Part Seven: The Trial
The spectators sat on the floor. They stood up. They occupied the seats and the window ledges. They shoved and they pushed. It was the beginning of the murder trial of Dr. Kenn Uhls at the Reno County Courthouse in Hutchinson, Kansas. Almost everybody in town seemed to want to observe the trial. No feeling of antagonism was expressed by the crowd toward the physician accused of slaying William Gibbs, aged recluse and Civil War veteran. The attitude of the spectators was just one of intense curiosity. More women attended the trial than men. Several who obtained “close up” seats occupied spare moments by knitting.
Judge W. G. Fairchild presided over the trial. Harry F. Brown, county attorney, and Judge F. L. Martin, executor of the Gibbs estate, represented the state. Dr. Uhls, wearing a tan suit, sat at the counsel table with his attorneys, J.R. Beeching, William H. Burnett, and Owen Samuels.
In opening remarks, the state contended that Dr. Uhls, fearful of approaching bankruptcy, drove with patient Frank Leonard to the Gibbs home, murdered the aged recluse, and fled with $102,000 in Uhls Clinic Corporation stock. Following the murder, Dr. Uhls displayed the stolen stock certificates, explaining how a mysterious Charles Westhaven brought them to him for transfer. The state said it would attempt to prove that Dr. Uhls intended to resell the stock certificates which had been purchased by Gibbs. They also hoped to prove that Frank Leonard forged Gibbs’ signature on the stolen certificates later found in the possession of Dr. Uhls. The defense stated they would prove that Dr. Uhls had a rock-solid alibi – that he was not in Hutchinson at the time of the murder, but in Newton, Kansas, thirty-six miles east.
The first witness of the day was Orland Jolliffe, who had been elected president of the Uhls Clinic Corporation under the new reorganization. Mr. Jolliffe, who was also president of the Peabody State Bank in Peabody, Kansas, was called by the state to testify about the financial condition of the Uhls institution. Mr. Jolliffe told of his receivership last January and the numerous debts owed by the facility. Pressed as to his official connection now with the corporation, the witness replied, “I’m still paying the bills.” Mr. Jolliffe was asked to identify a letter he had received recently from a man purporting to be Charles E. Westerhaven. The letter was typewritten, even the signature, and was dated from San Francisco.
Westerhaven is the mysterious man from whom Dr. Uhls declared he obtained the stolen Gibbs stock. Judge Martin did not have the letter read out loud to the jury, but he charged the letter was written by Dr. Uhls and not Westerhaven, in an effort to “bolster” the defense in so far as locating Westerhaven. Martin further stated the letter contained the assertion that Westerhaven did not want to get involved in the murder case, hence he would not be present to testify.
George E. Nicholson of Kansas City was the next witness. Mr. Nicholson, appointed receiver for the Uhls Corporation by the federal court last January and discharged last April, testified his official investigation disclosed the Uhls Corporation had no cash except part of the proceeds of a bond issue, which were tied up by attachments of creditors. The current liabilities were approximately $18,000. Mrs. Laura C. Woodford, Hutchinson, new manager of the Uhls Sanitarium, said the company last January owed, in her judgement, between $25,000 and $30,000.
I. P. Shrock, a former friend of the slain Civil War veteran, testifying for the state, identified a signature of Gibbs on an old check. The identification was desired by the state to set a standard of comparison of Gibb’s handwriting. The contention of the state is the name of Gibbs was forged on the stock certificates after they were stolen from him. Fred C. Trench, cashier of the First National Bank of Hutchinson, identified the signature of the slain recluse. He was then shown the stock certificates bearing Mr. Gibb’s endorsement on the back and asked if he thought the signatures were forged. “In my opinion, yes, they are,” Mr. Trench declared.
Dr. Emma DeVries, osteopath and private secretary to Dr. Uhls when he operated the sanitarium, testified that both Dr. Uhls and patient Frank Leonard were absent from the sanitarium December 28 and 29, returning December 30.
The last witness at the close of the morning session was Mrs. Marlon J. Hennessy, who lived across the street from the Gibbs home. She testified she saw a man enter the Gibbs yard about 4 o’clock the afternoon of December 29, hesitate a moment, then walk to the rear. After fifteen or twenty minutes, the witness said the man came out of the front door hurriedly and walked away westward. Mrs. Hennessy described the man as wearing a light tan overcoat and a brown hat. He was a man about six feet tall, she said. Questioned as to whether Dr. Uhls was the man she saw leaving Gibbs’ home, Mrs. Hennessy replied, “He looks like the man.” However, on cross examination she said, “I couldn’t swear the man was Dr. Uhls.”
