New Britain herald., 1930-03-26
OLD SQUAW TELLS
 STORY OF MURDER
Amazing Narrative of Witch
 craft Belief BarM at Trial

ouliCu toudy tllO otl oilSC StOiJ VI how she set out one March morning Ito kill a witch" and ended up as the principal witness in a murder trial where they speak language she does not understand.
 Lila Jimerson, S5-year- Indian on trial with the murder. of Mrs Clothilde Marchand, smiled reas- suringly at the aged squaw as Mrs Bowen went back to the witness stand today. Yesterday Mrs. Bowen, through an interpreter, admitted sine beat Mrs. Marchand to death with hammer after Miss ,Jimerson had convinced her that the white wom- an was a witch.
 Makes Statue of Dog
 While the squaw was stumbling through her story Henri Marchand, an artist held as a material witness, sat in jail pinching clay to make a statue of the sheriff's hunting dog So that he might forget the staying of his wife. The prosecution will seek to show that Miss Jimerson was in love with Marchand and per- suaded Mrs. Bowen to commit the murder so that the artist might be free to marry.
 Mrs. Bowen, who will be tried on charge of murder after the pres ent case is concluded, told today of the campaign Miss Jimerson waged. I They had strolled together, Miss Jimerson and Mrs. Bowen, from the reservation where they lived into Buffalo, carrying a bottle of whisky and a pint of chloroform in a bas- ket. They talked, Mrs. Bowen said, of the witches that came when the night was blackest, of mediums who had the strange gift of peering be- yond today into the future, of the secrets they had wrenched from a Ouija board.
 Talked of WhitceWitch
 The burden of their conversation, according to the squaw, swas that a white witch had laid her curse on the Bowen home.
 Lila say we go crazy because of the witch,' Mrs. Bowen testified
 Did you ever see chicken go crazy?"
 "Yes, later see it dead"
 Lila and Mrs. Bowen, the sauaw said, went to the Marchand home. There they saw Mrs. Marchand
 Lila says that's a white witch, the witness declared.
 Was that the woman you later llilled?"
 "Yes"
 And Mrs. Bowen came to belAye she said, that the safety of her fam fly demanded that she kill the white witch. She did not know Mrs Marchand well enough to know her real name-she thought it was "Clothilde Brown" whom she must kill. That first visit to the Marchand home occurred in February; the murder was committed March s.
 Carried "Magic Earth
 On the latter date Lila and Nancy went to Buffalo again, Mrs. Bower said. Again they carried a basket containing the chloroform. a 10 cent hammer and some "magic earth The earth, the squaw explained, wa. to counteract some bewitched soi which Mrs. Marchand kept in hel home to frighten away evil spirits.
 Miss Jimerson grinned as the ole Indian woman slowly brought the tale up to thes actual killing. Sht scribbled idly on scraps of paper 1T front of her. lifting her face occa sionally to glance at the witness.
 Did Lila tell you" District At torney Moore asked, that yo, would be killed by March unless you killed this white witch yoursel before that time?"
 "Yes."
 "Who carried this basket whcr you and Lila came into Buffalo or March 6?"
 Lila"
 Telcphoned NIarchand Home
 Mrs. Bowen said they walked around Buffalo for a while and ther Lila telephoned the Marchand homo and learned that Mrs. Marchanc was there but that her son, Henri ' Jr.. 12, was at school.
 Did you go with Lila to thu house and did she so to the hous, in the morning?"
 "Lila no go in with me, I go il alone"
 What did you see''
 Saw the white witch and she wa cooking"
 What did the witch say when vol told her Lila was out in th' street?"
 "She said get Lila and we all eat. At this point the court took { brief recess.
 Mrs. Bowen was the first i'm portant witness as the taking 0 testimony began yesterday. Sh ' admitted through an interprete that she believed in witchcraft. What caused your husband death?" Moore asked her.
 "A witch" she replied. "We intend to have Nancy revea a drama of witchcraft that will b amazing" District Attorney Moor said. we will prove that Miss Jim erson, inspired by her love for Mar chand and her jealousy of Mrs Marchand, bent old Nancys will t her own-bent it easily by preyin on her superstitions." :. Marchand May Testify Moore also indicated there was ' possibility that Marchand, who being held as material witnes, would be placed on the stand eithe late today or tomorrow. The artist. long a familiar figur 3 in Paris art circles, has admitted h 5 is ''an artist-not an angel" H is expected to reveal his relation t with the defendant and to deny tha he ever pursued the Seneca woma l but that, on the other hand, wa pursued by her.
 l The change in the artists de