
Farmers Cooperative Lumber Com
pany, and OF Miss Blanche Signal, the
company's bookkeeper. 1t is also seek
/, ing to prove the crime was an outside
Job.
| Frank Humphrey, yard superinten-
dent Of the lumber company, one of the
first arrivals at the scene of the lum-
Der yard fire last April ard long a
trusted employee of Menzie, told well
connected story of his gruesome dis
covery in the fire ruins. His testi-
mony, however, is calculated to prove
only that Menzie and the Signal girl
We're murdered and not to fasten the
crime on Robert F. Brooks, the defend
ant.
| Humphrey told Of learning Of the fire
during intermission at the fremen's
ball and how his first thought was of
his home and of his child, left in the
care Of it's grandmother. He told of
penetrating the lumber office and en-
countering the charred remains of the
human bodies, Menzie and the girl;
he then told Of the condition of the
bodies and the situation IN the office
after the flames had been extinguished.
| Finding Charrcd Bodies.
| Humphrey made two Intellectual ef-
forts before definitely discovering the
body of Menzis. II felt with my hand
along his back" said Humphrey, tell
1 1T =,
felt his ear and then struck raised
1 spot on the left Of his head. After
ward he learned Of the wound, such
as might have been effected by a
glancing blow with hammer"
| A revolver and two heavy hammers,
found in the wreck, were introduced in
evidence. Humphrey testified that
| examination showed the weapon had
been fired once. The ankles and wrists
of Miss Signals body were bound by
wire. Menzie's ankles were similarly
trussed, but the hands were free. The
defense gained from Humphrey the
admission that the keys Of the office
doors We're found near Menzie, that
Menzie's revolver was not customarily
| loaded and that it was kept in desk
| drawer.
| Vernon vanderberg, aged Is years,
| testified Of passing the lumber office
at 9:15 O'Clock on the night of the
tragedy. He said he saw a flame I'M
! der the office door, and heard crash
as of falling glass, which he believed
to be a window breaking. His pony
took fright and ran away, he said, and
he did not mention the incident until
reaching his home two miles away.
Mrs. F. l.. Larson, mother-in-law Of
Humphrey. testified that she passed
the lumber office early in the evening,
and she saw Menzie and Miss Signal
working within, the latter writing. At
the Humphrey home, about 1880
o'clock, she smelled kerosene, but could
not discovered the source. Sparks
| passing a window later attracted her
attention, but she concluded they were
from a locomotive.
| DR.. r. E. Fyle, who examined the
body of Miss Signal, put In testimony
expected by the state to explode any
theory of relations between Menzie
and the girl that might have led to a
suicide.
Personalities Featured.
The intensity of bitter feeling against
the prosecution in certain quarters
here is partially attributed by states
attorney, A. B. Beck, to personal AMI
mostly against him. He has been q
vigorous prosecutor, and especially ac-
tive against bootlesging and gambling.
During his term in office twenty three
persons have been sent from Charles
Mix county to the penitentiary. Beck's
term in office expires in four days, but
he has announced he will stick in the
case until 1t is finished. Attorney E.
E. Wagner is examining the witnesses
for the state. Attorneys for the de-
Tense assert that business troubles may
have furnished Menzie a motive for
suicide. 1t is further asserted that
the lumber company was insolvent
1 There are 800 farmer stockholders in
the concern.
The tiny court house at Wheeler is
overlooking with persons who have
travelled by rig and automobile for dis
stances Of twenty miles and more, thru
deep snow drifts and zero weather to
hear the trial. Wheeler is nearly TWEEN
ty miles from a railroad, with one
small tavern that proves utterly made
quate to shelter the flood of visitors
The stage makes one trip daily be.
tween Geddes and Wheeler.
FARM HOME DESTROYED.
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