The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-01-03

AN children. Ethel was the
tN00Ae elder of these. She was
u years old.
Stielow lost his job. He had to have
work, for his mother-in.law had lately
moved in with his family, and Furthermore,
another baby was expected within few
montha
On tho Goth of March he got employ
ment at the farm Of Charles Phelps, an
aged and wealthy bachelor Of the neigh
borhood. The Phelps homestead was d.
rectly across the road from the Stielow
shack.
He worked all day, then came home.
In the morning lie arose before any of his
family, opened the front door, expecting to
60 out to the pump Crumpled against the
door lay womans body. Turning it over,
he saw that it was lifeless and that it was
that of Margaret Walcott, the housekeeper
ct Phelps. He ran - the Phelps home and
found the old farmer dead in his bed. The
midnight murders had been committed
with revolver bullets
Suspicion Fastens on Him.
Immediately he informed the authori-
ties and District Attorney knickerbocker
began an investigation, employing George
w. Newton and Robert w. Nelson, private
detectives from Buffalo, to assist him.
Nelson Immediately fastened upon Site
low as the guilty man. He took him away
from his home and in the county Jail
wrung confession from the dazed man.
The confession was queer sort of
document. 1t covered 800 words typewrit-
ten by Newton. 1t went on to tell how
Stielow and Nelson Green, his brother-in-
law, has first attacked Phelps and then
Margaret Walcott A peculiar feature of
the document was that it contained many
corrections as to details Of the crime. But
the queerest feature Of all was that Site
low, unable to write, had marked an X at
the bottom Of 1t, not understanding, as he
afterward said, what it really meant. New
ton, he declared, had promised him a job
as deputy sheriff il he would help clear
UP the case, and he insisted it was in this
desire to "clear it up that he signed the
paper with his X.
Without further search Knickerbocker
accepted the confession" at its face value
He prosecuted Stielow and Nelson on it
ard obtained their convictions, the former
being sentenced to die in the electric chair
and the latter to life imprisonment at Ell
mira. The conviction proved feather in
the cap OF knickerbocker He was hailed
In his county as a shrewd prosecutor
while Newton and Nelson returned to their
private detective agency in Buffalo with
considerable imitation Of reputation.
Child Pleads for His Release.
The Stielow family, like Stielow him
self, were stunned by the verdict. They
protested that on the night Of the double
murder he was at home all night long. Lit
tie Ethel pleaded with them to let her
father 50. She knew" he was innocent.
Finally they tore her out Of his arms and
took him away to Sing Sing to await the
gallows day.
rumor grew in the neighborhcod of
the Stielow shack. 1t stated that a strange
nan, peddler, had spent the night at the
Phelps home and that he had not been seen
since the evening before the murder. Was
be the real criminal?
There rose a clamor for the running
down of this unknown man, but Prosecutor
knickerbocker brushed it aside with the
exclamation, loose TALK"
Meanwhile Stielow lay in the cell of
the condemned. His doom failed to prev
upon him. He slept like a baby every
tight and never discussed his case unless
It was forced upon him, in which event he
would merely say, THAT Teller Newton did
the dirt. He promised me job as a dep
Lty Shorthand now look where am"
Almost daily little Ethel wrote her
father letter, striving to convince him
raat yet there was hope of release.
But the days wore on and April ii drew
Scar. That YVES the day for Stielow's exc
cution. There seemed nothing to be DONE
Brain of Child Of Seven Years.
Shortly before this dreaded day ar
rived Dr. Amos o. Squire, the prison physi-
clan ut Sing Sing, examined Stielow, ap-
plying the famous Binet- Simon intelligence
test. lie found that the 34-year-old farm
hand had the intelligence of child of Z.
Moreover. he learned that while the con-
fession contained vocabulary of 800
words, Stielo1y himself possessed a vocabu-
larry of only $50 words, none Of which he
could read or write.
Then Warden Thomas Mott Osborne,
the famous prison reformer, recently vim
dicated from charges leveled against his