Four men arrested for murder of Wilson HAYNES (1901)

from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) - issue of Thursday, December 26, 1901 - page 1, column 4:

IN JAIL
Four Coatesville Men Charged With Haynes Murder
The alleged murderers of Wilson Haynes are in jail. Thursday afternoon Charles Hampton, Fred Cassity, Obe Hampton and Frank Stewart, Jr. were arrested. Two of them are confined on the south side and two on the north side so that they cannot communicate with each other. Sheriff Figg, Deputy Sheriffs Sears, Marshall and Charles McCurdy gathered them in. Charles, or as he is better known, Jack Hampton, was arrested in O'Brien's drug store where he clerks. Fred Cassity was arrested in the country and Obe Hampton and Stewart were arrested in the country together. They made no attempt to resist arrest.

The names of these men have been used in connection with the murder almost from the first. Jack Hampton has been clerking in O'Brien's drug store. Cassity works on the section. Obe Hampton has only one arm and cannot do a man's full work. Stewart teams and does odd jobs. Obe Hampton has served a term in prison for being implicated in stealing a barrel of whisky from a car at Coatesville and he lost an arm under a train. About a year ago Fred Cassity was struck by a train near Clayton but not seriously hurt.

Very properly, the state is not giving out the information on which the grand jury returned its indictment. It may be said, however, the grand jury believes that the murderer of Wilson Haynes is one of the four. It is not thought that all are equally guilty but that some of them are implicated by assisting in covering up the tracks of the guilty after the deed was done. The grand jury sifted the whole matter and heard both sides of the case. Most of the witnesses were before that body twice and a singular fact is that the stories of these four differed in essential details on the different occasions on which they appeared before the grand jury.

The evidence is entirely circumstantial, but very strong, and it is thought possible that one of them may turn state's evidence before the trial is completed. All the evidence before the grand jury was taken down by a stenographer and it is believed this will be valuable at the trial. There is a feeling that Haynes was not struck in the shed where his body was found, but that his body was carried there. The instrument which caused his death is thought to have been a sling-shot, a long leather pouch, one end of which was filled with shot.

The grand jury was an excellent body of men of good judgment. It was composed of J.K. Little, Charles E. Hadley, John Leachman, John Snipes, Martin Long and Robert Westerfield.