The Mena weekly star., 1921-10-20
MINISTER FACES JURY AT MOUNT IDA
With Raymond Cole, His Accuser Rev. Hughes Will Be Tried for Mur- der of Mrs. Anna McKennon,
 Woman Recluse.

Hot Springs, Oct. 15.-What is ex- pected to be one Of the most dramatic trials in the criminal annals of Ar kansas will begin Monday when Rev Harding Hughes, superanuated min ister of the northern branch of the Methodist church, faces first degree murder charge in the Montgomery county circuit court at Mount ida. Hughes, gray and bent under the weight of 6S years, is charged with being a party to the murder of Mrs, Anna Mckennon. woman recluse whose decomposed and buliet-riddIed body was found in her little home stead cabin in remote corner of the mountainous county.
 Hughes was to have gone to trial september 12, but Raymond Cole, a youthful mountaineer, wanted in con- necClon with the crime, who had beeu aC liberty since the murder on May ( ~as anprehended, and a postpone. lAent resulted. since his arrest Cole mas confessed that he was the actual murderer cf Mrs. Mckennon, but ht claims to have been the hired assassin Of Hughes, whom, he alleges, wished to get Mrs. Mekennon out of the way so that he might obtain her property which he believed to contain valuable silver deposits. Since making his confession, part of 1t has been dis proven and it is not known how far ~oie's statement will go in the trial |oi Reverend Hughes.
 Mrs. Mckennon's body was not found until week after the killing, Storles of how Hughes had coveted Ter property and Of the enmity that existed between the minister and the woman and an alleged threat he had made, resulted in his arrest.
 The preliminary hearing was be- gun, but on the third day Hughes made his escape from the Mount Ida hotel where he was being imprisoned Further investigation of the case was dispensed with until the minister was recaptured near this city. The hear ing was then continued and Hughes and Minnie Rowland and Bettie Tay- or at whose house the minister board cd, admitted that they had known oi the killing on the day 1t took place Dut had remained silent out of fear They told story of how Raymon( Cole had ridden up to the house or the dead woman's pony and had tolc them that he had had it out with the old woman" and had been forced tc kill her. He then rode away they said.
 rTSba.a xry.e efro,,or a,,;dayoa I,nr, ever, that Hughes wanted the mineral Then it developed that Hughes pos sessed the only gun in that section of the calibre used in killing the woman Furthermore it had been only few days before the killing that he hac obtained a supply of cartridges Hnohas was hound over te the ;gsrsa.;;isss ;grsa. Ii jury and his indictment followed Since the hearing he has been held 1T the Garland county jail for safekeep ing.
 Cole, B years old, and in the ful vigor of young manhood, and with hil crime apparently resting lightly oi | his conscience, presents a marked contrast to the minister, broken ii body and spirit. Not everything tha
 Cole has said about the kibing ii
 borne out by the facts as they hav'
 come to the officers. For instance
 Cole declared he stood at some dis
 tance from Mrs. McKennon when h.
 fired at her with Harding's rife, ant
 that she was in the yard of he
 home. But officers say she was foun, dead on a bed in the cabin and tha thare ware bulIets in the walls of tn cabin. How many other discrepan
 cies there are in Coles confession re main to be seen.