OCR Text |
Show EVIDENCE SHOWS PORTER DID NOT MURDER HIS AGED FATHER-IN-LAW The. Coroner's inquest ordered by the County Attorney to inquire Into the facta leading to the death of Benjamin R. Haddock, who died Monday night a short time after, having quarreled and struggled with his son-in-law, George E. Porter, was begun this morning before be-fore Coroner : Frank IL.: Clark.- The Jury -chosen consisted of G. H. Cutting. J. S.' Stevens and E. B. Jeremy. Jere-my. -: AftervvJewirg -tttjauamatngL at ,Xte.. undertaking establishment of J. E. Taylor, the Coroner and the Jury repaired re-paired to the Coroner's office and the taking of testimony was begun. Porter, the young man held in cus tody, pending the results of the.inquest. was represented at the Inquest by Attorney At-torney A B. Edler. County Attorney TTestervelt was present in the Interests of the State. Mrs. Haddock. wife of the dead man, was so overcome-that she waa scarcely able to give her testimony. She said she was at home when her husband returned re-turned from a meeting. The aged man had a spell of sickness to which he was subject. . . . . , V-. The'witTvp?i and. !iPr-huesut vert t6 the Porter hu use? Her hus0ud preceded pre-ceded her a few aeconda. . When she got there her husband and son-in-law were struggling. She Joined in the struggle and put her Continued on Page 8.) adultery or steals,' or lies, or bears false witness against his . neighbor in any way, or goes contrary to the cardinal principles of our Christian religion. Is compelled to withdraw. But one who is honest, virtuous, believes in Ood and has a little faith In our religion is nurtured, nur-tured, though he may net believe in the church In all that it teaches. In that book (Mr. Smoth pointed to one of the volumes that had been introduced earlier ear-lier in the proceedings). Is a revelation on plural marriages. Not 3 or 4 per cent of the entire membership of the church have entered that state. All the rest have' abstained from plural marriages and many thousands have rejected the principle entirely." Plural Marriage Question, v Senator Dubois remarked : "I noticed that' you say many thousands thou-sands rejected the doctrine of plural, marriages. Bo you mean , that they never practiced plural marriages, or that they declared against . the doc-j trine?" ' . Mr. Smith answered again that many thousands in the church had declared against the principle of plural -marriage as given to the church in a revelation from Joseph Smith, Jr., to bring out the effect of refusing tq subscribe to the teachings of the church. Mr. Hoar asked a number of questions, ques-tions, and Mr. Smith said: . Revelation Is Fundamental. "The ' principle of revelation is the fundamental principle of the church." - "Have you ever received) such a revelation reve-lation direct from God?' asked Mr. Tayler. "I never said I had received a revelation revela-tion except that God has shown me that Mormonlsm is God's divine truth," said Mr. Smith. "How has God shown you that?" asked Mr. Burrows. "By Inspiration." Mr. Smith described the accepted theory the-ory of the revelation of the principle of polygamy to Joseph Smith. Jr.. saying that an angel in black appeared unto him. ' He said revelations had) not come to him in that form, but that he has received re-ceived direct revelations from God by inspiration. At this point Mr. Bailey said he assumed as-sumed that all of the testimony being brought out In regard to the religion of Mormonlsm had some sound relation to Influence the church in civil affairs, and that unless he was assured of thaV he should object. ' . . Bailey's Objection Answered. "For my part,"-he said, "I do not think Congress has anything to do with religious affairs and would like to know the purpose of the direction that has been taken in the proceedings." Mr. Tayler answered that the prosecution prose-cution would attempt to show that the church directed affairs of state, politics and. in fact, all matters, and consequently conse-quently the method of procedure was necessary. No further objection was made. . The committee adjourned until 2 p. m. and Mr. Burrows - announced that hereafter the hearings would be held every day until concluded, beginning at 10:30 o'clock. An executive session of the committee was ordered to determine on certain lines of conducting the case. ;'vMBL0W:FR0i;rP0ilIR- the rag about it and I picked- It up and was going to smash it over the stove. I threw it over my shoulder and it hit my wife, who was standing behind me, cutting a gash over her eye. I did not know I bad hit her, but one of her sisters sis-ters saw the blood and ran over to the house, telling the old man that I was killing my wife. . . Tells of the Fight. "Haddock came running over and I met him on the doorstep. Without saying a word he hit me on the eye with the stub of his arm. I clinched with him and threw him down. I don't know which one of us was on top, but It seems to me I was at the bottom. His wife and the children piled on-top of us and I thought it was time for me to get out, so I crawled out. "When Ben got up I offered him my hand and told him that I was willing to treat him as a son-in-law should if he would act square with me. He refused re-fused to take my hand and call it off. We was standing chewing the rag and I thought everything would be settled all right, when Jake Carrick came up carrying a club and asked what the trouble was about. I told- him It was none of his affair, and had some words with him. The old man kept getting madder and madder, and finally I told my wife that we had better go to keep out of trouble. Not Drunk, He Bays. "I was not drunk. I had had three glasses of beer and that was all. We took supper at Ben's house and everything every-thing was pleasant there then. We were laughing and Joshing, and when I asked permission to leave a machine on the porch be said I must put it in the house, where It would not be damaged by the rain. "My wife la 22 years old. We had been married about eighteen months and never had any trouble before." Porter said he was confident that Haddock's head did not strike anything when be fell and could not account for the fracture of the skull. . .1 r ' 1 (Continued from Page 1.) knee on Porter's neck. : Haddock polled her away. . She saw the blood on Mrs. Porter's 1 face and she called for a fclub to participate par-ticipate further In the trouble. Haddock Struck Porter. - The daughter started to go to the ' Haddock house and Porter said that he would go too. Haddock struck Porter and then Porter put bis wife on a wagon wa-gon and drove away. ' Haddock went Into the house. A son called to Mrs. Haddock that her bus.