The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-09
PiersOl Conceived and Execut-
ed Keet Baby kidnapping.
Prosecutor Weaves Net of Evil
dence in Opening Statement.
DEFENDANT TRIED SUICIDE
In Jail He Tried To Drown
Himself in Bucket of Water.
Claimed He Was German Spy,
Then Confessed Lie.

Bfarshfield No. oct. paul NJ.
O'Day, prosecutor at the trial of
Claude J. Piersol, charged with kid
naping Baby Lloyd Keet of Spring
field in his opening statement here to-
day declared that Piersol had admit
ted to Samuel Allender. chief of de
tectiVes at St. Louis, and to Mr.. O'Day
that the elaborate story he had told
when first arrested of being an agent
for the German government was pure
Invention.
Mr. ODay, after reviewing the his
tory of the disappearance and subse-
quent finding of the infants body in
Springfield asserted that Piersol for
two or three years had been giving
serious thought to all the particulars
which must be considered in bringing
to a successful contamination a crime
( Of kidnapping" and that he drew to
his side from his various associates
and friends those who were willing to
assist in his unlawful enterprises"
Carried Masks and Guns.
The prosecutor then stated that wit
4 n sses would show that a short time
before the kidnapping of the Keet baby
that Piersol and his alleged band had
frequently been seen in the neighbor-
hood of the Keet residence; that all
Of them were armed and carried
masks; and frequently stationed an
automobile at convenient point
nearby.
AIR. O'Day then declared the testi-
mony would indicate that Taylor
Adams, who also is charged with the
Keet kidnapping, had approached per-
sons in Greene and Christian coun-
ties offering them sums of money to
engage in kidnapping projects. These
persons would be used at witnesses,
the states attorney declared
Parents at Country Club
The testimony would indicate. Mr..
ODay continued, that about the 18th
or 18th of March, Piersol and his COM
panions were stationed in an auto
mobile across the street from the Keet
nome and that on being asked what
their purpose was that Piersol replied,
by God, we are going to get the
keet baby The prosecutor then de-
clared that on the day the baby was
stolen PiersOl and Cletus Adams went
to the Keet home for the purpose of
delivering a package addressed to w.
r. Wolfe, well knowing that this was
the Keet home in as much as Cletus
had delivered a package to the same
place the day before"
The statement then related that two
cars were driven to the Country club,
where the parents of Baby Keet were
attending a ball, and that the driver of
one of the cars inquired of the. ground
keeper as to the presence of Keet. On
cars then drove to within a block of
the Keet residence which was nearby,
and stopped. The ground keeper
would testify. O'Day declared, that the
man who drove one of the cars was
PiersoI
Seize TelI-TaIe Letter.
The opening statement then dealt
with a letter which was seized by the
authorities when Taylor B. Adams was
arrested in Kansas City.
This remarkable letter." the prose-
cutor continued, was written by Pier
sol to Adams on the first day of June,
two days after Lloyd Keet was kid
mapped The letter begins with this
statement: I made my deal that I
was talking to you about before you
left.
THE contention of the state is that
the initial statement in this letter re-
ferred to the abduction of Baby Keet
"At the outset of this case, it APP
pears that when this defendant sought
to approach someone to go into his
unlawful schemes he first put the