The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-11-28
This Was Hour After State
Claims She Was Slain.
CONFIRMS M'DANIEL'S STORY
Establishes Time When AttOr-
ney Left in Motor Car.
Unless Rebuttal Is Sensational,
State Has No Case.


Oscar D. Mcdaniel, murdered wife of
the prosecuting attorney of Buchanan
county, was seen in the bedroom of
her home by E. E. Gard, head of
business college, who lives opposite
the Mcdaniel home after the prose-
cutor had left his home about 1925
o'clock the night she was slain, ac-
cording to Cards testimony today.
Gard, who testified in the criminal
court at the trial of the accused prose-
cutor, told of having observed Mrs.
MCDANIEL, clad in a light evening
gown, thru the window of her bed
room about 1880 o'clock that night.
"I feel positive the woman 1 saw
was Mrs. Mcdaniel Gard said. He
declared he had been seated on his
front porch. He described having
seen the prosecutor drive up to his
home in his motor car, about IL
o'clock. Twenty-Five minutes later,
Gard said. the accused man left home
in his motor car.
Saw Her Thru Window.
Five minutes afterwards, Gard said,
he saw Mrs. Mcdaniel thru her bed
room window, the shades of which
were up.
Bart NJ. Lockwood, special prose-
that the state would show that Mrs
Mcdaniel had been killed before IL
o'clock.
Attorney General Barker cross-ex-
amined Gard, asking if Gard had testi-
fled at the coroner's inquest that he
could not see the windows of the Nc
Daniel home from his front porch.
1T has always been clear to me
that L could see the window from
where 1 was standing" the witness re-
piled.
The jury spent several minutes in
examining exhibits of pieces of motor
car hoods and tenders, introduced
both by the state and Cefense, against
which test shots had been fired. The
exhibits were accompanied by the tes-
t1mohy of two automobile experts who
sought to develop the defense theory
of the revolver duel Mcdaniel declares
he engaged in the night of the muir
der Thomas Deakin, barber, testi-
fled that Mrs. Mcdaniel and Mrs Dag
mar Krucker. divorced wife of ST.
Joe business man, had taken their
| children together to his shop to have
their hair cut two days before the
murder. The two women were fire.
quently together in his shop, he tes-
| titled.
| Denies Scream" Story.
In addition, Mrs. E. E. Gard gave
testimony to the effect that the in
!
his motor car about IL o'clock the
night of the murder. Mrs. Gard the
mother of Erold Gard, head of a local
business college. and Mrs. F. NJ. An
drews, a neighbor, testified that Mrs.
Wilhelmina Hermann, states witness,
| had said it was odd she had not heard
anything from the Mcdaniel home the
night of the murder. The conversa-
ton reported by the two witnesses was
said to have been shortly after the
murder.
Mrs. Hermann, who collapsed on
| the witness stand, testified she had
been awakened before II by screa ms
identified as being the voice of Mrs
| Mcdaniel. Mrs. Gard declared this
morning she and her son were on
their front porch at IL o'clock the
night of the murder and watched the
| accused man drive his car into his
| garage. Mcdaniel has said he re-
turned to his home about that time
/, later answering a fake telephone call.
Bit by bit the defense has torn down
the chain of circumstantiai evidence
woven by the state, and unless the
promises of sensationalism on rebuttal
are fulfilled there is little prospect of
the county prosecutor being convicted,
| it is believed here.
The preponderance of testimony
thus far has been with Mcdaniel it is
the general belief in St Joseph. and
today it seemed that the balance wheel
of public opinion here also had turned
in McDaniel's favor.
Defense Puts on Sixty Witnesses.
The defense already has introduced
more than sixty witnesses after having
announced when the state rested last
week that only, fifty would be sub
poenaed. Among those who have not
yet been called are Mr.. Mcdaniel. E. E.
Gard head of a business college here
and C A Cook, head of the local tele-
phone company. Both were friends
! of both the murdered woman and her
/ indicted husband. and their testimony
has been characterized by attorneys
as being important for the defense.