The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1929-12-18
Said He and Three Defendants
All Got Drunk on Way to
Get Marriage License
ALL WOKE UP HOURS LATER
Says He Doesn't Look or Feel
Like He Had Been Beaten
and Burned to Death

MOUNTAIN vlcW, AIk., OcC. A0-HJ-
The man who claims he Is Connie
Franklin went on the witness stand
here this morning and testified that
he is the same person four men. now
on trial. are charged with torturing
and burning to death.
The witness said hts real name vas
Marion Franklin Rogers but in recent
years he had gone under the name OF
Connie Franklin.
He said he was In inmate Of the
state hospital for nervous diseases
for a few months and escaped In 1927.
We just spanked a little" the wit
ness said when asked II he had a love
affair with Tfllar RUNNER. the
states star witness.
Then he began relating the story
of his movements on the day Frank
lin was reputed to have been slain.
All Got Drunk
He and Herman Greenway, Hubert
Holster and Alex Fulks, all defendants.
started to Mountain View to get a
marriage license for him and the
RUNNER girl, he said. They all got
drunk, he added. and he fell OF a
mule. He said he regained conscious
ness two or three hours later and
went first to the RUNNER home and
then to Herman Greenway's home.
That night he and Tillar started to
the home Of FINS Ford, q justice Of
the peace. to be married.
They stopped at s. H. Greenway's,
he said. and learned there Ford vas
away from home. Then they re-
turned to Herman 0reenway's where
he went to bed while the girl sat up
all night. he added.
THE next morning." he said. It'll
lar told me she wanted to put off the
wedding until fall. I told her there
wasn't any use Of doing that. She
said, well. / want to-"
Said She Was Through
II walked across the porch and
called her over. She said II I had
anything to say, 60 ahead and say It
because she was through. ! said,
well. I'm through, too"
II walked out the gate and started
after my cap where I'd lost 1t the day
before and just kept on going"
He told where he spent the first
night and continued to trace his
movements from that time until he
vas found at Humphrey. Ark, 10 days
ago.
In concluding the direct question:
ing, defense counsel asked: "You
weren't beaten to death and burned
last March were your"
well. I don't look like It and don't
feel like It." he replied amid laughter.
At the conclusion OF the states d.
rect testimony last night. the defense
moved for an instructed verdict Of
acquittal on the ground that the state
had failed to establish the corpus
delecti. Judge 8. M. Bone overruled
the motion and the trial continued.
Two State witnesses
The states case was built largely
ON two witnesses-Tillar RUNNER.
l7.year-old mountain girl. who said
she and Franklin had planned to
marry on the night last March he
allegedly va slain. and Reuben Har-
rel, q deaf mute youth. who had to
testify through an interpreter.
Tillar denied the youth who says
he is Franklin was her sweetheart.
The girl said the last time she saw
her lover was when he was lying on
the ground IN the st. James Hills
sobbing you've killed me-" and
breathing with difficulty from .
beating administered him by the four
defendants. They used rocks AM
brass "kuncks' to beat him. she said.
Saw Them Drag Body
The deaf mute boy said that on
Sunday. March 10. the day after the
RUNNER girl said she witnessed the
beating Of Franklin. he was strolling
in the woods In that vicinity and saw
Herman Greenway, one OF the de-
PENDANTS. dragging Franklin's body
toward Z big log fire. Three other
men were with Greenway, he said.
The other bit Of evidence to estab-
lish the corpus delecti was m odd
assortment Of charred bones which
the state contended were the remains
OF Franklin. Because the temple
bone which he said originally was In
cluded In the assortment was missing
yesterday. Dr. 9. w. Garrison, state
health officer. said he could not iden.
tify them a human bones. Sheriff
johnson testified the bone might
have been removed from his safe
where he kept the collection since be