Murdered in Their Beds (Dead Men Do Tell Tales) by Troy Taylor

Author:Troy Taylor [Taylor, Troy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1892523779
Publisher: Whitechapel Press
Published: 2012-02-26T00:00:00+00:00

On December 6, Robert Gourley, Jones’ long-time barber, took the stand. He testified that Jones’ beard was no longer or wider than it had been in 1912, which had been claimed by Vina Tompkins when she allegedly identified him.

After this, Frank Jones was called back to the witness box. He was asked when he first heard about Vina Tompkins. He replied that it was June 12, 1916, when he received a letter from Senator Wallace H. Arney, who told him about Tompkins and her story. Jones wrote him back and both letters were admitted into evidence. Mitchell pointed out that in Jones’s letter, he wrote to Arney that Tompkins did not testify at the grand jury like he wanted her to. Mitchell asked Jones how he had obtained secret grand jury information and Jones replied that Wilkerson’s landlady had told him. Later in the letter, he referred to Wilkerson as a “first-class rascal.” Mitchell asked Jones how and when he reached that opinion and Jones said it had been in July 1916. He pulled a letter from his pocket from H.W. Stubbs, the county attorney of Grant County, Kansas. Mitchell took it from him and read it, his face turning bright red. He immediately objected to it being admitted as evidence. The judge agreed and the jury never got to hear what Stubbs had to say about Wilkerson and the Nellie Byers murder case, although we can rest assured that it was not flattering.

Mitchell then called Mary Moore, J.B.’s mother, to the stand. The elderly woman was carefully escorted to the witness box by James Wilkerson. The detective held her arm, comforted her and helped her to take her seat. Mitchell asked Mrs. Moore her name and established the fact that her son, Joe, had been working for Jones when one of his and Sarah’s children had been born. Beeson asked her no questions, likely wondering why Mitchell had called her as a witness, and she was excused. Wilkerson hurriedly went to her side and escorted her from the courtroom.

Alice Willard returned to the stand on December 7, and it would be testimony that would send an electric shock through the courtroom. Her earlier testimony that she had seen Jones, Mansfield, Whipple, McCaul, and others planning the murders had been stunning enough, but that she came forward only after receiving anonymous threatening letters, that the only people who could corroborate her story were either dead or missing, that Beeson and Pringle had managed to portray her as a whore who would sell her testimony and her body, all combined to make her a tainted sort of celebrity in the area. She was the center of attention by this point of the trial and the subject of more gossip than anyone else involved, save for perhaps Frank Jones himself. And now, as most people thought the trial was nearly over, she was back on the stand again. The lawyers knew what was coming, as did many of Wilkerson’s cronies, who had

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