The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-10-14
JURY TAKES TRIP
Visit Scene of Alleged Owens
Murder Near BerrytOn.
State Looking for "TwO-Gun
Archie," a PatroIman.

Boy, page ''Two-Gun" Archie
Keefe,
Keefe, a former police officer, was
supposed to have been in a rooming
house on East Fifth street the night of
Sunday, February 90, 1921, the date
when James Bolin. charged with ar
son, is alleged to have robbed and
murdered Mr.. and Mrs. Charles Owens
and set fire to the farm house near
Berryton. Bolin claims to have been
with Mrs. Kate Wiscombe, then house.
keeper at the rooming house. that
night. Mrs. Wiscombe denies it.
Witnesses for the state testified that
Mrs. Wiscombe wasn't out. Keefe and
his wife were said to have been pres
ent during a quarrel in the rooming
house, and the date was fixed as the
night Keefe lost his job on the police
force.
Today the defense placed on the
stand Jess Hill, city detective who
produced the police time book" and
testified that keefe quit work in jan
uary. leaving the city week later. He
had never returned. SO far as he knew.
Hill said.
In rebuttaI the state placed Oscar
Carlson, undersheriff, on the stand.
Carlson testified that shortly after the
lire he went to the rooming house in
search of Keefe and found that he had
gone. He located him an hour later
at a hotel at Fourth and Madison
streets, he said, where Keefe had been
boarding for about a week. Keefe
was known among the police officers
as "Two-Gun Archie" The state has
sent out several kilograms in an effort
to locate the man, it was said.
jury Goes to Scene.
The jury this afternoon went to
Pauline and Berryton to look over the
scene of the alleged crime. They
were in charge of the baiIfff BoIin
in charge of Sheriff Robert Miller, ac-
companied them.
All the testimony, with the excep-
ton of two or three missing witnesses,
the state will place on the stand in
rebuttah If they can be found, was
concluded this morning. Court ad-
journed until o'clock Monday morn
ing, when the arguments of attorneys
will be made and the case handed to
the jury.
The testimony this morning was
opinion by the defense in an effort
to show that Mr.. and Mrs. Owens
came to their deaths by asphyxiation
Say They Saw BoIin.
Three witnesses Thursday afternoon
testified that they had seen Bolin in
the Commercial cafe. near the Santa
Fe depot, about 8:15 O'Clock the night
{
Mrs. Kate Wiscombe, with whom he
claims he spent the evening. Mrs.
Wiscombe had previously testified
that she did not see him that night.
John Aldrich, professor of astron-
omy and physics at Washburn college,
was called by the defense to testify
concerning the possibility of seeing
and identifying man in the moonlight
at distance of rs yards. John Her
herling, living near Pauline, had testi-
fled that he saw Bolin crossing a field
near his place about $3.50 o'clock the
evening Of the fire. AIdrich declared
he had made experiments in co-opera-
! ton with Ed Rooney and John Waters,
Bolin's counsel. on the same field and
under practically the same conditions.
Professor Aldrich created a stir in the
court room when he asserted that one
with good eyesight could not dis
tinguish a man from an animal at a
distance of fifty yards
The witness testified that at 9:45
O'Clock tomorrow night the moon will
| be in precisely the same phase as it
was at that time the night of Sunday,
February 20. The defense urged that
the jury be permitted to make ex-
periments at that time to ascertain the
possibility of recognition at that dis
tance in the moonlight The state OBJ
jected on the grounds that condition
of the atmosphere might be different.
,, The court sustained the objection,
pointing out that the matter of OBJ
servation and recognition was one for
the jury to determine by personal ex-
perfence and was not one requiring
expert scientific opinion.