The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-10-11
STATE SPINS WEB


tConunued from H9&e One.g
This was after he had received the
$50 from Sauers for the corn and coal.
Monday morning, Click said. Bolin
came in and paid for the breakfast,
rendering him a $40 bill.
A few days later the trapper was
arrested at Tony Clicks place.
short time after his arrest, Click said,
he came back in and asked Click to
find Mrs. Kate Wiseombe and tell her
that when the lawyers came to tell
them everything is all right" Mrs
Wiscombe is the woman whom Bolin
claims to have been with the evening
Of the fire. At the preliminary hear
ing she denied that she had seen him
that night.
Floyd Breeding on Stand.
Floyd Breeding said he passed
within short distance of the Owens
home about 1915 o'clock Monday
morning and there there was no sign
of fire then. A few minutes later, in
Berryton, where he met Dean Ying-
ling and Miss Bernice Detrick, they
saw the blaze leaping toward the sky,
he testified.
The three-room house was built in
an Il" shape, with the kitchen on the
north. The state laid great stress on
the testimony that the fire apparently
originated in and burned from the
southwest corner of the house. Earlier
in the day J. w. owens, of Topeka,
the house and testified that the only
stove was in the kitchen. The east
kitchen wall was the last to fall, &C
cording to testimony. Breeding testi-
fled that just before he reached the
house he heard a noise as of some
thing running away thru the corn
field.
William McQuiston testified that he
reached the house about O'Clock
Monday morning, after it has burned.
and was there when the coroner re-
moved the bodies. He said he saw
wound on Mrs. Owenss head, in the
back, and one in Owens's head just
behind mis- right ear. The pillow upon
which the mans head rested was
soaked with what appeared to be
blood, he stated.
He told of the top of a purse being
found near the body and of the bolt
which fastened the kitchen door being
broken where it entered the lock. A
search of the ashes for money, he said,
revealed only two copper pennies.
E. Alexander, who operated the ele-
vator in Berryton at the time, also
told of finding the bodies, described
| their positions and the wounds he had
observed. McQuiston told of finding
the hammer in the ashes of Mrs.
OwenS's bed and Identified the one
County Attorney Veale handed him as
the one he had seen taken from the
ruins.
The testimony Monday afternoon
following the empaneling of the jury
and the opening statements by County
Attorney Veale for the state, was of
a preliminary nature intended to fix
in the minds of the jurymen the ar
rangement of the Owens home and
the habits of the old couple.
Considerable Money in Home.
Charles Zirkle, who owened the so
acre farm, testified that he had OBJ
served considerable money in Owens's
possession at varying times when he
went to the house to collect the rent
Judge George Whitcomb overruled a
motion by the defense to bar this testi-
mony from the records.
T. B. O'Dell, a neighbor, testified
to seeing the bodies of the old couple
in the ruins of the house. The charred
body of n pet dog was found beside
the body of the man, he testified, and
hammer head was discovered in
the ashes of the bed which had been
occupied by Mrs. Owens.
Because of an infirmity which rem
dered it p;-inful for him to sleep in
bed, Owens himself was in the habit
of sleeping on the kitchen floor, &C
cording to testimony. Owenss body
was found in the place where he usu-
ally slept. He was lying flat on his
back his hands folded across his chest
and the undisturbed ashes of the bed
clothes still covering him. Mrs. owens,
who apparently had risen from her
bed, had fallen forward with her head
toward the kitchen door.