Once again:  While reading newspaper microfilm to look for genealogical information I found many interesting and compelling stories.

The time: 1900 -1910. The place: Coffey County, Kansas.  1900 population: 16,643. Coffey County was organized in 1859 (Kansas became a state in 1861.) Coffey County was and is primarily agricultural (though now, it has a nuclear power plant).

This is another murder story. I have some hesitation in focusing on sensational stories, after all, these newspapers were not tabloids. There is much more to the stories beyond being sensational though. A snapshot of the attitudes of the time and the way in which news was reported are notable.  In many ways it was remarkably blunt and didn’t tiptoe around details. You will also notice a lack of using the word allegedly.

*Burlington Republican, April 27, 1900 (This was transcribed exactly as reported, preserving spelling errors and so on.)

Shocking Murder

John H. Allen of Ottumwa, Brutally Assassinated by James Harris Friday Night – The Prisoner Makes a Confession and Implicates Mrs. Allen – Both Under Arrest

[There is a picture of James Harris in this news report. He has a wide curving mustache, high cheekbones, square jaw, a full lower lip, dark eyes and is wearing a medium brimmed hat, a dark striped shirt with a vest and jacket.]

     The most shocking and dastardly murder ever perpetrated in Coffey county took place last Friday night, April 20, when James Harris lay in wait and shot and killed John H. Allen, the Ottumwa merchant and ex-postmaster.

     The deed was done about 8:25 in the evening. Mr. and Mrs. Allen had closed the store a few minutes after 8 and waked to their home a few blocks away, carrying a carriage lantern with a reflector which throws the light in one direction. Arriving at the house he lingered behind a moment to close the gate, while she placed the lantern at the door and entered the room. When she was in the act of lighting a lamp and he was at the door step about to enter the house, with the light of the lantern shining full upon him, the murderer fired upon him with a shotgun from a point not over twenty feet distant. The load entered the left breast, tearing a ghastly hole, mangling the heart and lodging in the flesh of the back at the right of the spinal column. The victim uttered an exclamation, staggered back a few feet and fell, death resulting a minute or two later. Mrs. Allen at once gave the alarm, and many of the Ottumwa people were on the scene in a few seconds. The authorities were at once notified and an inquest held.

     The witnesses were Mrs. Allen, T. B. Scott, G. E. Saueressig, Dr. Hood and Sheriff green. No important details further than those given above were obtained. The sheriff found checks and money to the amount of $42.60 on the dead man’s person. Dr. Hood said the gun was loaded with No. 6 shot and probably a leaden missile that might have been an elongated cartridge bullet or slug of large caliber. No motive for the crime or clue to the murderer was discovered. The jury were J., H. Kelley, George Bowen, Charley Decrow, L. C. Scott, C. L. Shuman and W. H. Edwards, and the only verdict possible under such circumstances was rendered.

     In the meantime the people were greatly excited and speculation was rife as to the identity of the murderer. For some reason, probably the fact that in a place like Ottumwa the neighbors all have a more or less intimate knowledge of each other’s personal affairs, the finger of suspicion pointed toward James Harris. There had been “talk” for some time and this particular night he was absent from his usual haunts about the little town, something that had seldom occurred before. Those in search of the team that had run away that night called a the house of his stepfather, George Chrisman, a mile and a half west of Ottumwa, to inquire and were told that Jim had been out that night, but had come rather early. When Jim was consulted he denied having been out at all. Putting all the circumstances together, the officers thought they justified his arrest, and Deputy Grennan went out and took him into custody soon after daylight the next morning. He was found in bed. In the room were his shoes covered with mud. Under the bed was an ordinary breech-loading shotgun with the muzzles full of moist earth and the left hammer still cocked. He said the gun had not been used since Monday, but the mud indicated that it had been out that night. He denied any knowledge of the murder, although he was before always about town and knew everything that was going on, and in this case the whole country was deeply aroused. In fact his actions were decidedly suspicious.

     But in the light of day the next morning the case looked worse for him. The track of the murderer was found a short distance from where he had fired the shot, and traced to the house of Mr. Chrisman. What was more important, Harris’s shoes fitted the tracks. In various places where field had been crossed a careful examination was made, and those who made it were convinced that the shoes found in Harris’s room made the tracks.

