Weekly journal-miner., 1917-09-26
GREWSOME FIND DETAILED BY
 CHILDREN
SCHOOL BOYS TELL COURT OF DISCOVERY OF DEAD BODIES OF THE SIMPSON
 BROTHERS. HEARD THE SOUND OF FATAL FIGHT.
{From Fridays Daily.)

continued throughout the day Thurs day in the Superior court, and the present indications are that about two more days will be consumed in hear ing the evidence and making the argu- ments.
 None but States witnesses were examined yesterday. A large number of the residents of the section of the country adjacent to the spot where the murders occurred were placed on the stand by County Attorney Clark, and the movements of McKinnon and his unknown pal were accurately traced from the time the pair entered the neighborhood until after the com mission of the crime with which the men are charged.
 Charles Rooms, who resides at the Crook mining camp, told of how the Simpson brothers had brought their two prisoners, one of whom is sup posed to have been the defendant, to his home, and telephoned from there to Sheriff Young in Prescott that they were starting for the county seat with a couple of men who were charged with robbing a number of camps in the district below Crown King. Rooms was able to state that McKinnon was one of the men who were in charge of the Simpson boys on the day the telephone conversation took place.
 Koons said that the Simpsons had ridden up to his camp on horseback, driving their prisoners before them and guarding them with rifles. After notifying the sheriff of the intention 10 bring the men to Prescott, the four had gone of to the north. evidently headed toward Prescott. It was but a few miles farther on from this camp that the bodies of the Simpsons were discovered the following day.
 Boys Tell of Ghastly Find.
 Herman Vierthaler, a 14-year-old boy, who discovered the bodies of the Simpsons on the day following their murder, was placed on the stand late in the afternoon by the State.
 According to the story told by the boy, he and his smaller brother, Willie, were on their way home from school on the evening of December l2th They were going down the road in the Slate Creek district near the Dunkirk mine, when they passed the Simpsons riding on horses, walk ing the two unknown prisoners before them. The party passed on a few hundred feet farther from the spot occupied by the boys, and the latter's view of the party was obscured by the trees. A short time later they heard shooting, about ten or twelve shots being fired, according to Herman. Looking back, they saw one of the two prisoners shooting at some un- seen object with six-shooter. The fleeing man turned and fired one shot, presumably at one of the Simpsons, and then disappeared in the brush. The boys saw one of the men, thought to have been John Simpson, try to mount his horse. The man did sue
 
 cced in getting onto the horse, and pulling tine animal under a large spruce tree at the side of the road. A few minutes later. the man fell of the horse, and did not get up again.
 Lads Were Frightened.
 The boys were naturally frightened at the occurrence which they had seen, and when they reached home, Her man said that they did not tell their parents of the affair The next morn ing they mentioned it to their father, but not much attention was paid to their statements. On their way to school next morning, the boy said that he and Willie had passed the spot where the shooting occurred, and found two dead men and dead horse lying in the road They reported the matter to their teacher, and the latter notified Sheriff Young. The boy could not identify McKinnon as one of the prisoners of the Simpsons, owing to the fact that he had not passed close to the man nor had he paid much at tention to the party as it had passed him.
 Little Willie Vicrthalcr, aged nine was placed on the stand and told substantially the same story as his brother, but like the latter, he was un- fortunately unable to give any clear description of the men whom he had seen walking along in front of the rifles of the Simpson boys.
 Examination to Continue.
 Examination of the witnesses will be continued at Q o'clock this morn ing. and it IS expected that during the day several witnesses will be intro duccd by the defense. All of the evi- dence SO far introduced has been pure ly circumstantisl, and has only tended to show that Mckinnon was in the district al the time of the shooting and that in all probability he was one of the prisoners which the ill-fatcc deputy shcriffs had attempted to bring to the county jail in this city.