Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1917-09-20
SHOULD NOT BE
PERMITTED TO TALK

Word has been passed along that
on Saturday night in the city park
detective" Wilkerson of Red Oak
will give an address and will recite
facts" about the Villisca murder,
and that crowd is wanted at the
meeting. This man Wilkerson is
one of that species known as self
made heroes and is sort of an evan
gel1st bent on preaching and exploit
ing the goodness and virtues of Wiki
erson. He delights in parading his
opinions broadcast and is thoroly at
home and at ease in hearing himself
talk. For the past two years this
same Wilkerson has successfully
MIXED the taxpayers of Montgomery
county out of good many thousands
of dollars and in return has given
them a choice brand of bombast
which costs little. He is about to
the end of his rope in that county
and now seeks to broaden his field
of activities and to incidentally take
in little more territory, all for the
glory, notoriety and profit OF wiki
erson. At the present time Rev.
Kelly, a moral degenerate, is ON trial
for the murder of the Moore family
at Villisca in 1912. NWiikerson
sought to run the case along the
vaudeville line but an honest and
fearless Judge soon gave Wilkerson-
to understand that his presence was
obnoxious to the proper conduct Of
the trial and since then Wilkerson
has been going up and down this
part of the state holding protracted
meetings telling his auditors how an
innocent man was being railroaded
to prison to shield a guilty party.
Instead of being satisfied to see the
case tried in an orderly and legal
manner, Wilkerson prefers to try
the case in his own way and at the
conclusion of these meetings he
usually takes up collection-for
Wilkerson.
This man is an INSCRIPTIONS adven-
turer and such stripe does more
harm to the honest administration
of justice than many unpublished
crimes. Instead of dealing in facts,
and nothing. less should suffice
where man is accused of the hor-
rible crime of numbering eight in
nocent people-he prefers to deal in
insinuation and suspicion, all for the
purpose of arousing prejudice and
passion. His theories have been dis
credited and he has not been able
to produce single fact which would
stand the test, and yet because the
officials would not take his dictation
he goes up and down the country
bowling from the housetops that
Justice cannot be had in Montgom-
cry County"
A grand jury from that county
returned an indictment accusing Rev.
Kelly of the murder. This indict-
ment was based upon ample evidence
and the court refused to allow bail.
Later Kelly confessed to at least q
half dozen persons, and recited facts
which none but the actual murderer
could possibly have known. Yet
this same man Wilkerson from the
very first has been crying in every
conceivable way to discredit the
actions of the officials who have
sworn to enforce the law and has
sought to cast suspicion upon their
actions. He has caused the county
of Montgomery to be turned into
hostile camp and 1t will require
generations to be rid of the animosi-
ty and i'll feeling engendered by his
acts. He now seeks to come to
Audubon county to interest our peo-
pie in his personal affair. Wiki
erson lives in glass house. Per-
haps he will incidentally mention the
fact that he is now under indictment
for hiring three young men to COM
nit crime by breaking into store
to steal some property there.
Steps should be taken at once with
the proper authorities to prevent
Audubon. We have trouble enough
of our own without borrowing from
our neighbors. II Wilkerson has
the evidence why does he not pre-
sent 1t to the courts In the county
where the crime was committed. No
matter what he says no good can
coma of a meeting In Audubon