     For the purpose of verifying their tracking the sheriff wired to Lawrence for blood hounds. L. Lysinger, deputy sheriff of Douglass county, accompanied by Samuel James, a colored man, came down on the night train, bringing with them a pure bred dog trained for the business. They immediately proceeded to the scene of the tragedy, followed by two or three hundred sight-seers from Burlington and vicinity. The dog was given the scent from Harris’s shoes, hat and other articles of clothing, but for excellent reasons not necessary here to state did not do very satisfactory work. This information, however, did not reach Harris in the jail.

     Later in the morning the prisoner was put through the sweat box by Grennan and made a confession. It implicated Mrs. Allen, and she was arrested a few hours later. She was greatly affected and stoutly asserted her innocence, although the confession was reduced to writing and read in her presence. She is held under guard at the sheriff’s house, as there is no provision for a woman prisoner at the jail.

     In his confession Harris states that he and Mrs. Allen had been arranging for the murder for a month past, and that for doing the job she was to pay off the mortgage on his farm and give him half of the $1,500 life insurance that Mr. Allen carried. He said that arrangement was that she was to accompany Mr. Allen home every night and precede him into the house, leaving the lantern so placed that the light would fall full upon him and make him an easy and conspicuous mark. Final arrangements had been made between them Tuesday night, and Thursday evening when they came in as arranged, and could have killed Allen easily, but his heart failed him. The next evening he was there and accomplished his work, He said nothing about any illicit relations between himself and Mrs. Allen, nor anything about any arrangement by which they were to live together after Allen’s murder. So far as his statements go the affair was placed upon a strictly financial basis, and in that respect, in that it fails to give any adequate motive for the murder on her part at least, it is weak evidence to rely upon to secure her conviction. His motive for the deed may be entirely different from those he has stated, and he may have lied in order to implicate her. Men under such circumstances sometimes do that. He confirmed the impressions of Dr. Hood concerning the missile with which the gun was loaded, stating that it was a 44-caliber cartridge bullet besides the final shot.

     Harris waived a preliminary examination Wednesday and was returned to jail. Mrs. Allen’s preliminary is set for 10 o’clock next Tuesday before Justice Brown. She has employed Madden Bros., of Emporia, and will make a strong legal fight for acquittal.

     The affair is especially sensational not only because of the exceptional brutality of the murder, but also on account of the prominence of the parties and the fact that most of them are natives of Coffey county. Mr. Allen was an early settler here. He was 51 years of age the 22d day of last December. He had been living on a farm near that place since a early day, was postmaster there under the Harrison administration and a strong candidate for the same position in 1897, and had been in the mercantile business for the past thirteen years, buying out H. H. Klock in 1887. he was prosperous and died the possessor of considerable wealth as men are reckoned in this locality. Two good residence properties in Burlington were owned by him, and he had property in other towns.

     He had been failing in health for some time, and his physician thought he had not more than six months to live. About four months ago he made a will, leaving all his property to his wife, and this circumstance is now the strongest one against her.

     Mrs. Allen was 39 years of age the 12^th of March last. Her maiden name was America E. Mayer. Her father was a shoemaker in that place in an early day. She was married to Mr. Allen in 1875 when only 14 years of age. Her subsequent life has been spent on the farm and in the store there, and she has three daughters, all of them married and one of whom has children.

     Harris, the chief culprit in the affair, is the son of James Harris, one of the earliest residents of that, the oldest town in Coffey county. He married very late in life a Miss Despaine, who is now the wife of George Chrisman, commonly known as “Doc” Chrisman, who lives a mile and a half east of Ottumwa, where Harris was arrested. Harris was born in Ottumwa, and it is a curious coincidence that his birth took place in the house occupied by Mr. Allen and where he committed the awful murder. He is about 24 years of age, and his life in that community has not been such as to inspire confidence in his innocence were there any doubt of his guilt. He was known as a worthless, thriftless sort of fellow, and the work he has done has generally been in the capacity of hired man on the farms in that locality, although he is the owner of an equity in some land. His face is anything but prepossessing, as will be seen by a portrait published in another column. In fact a face indicating more of coarse, repulsive brutality would be hard to find, even among the criminal classes. His bearing since his arrest and confession has been such as indicates a low mentality and an utter lack of the finer sensibilities.

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The next installment is the trial.