Evening star., 1929-12-20
ACQU|TTAL WRITES
'F|N|S' TO THRILLER
Excitement of Murder Trial
Worth the Money, Ozark
Citizens Believe.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ark, December
90 (NAN.A.).-Now that the dime
novel stories of Tillar RUNNER and
Connie Franklin have been told and the
jury has returned it's verdict of not
guilty in the trial of the four men
charged with killing Connie, the whit
Ting courts and the hot stove leagues
all over Stone County are explaining
how it all came about.
If there is a county in this land that
could least afford to stage vaudeville
show in court, just for the sake OF pre-
Christmas amusement, 1t is Stone
County. Ark. Treasurer Tom Jefferson
says the county books are already
100000 in the red, and crops weren't
much to brag about this year. The
shadow of this debt was so sharp that
Judge Marcus Bone held night sessions
and opened court at $3.50 o'clock morn
ings, with only an hour off for dinner
and supper to expedite the trial and
hold the expense to minimum.
But the trial was inexorable because
of two things: The odd inClinations OF
Itching-foot Connie and the stern sense
of duty of the IL particular hill men
who happened to make up the November
grand jury. Gossip forced the issue,
true, but it could have been nipped by
Franklin or disregarded by the jury
until the Winter winds blew the edge
off things.
Starts With Rum Party.
Chapter l of this mountain fantasy
begins with a more or less ordinary
booze party when bunch of the boys
were "whooping it up" on the Buckhorn
trails last March 10. Mixed in was the
element of sparkling" farcical ele-
ment in this case, as Connie Franklin's
own words on the witness stand proved.
Eccentric Connie had been spark
ing 17-year-old Tillar RUNNER. He
was 38, married, with four children in
another part OF the State, whom he had
not supported for five years. He put
in few months at the State Insane
Asylum, at Little Rock, but never was
regarded as dangerous patient; rather
he showed an almost complete recovery
from his nervous symptoms.
Whenever he had chance, and
where his carefree grin and homely
features allowed, he set up courtShip
with whatever rural dame he met.
He was one of the group on the party
and the particular butt of the jeStS was
Comics sparkling" with illiterate Til
lar. Why not marry the girl, some one
suggested. Why not, agreed Connie, his
tongue bit thick. So Herman Green
way, Hubert Hester and he started out
for license, or at least so they said.
On the trail they stopped at Alex
Fulks and found another comrade to
their liking. They picked up Bill
Younger in the tour, and along the line
four other mountaineerS were recruited
in the boisterous parade.
When the night was over they had
forgotten all about licenses. Connie had
fallen off mule and dreamed of a
heavenly bar with gold rail before it..
Herman and Hubert and Joe White and
young Bill were here or there, and some
time during the early hours of the
morning Connie and Tillar had roamed
the woods together, talking of getting
married, but both knowing better. Uncle
Crick Greenway says it was o'clock in
the morning when they turned in at
Herman'S cabin.
"Figgered" He'd Better Move.
Now Chapter begins.
For some reaSon-unreaSonable to
every one except himself-Connie had
a notion to move on the morning after
d, this night before. He heard Tillar
grumbling about not going to marry un-
til next Fall. and that she was thew"
with it, and saw her go to the henhOuSe
with Mrs. Herman Greenway. When
Mrs. Greenway came back Connie said
he was thew" with it, too, and bor-
rowed dollar from her man and lit out
for new pastures, stopping on the way
to buy tobacco at Mountain View.
He had a big cash over his eye-or
over his ear, perhaps-the testimony
was confusing-which he may have got