-band bus.-band was suffering from a terrible pain with which he frequently suffered, and for which only Mrs. Haddock could give him reflet. Mrs. Haddock said that her husband died while she was on her way to the police station to have Porter arrested. She said that Haddock's head did not strike a board or ether hard substance when he felL He fell on his face, and not on the back of his head. When Haddock was seized by the sickness with which he suffered, he sometimes became unconscious. ' He suffered great pain in his chest and back at these times. He suffered similar simi-lar pains after the struggle and before bis death. "Wife Is Heartbroken.' . Mrs. George E. Porter, the young wife of the man in custody and daugh-. ter of the dead man, was apparently heartbroken by the terrible blow that had fallen upon their home. She said: "We were packing and he wanted to take a guitar. I urged him to not take it. He said that if he did not take it he would smash it. He hit me accidentally acci-dentally with It. "Pa came in and asked what was the trouble a,sd then he hit my husband. They struggled and went down together. togeth-er. "Pa and- George went over to the house and I tried to get them to shake hands. I thought that we had got things settled up and then my uncle came up and asked what was the trouble. trou-ble. . I told him it was only an accident. Then father hit George again. I didn't see father after he went Into the house." Boy on the Stand. j Little Johnnie Haddock 10 .years old, ; a son of the dead man. was sworn. He said: v "I was at George Porter's place. George Porter said that the guitar was no good and when he broke It, he hit my sister. George and his brother were fighting over a stove. He went to hit his brother broth-er and hit his wife with his fist. He didn't mean to do. When ha' broke the guitar he hit the lamp glass with It. and a. piece of the- glaes or the guitar hit my sister, Mrs. Porter. "I ran over to the house, and pa told me to run for my uncle. "George never killed my pa. When my sister went to go into pa's house George said he would go toc and then pa hit George with all his might.' Story Is Corroborated. May Haddock. 14 years old, daughter of Ben Haddock, the dead man, told substantially the same story as related by the other witnesses. She said that while the Porter boys were quarreling. Mm Porter threw herself between them. "Quite a while before pa died, he was talking and laughing with grandpa, and he rolled a cigarette," said the little lit-tle girl. "He didrt seem- to suffer nor was he dazed until a quarter of an hour before he died. "Then the pains that he had suffered for ten years came-on and he died In grandpa's arms. He was in awful pain for fifteen minutes, then he fell into grandpa's arms, and died. Erery time he would breathe, the pain came on worse than before." . . Refused to Make Up. Speaking of the struggle the girl said that Porter did not seize Haddock's t neck. "During the struggle." she said, "George was down and ma sat on his head. Charles Porter wanted George and pa to make up and pa would not do It." Mrs. Sarah G a nick, a sister of Mrs. Haddock, was the next witness. She arrived at the scene of the trouble after the Porters had left the place. Haddock Had-dock then seemed to be all right. Haddock said to her. In speaking of the trouble: - "George didn't hurt me, . but I got two or three good Jabs at him." Robert M. Haddock, another son of the dead man, corroborated the etate-ments etate-ments previously made. He said that George Porter, had made no attempts or threats to strike Mrs. Porter. N At the conclusion of the examination of Robert Haddock, adjournment was taken until 3 o'clock this afternoon. HADDOCK'S SKULL ,WAS CRACKED; SURGEONS SURPRISED The autopsy held by County Physician Physi-cian II. N. Mayo last night on the body of Benjamin R. Haddock, who died Monday night after a tussle with his son-in-law, George' E. Porter, disclosed the fact that Haddock had suffered a slight fracture of the skull behind the left ear, and an abrasion on the left arm at the elbow. These were the only signs of violence. The heart and other organs were in good condition. The fracture of the skull must have caused Haddock's death, the County Physician and his assistant. Dr. Odell, said at the conclusion of the autopsy, though such a fractur would not ordinarily ordi-narily prove serious. Qwlng to the unusual un-usual thinness of Haddock's skull the fracture could have been produced by a very moderate blow, or possibly, by only a heavy pressure on the skull. Coroner Cor-oner Clark and County Attorney Wes-tervelt Wes-tervelt were present and took notes on the autopsy. Porter Much Surprised. Porter, who is in the -city JalL said that he was greatly surprised when he learned that Haddock was dead. He did not think that a more serious charge than, wlfe-beatlng .could be placed against him. and he knew he could get cleared on such a charge. Speaking of the trouble, he said: "1 hooked up the horse snd wagon, intending to take the midnight train to Ogden. . I put a guitar in tbe bundle and my wife took It out, VVs chewed |