SENSATIONAL SEQUEL TO AN OLD-TIME MURDER CASE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 196, 19 August 1899, Page 5 (Supplement)

SENSATIONAL SEQUEL TO AN OLD-TIME MURDER CASE.

SISTER INFORMS AFTER THIRTY

YEARS.

! New proof of the accuracy- of the old saying that "truth is ytranger than fiction" is furnished in the sensational sequel to the murder of Gilbert Gates, who was in the State of Missouri, U.S.A. The crime was committed nearly thirty years ago, but it was only a few weeks ago that the alleged murderer was lodged in gaol, and then he was taken solely through information given by his own sister to satisfy a desire for revenge. Alexander Jester, an infirm old man of SO years, is now held in gaol at Shawnce, Ok., on a charge of having, in 1370, killed Gilbert W. Gates, a brother of John W. Gates, of Chicago, President of the American Steel and Wire Company. Jester was hunted down and placed in custody by his own sister, Mrs Cornelia Jester Street, who said, as she gazed at the aged pil&oner: "This is the happiest day of my life. I shall not consider my duty completed, however, until I see him on the I scaffold." Jester admits his identity, but says he is innocent of the crime, and there is really no actual evidence against him. This is the brief outline of a story moro strange and dramatic than any weird plot conceived in the brain of Victor Hugo or Conn-n Doyle or Anna Katherine Greene. No novelist would have dared put upon paper a story so improbable. No psychologist would have admitted its logic. In the summer of IS7O Gilbert Gates' health began failing, and his father decided that a hunting trip through Missouri and Kansas might benefit him. The Gates family lived near Alton, 111., and Gilbert was a young man of 19 years. A team of horses and a covered vvagaron? were purchased and well supplied for the journey. Gates was a good hunter, and killed a number of buffaloes,besides smaller animals, and thero promised to be considerable profit in the trip. The autumn passed away, and the winter was well along when tho Gates family sent word to Gilbert to return home, as they were growing anxious about his continued absence. MURDER OF YOUNG 'JA.TES. No answer came, and ;n addition to the uneasiness from this cau3O Mrs Gate.1; had a dream, in which it seemel to her that while at a funeral she had stepped up to the coffin to look at the corpse an<3 had seen her son lying dea -I i efore her. She told her husband at once, and both were so affected by this premonition of evil that the same day Mr Gates lilted out his team and went in search of his son. He travelled into Missouri and began to trace the route Gilbert had taken. He found the youth had met Alexander Jester and travelled in his company. The last place where the two were known to have been together was Warreusburg. Here all trace was lost of Gilbert, but Mr Gates traced Jester to Bloomington. There, it: is reported, but the story lacks confirmation, he found that Jester had sold some of Gilbert's buffalo skins and had turned his team of horses out for a week before leaving for a return trip to Missouri. The report next says thai; Mr Gates then set a trap to catch Jester, who he believed had killed his boy. He visited Jester's farm near Wichita, Kansas, and pretended that he wanted to buy it, finally offering ill's Jester a good price for it. She replied | that she would write to her husband about j it. One of the Jester children fell ill about that time, so there was a double reason for his return. A. A. Gates, the father of the missing boy, in company with officers, watched for Jester's appearance. Ho came driving up I one day leading a team behind his waggon. Mr Gates immediately Identified one if the teams and a good deal of the property ob having belonged to his son. Jester was arrested, and under threat of lynching made a confession in which he said that he had shot Gates, robbed him, and had rhrown tile body in a creek near Warrensburg. This part of the confession is not believed. ! Gates's body was never discovered, and it iis asserted that Jester burned it, in a brush | heap. After Jester's confession it was found necessary to take him secretly to Paris, Missouri, to avoid lynching. "Before his case came to trial he escaped from gaol. I j and all trace of him was lost for nearly ;J0 ! years. BETRAYED BY HIS SISTER. A few weeks ago Sheriff Simmons, oJ : Wichita. Kan., received the following leti ter from Mrs Cornelia Street, the murder- ! er'ss only sister:— "To cbe Sheriff of Sodgwick Comity: T i wish to moke a statement J« you in regard ;to my brother, whose name is Alexander Jester, wlio whs arrested aoar Valley Cen- ! j tre, Kan., in the year 1871. .May 2, for kill- ' j ing a youiis'rcari for his team, v:,-;teh, and i ! elotlunsr. The murder >vu* committed in j Missouri, near Warrensbtu'g. My brother van arrested for murdering this young man, | Viiid 1 know of my own personal knowledge i that h(.> is guilty of tile I'barjre. He was I given a preliminary hearing hi Wichita :;;:.: ivus sent to Missouri. nr>ar where the crime was committed, and broke araol. TTo is my j own brother, but J want him punished for that or'inp. I hope you can and will i>!-!i j on tlie docket?l his: prdnninnry hearing, and"1 will notify oJHcers of Mu> county whore liu> murder was ef.mniltrod. My brother !h living, here In Shnwnoe. Ok., and is known by (]:•> iifiine of W. 11. H 111. tt,,,,;,,,, ro hear from you in reply, respectfully, "CORNELIA STREET." Two tliwlc^ are advanced for Hip str.iu.srp confession of tlio woman who thus brings her brotl'er a second rime within the shadow of tl>" gallows. Since the tirresi Mrs Street has refused to talk about her motive further than to say that a knowledge r-f the crime has made life a burden to her. It is asserted by soiue that the aged brother and sister quarrelled over money mat- j ters, and that Jester's crime \ s divulged fur ' revenge. A second theory, however, may be the correct one. and has.J)een partly substantiated by Mrs Street herself. The wo- j man Is considerably younger than her bro- i ther. The Jester family fit one time lived near Alton. 111., and Cornelia Jester, then a young girl, was engaged, so the story goes, j to marry Gilbert Gates. T'ue match displeased Jester, who had an idea that his young and pretty sister might marry a llch man. and that Lie would profit by IJio match. Ke pretended to gut on friendly terms with Gates, travelled with him and murdered him. The murderer's sister made : a vow that she would never rest until she i had brought the murderer to justice. Year in and year out she has kept up the still hunt, even marrying with the sole idea that j her husband might assist in :h-> search. It j is the only instance of a woman tracking | her nearest kin for over a quarter 'fa cen- j tury for the sole purpose of bringing Lira to j the gallows. j After Jester's escape from gaol she sod j his property, being the only heir, and with j the money thus obtained started on her j long search. In ISB4 she aiarried William , Sweet, a close friend of Jester. She Mas i under the imj-ession that he knew the murderer's whereabouts, and ill rime could be induced to divulge it, and in a little while she left him. The PURSUIT BECAME A MANIA WITH j HER and no doubt gave her an unnatural instinct ! for clues. She ran down every bit of evidence as to her brother's hiding-place, and had taken a hundred fruitless journeys be- ( ■fore she discovered the right trail.

In a plot in Oakwoods Cemetery is a stone charging Alexander Jester with his crime. It is a marble shaft ten feet high, on a granite base. It bears the inscription: ': GILBERT W., • • son of ; : A. A. and Mary Gates. ; was murdered hi Missouri ; : by Alexander Jester, ; • ' Jan. -5, 1871, : ; Aged 19 years and 115 days. ; Jester, under the name of W. JT. Hill, has grown rich in land and catt'e trading in Oklahoma. He is much respected hy hia neighbours, many of whom now refuse to beli.eve in his guilt. Jester takes his a nest quietly, and feels sure, he aays, of acquittal. He acknowledges his identity, but says that his former confession is not true, and was made under duress, with the hope of escaping lynching.