Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-09-24

NOT GUILTY THE
PLEA OF GASTON
MEANS TOCHARGE
Confidential Agent Of Mrs.
King Appears in Court at
Concord for Preliminary
Hearing.

Concord for Preliminary
Hearing.
Concord. n. c., Sept. Alt would
have been a physical impossibility for
Mrs. Maude A. King to fire the shot
that killed her August 20 while she
was with Castor B. Means in the
woods near here, William Burmeister,
coroner's physician of Chicago testi-
fled today in Means preliminary hear
ing on murder charge.
Means, who was Mrs. Kings conf
Dental secretary. declares she Stun
bled over a root and accidentally shot
herself in the head.
Burmeister scored the following
points against this defense
The wound was on the left side of
Mrs. Kings head, while she was right
handed.
NO POWDER BURNS.
The bullet entered two inches above
and two behind the left ear, but there
We're no powder burns around the
wound.
Burmeister swore that . .2s- -valibre
Colt, such as inflicted the wound, left
powder burns at a distance of ten
inches from its target. He declares
Mrs. Kings arm was not long enough
for her to hold the gun far enough
away to inflict the wound without
powder marks.
IT'S my opinion he testified, that
the deceased could not have fired the
shot that killed her.
L. A. Weddington. u e RI a k Q r,
struck another blow at the defense
theory when he testified that Mrs
Kings body wore no shoes when he
took charge of it just after the shoot
ing Means has said Mrs. King wore
high heeled slippers which CAUSED her
to trip, break her ankle and shoot her
self accidentally.
ANKLE BROKEN FIRST.
Dr. Burmeister may have given his
| support to the defense when he said
the hemorrhage around the fracture
showed Mrs. Kings ankle was broken
| before death.
The lead and steel bullet fragments
taken from Mrs. Kings brain were in
| troduced.2
| +. f. Ritchie, hardware dealer was
called to testify with regard to Castor
Means purchase of the .25-calibre au-
| tomato with which the killing was
| done.
Means declared he bought the pisto
for Mrs King. at her request, for use
as a target gun.
| Ritchie said this sale was made On
| the day Mrs. King was shot,
TELLS OF FATAL TRIP.
| Captain A. s. Bingham. first actua-
member of the death party to testify
! said CASTOR and Alton Means drove
up unexpectedly on the fatal evening
and invited him to go for a drive; thai
they drove and got Mrs. King, and went
/ to Blackwelder Springs, the lionel.
spot five miles from here and hall
mile from the public road.
After showing Mrs. King his sho
gun where she sat alone in the ton
neau of the car, he said. he took hit
gun and went off up the hill away
/ from the spring. He said he had just
started back when he met Aftor
Means with rifle. Just as they spoke
we heard a shot that sounded like
that little 20 up around the spring
Bingham, "Gaston called. you and AT.
ton come here quick.
II ran UP and couldn't see CASTOR
Mrs. King was lying about four feet
from the folks of the tree. her head
uphill and her feet downhill. | could
see her face in the moonlight.
| "Afton came up with me. CASTOR hao
her on her right side. putting water
on her face with handkerchief.
NO GUN NEAR HER.
| Her hat" said Bingham, was lying
/ to the left and little back of her head
There was no gun near here that ] coulc
see'
Bingham said Mrs. King had ne
| slippers on and that her left ankle
appeared to be broken. Later thai
night Bingham said CASTOR Mean.
came to his house and asked IL he ha6
talked to anyone about the shooting.
On cross examination Bingham tes-
titled that he had seen Mrs. Kine
shoot the .25 automatic several times
| He said that ii was an extremel,
| tricky gun; apt to go off twice wher
only aimed once and apt to sometime.
not go off at all.
! Bingham said that CASTOR had abou
time TO get from the spring to the bod,
of Mrs. King between the time he heart
the rs shot and the time CASTOR crieS
out.
"As I came up" said Bingham, =
heard CASTOR say to Alton, Maude ac
cidentally shot herself with this littl
pistol
/ An anonymous letter said to be frou
| (Contiuued on Page Twol