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| The Court Records or the two trials are very meager - many witnesses on both sides were called - their names and names of the jurors are mentioned, but no details of the trials are recorded. Judge Burrell presided and Edgar Cowan, Foster and Alex McKinney defended the prisoners. Cowan plead the case and it was through his efforts that they were finally freed. An old citizen once told me that after the first trial in which they were found guilty, Cowan had said that he would tear the verdict to pieces. He was one or the most talented jurists that the Greensburg bar ever produced. It is something of a mystery how these two men, who were very poor, secured his services, as his legal ability placed him in the ranks of those who commanded large fees. Perhaps it was that the law of justice might be vindicated. Let us hope at least that this was the motive. In his testimony Sechrist stated that one of the men was tall and slim and the other was short and heavy. Cowlan then stood the man together and proved that they were both of one height. Sechrist, it then appears, kept some of his tools in his house. He suffered from a wound on his head, he said he was struck with a new maddock and the short heavy man had struck him with all his might with the sharp end of this tool, and yet did not fracture his skull. Ward, who was the short, heavy man, was known for his great strength. He was skilled in the use of an axe and it was generally thought that if he had struck Sechrist as stated the results would have been different. The secrets of the crime were never revealed. Ward and Gibson went west and as far as is known were good citizens. Sechrist married again and located in the Southern part of Fayette County. When quite an old man it is said he was found dead in a ditch by the side or the road. Alex Ward, a brother of George, who had gone to California to seek gold, walked the entire distance, from that state to be present at his brother's trial. It required three months for him to complete the journey. A rather amusing incident is related in connection with this trial. It is said that when a certain witness was called to testify, the Judge as the custom is when administering the oath, asked him if he would swear or affirm; apparently he had never been under oath before. He remarked to the Judge that he did not often swear. The Judge repeated the question and he proceeded with a volley of oaths that almost made the Court room blue before he could be silenced. |
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