The Mena weekly star., 1918-05-02
THE KILLING OF A. D. BoATNER
Report of Affair From Special Star
 Correspondent.

A special correspondent for The
 Star gives the following detailed story
 of the killing of A. D. Boatner, for
 which M. E. (Eli) and Mike Daffron are held:
 Feeling runs high around Grannis as result of the brutal murder of A. D. Boatner on Sunday night for which Eli and Mike Daffron are held.
 "The tragedy occurred in thinly
 settled community some ten miles southwest of Grannis in the extr. me
 southwest corner of Polk county near
 the Oklahoma line. The country is very mountainous and rough ard is
 almost inaccessible with veircie other than log wagon.
 Ut appears that Mir. Boatner, who was one of the directors of Indcpen- dence school, had received a number of the government food production slips and was getting the signatures of the few farmers in his community. He went to the home of the Daffrons and there the story ends, except for such evidence as may be disclosed by the condition of things when the body was found Boatner's hat was on the ground near the fence, a number of copies of the food production slips nearby, his pencil few inches away and the body some six feet farther from the fence. No weapon of any description was found on or near Boatner and the Daffro5s state that Boatner made no attempt at violence toward either of them, but that M. E. Daffron objected to signing the slip and after some words both admit that M. E. Daffron shot Boatner as he turned to go. One shot was at angles across the shoulder and neck, the other squarely between the hips and in the vertebrae. Buokshot was removed from both wounds and so close was one shot that gun wadding was lodged. A piece of 2x4 timber was found near the body with blood and hair thereon and two crushed places were found in the skull of MT. Boat ner.
 Mrs. Boatner was not advis ed of the death of her husband, and, some time after dark, she took the el lest boy, lad of ten years, leaving five younger children at home, and went in search of her husband. She found the body at the home of the Daffrons, after the brothers had left, and stayed alone by the side of her husbands body for three hours in the awful stiffness of a wilderness night, while the lad went two miles across the country alone to call on c. W. Tolle for help.
 "Boatner was a quiet, inoffensiye, hardworking citizen who was seldom seen in town. No one knows of his having ever started an altercation in this country, but on the contrary he was for every public improvement. He owned Liberty Bond, had an interest in new dipping vat, was good school man and booster for the gov ernment. Not even the Daffrons ac- cuse him of violence.
 "The Daffrons came to Polk county from Oklahoma a little more than a year ago and settled on homestead of 80 acres. They are both bachelors, illiterate, neither Icing able to write his own name. Very lit- tie can be ascertained conce1ning their earlier life Their house con sists of two rooms with hallway be- tween. They lived separately, and in each room the furnishings consist Of two blanks covered with gunny sacks for beds, boxes for chairs, and pile of stones in the center of each room for fire, there being no vent other than the doors for smoke.
 ''The coroner's jury summoned Mon day by Squire s. H. McCurley, recon- mended that both Daffrons be held over to await the action of the grand jury without bail Judge Wright Prickett was unable to be present and appointed Tom J. Wilbanks to ex- anoine the witnesses"