The state rested its case against Dr. Kenn Uhls just before noon, and after a lunch recess the defense began the task of trying to convince the jury of twelve men that Dr. Uhls had no connection with the brutal murder of William Gibbs. Owen Samuels of Emporia made a powerful plea on behalf of Dr. Uhls in the opening statement, dwelling on the ruin heaped upon the Overland Park physician since the start of the year. Mr. Samuels declared that Dr. Uhls did not seek to evade arrest or hide from the Reno County authorities. He revealed that after suffering from the humiliation of his false arrest at Olathe, Dr. Uhls shut himself in a room at the Kansas City Club and debated whether to kill himself or face the music.
Mr. Samuels then began to lay out his case for Uhls having a perfect alibi. He declared that the state could show no motive and that the Gibbs stock was of no value to Dr. Uhls because it was no medium of exchange. Mr. Samuels then outlined the visit of the mysterious Mr. Westerhaven, who came to the sanitarium about 10 a.m. on the morning of December 19. Two witnesses will testify to his visit, the lawyer declared. One of these wrote the visitor’s name on a card and gave it to Dr. Uhls. He was shown through the sanitarium and introduced to Mrs. Uhls.
Mr. Samuels then went into the details of the trip taken by Dr. Uhls and Frank Leonard on December 28. Dr. Uhls wanted to visit oil property he had purchased in Peabody, Kansas, the attorney declared. He pointed out that Dr. Uhls made no effort to disguise this trip. He registered in the hotels at Newton and Topeka under his own name, as did Frank Leonard. Dr. Uhls frequently took trips with patients, he said. Dr. Uhls spent the night of December 28 in Newton because of poor hotel facilities at Peabody, the attorney declared, and on the following morning drove to Peabody where he met Elmer H. Culleson. Mr. Culleson took the stand and confirmed he met with Dr. Uhls sometime during the holidays, but he couldn’t recall the exact date. He also said that Dr. Uhls wore a black derby hat and not the brown hat described by several witnesses for the state. R.O. Bailey of Oil Hill, Kansas, testified that Dr. Uhls had bought gasoline at his filling station in the early afternoon, and recalled he was wearing a black derby hat.
Samuels stated that Uhls and Leonard then traveled to El Dorado where he left a business card, dated, at the office of prominent local physician, Dr. Dillenbeck. The physician took the stand and testified that he met with Uhls. The pair then drove to Eureka, Toronto, Yates Center, Burlington and then had to backtrack some distance to find two spare tires they realized had fallen off the vehicle at some point. Testimony revealed that the two accused men arrived in Topeka shortly after midnight on December 30th, ate at a restaurant and started for home. Some distance out they encountered a sleet storm and turned back, registering at the National Hotel.
The defense then presented the case that Gibbs was murdered after 1:30 a.m., instead of in the early evening; that the front door which was closed at 1:30 a.m. was later found open and that the wind could not have done it. The defense claimed that the condition of Gibbs’ body when found did not indicate death had occurred early Saturday night.
Mrs. Delores Wilson, office girl at the Uhls clinic testified that a man giving the name of Westerhaven, visited the clinic on December 19. Mrs. Uhls, wife of the defendant, took the witness stand about 3 o’clock. She testified that a man named Westerhaven had called on the clinic the morning of December 19. She testified her husband introduced him to her at their bungalow.
The defense scored a temporary victory at least when the letters written by Frank Leonard were barred from evidence by Judge Fairchild after argument on the part of the defense attorneys. The court held that until the state could connect these letters with the accused man they could not be used. The state planned to use the Leonard letters as the basis for a handwriting comparison, hoping to show that Leonard is in fact the mysterious Mr. Westerhaven. It was the contention of the prosecuting attorneys that Leonard endorsed the powers of attorney on the Gibbs preferred and common stock and signed the name of the dead man.
In the closing argument, Harry Brown, Reno county prosecutor, brought out one point effectively. Frank Leonard, drug addict, who was Dr. Uhls’s companion on a motor car trip at the time of the murder, was in Reno County jail, about 100 feet away from the courtroom. “Yet the defense failed to put Leonard on the stand to tell exactly where Dr. Uhls was at the time of the murder.” Brown pointed out, “He was the only man who could tell accurately of the movements of Dr. Uhls.”
The fate of Dr. Kenn B. Uhls was placed in the hands of a jury on May 30 at 11:55 a.m. A verdict was reached, and the jury returned at 8:50 p.m. The courtroom was packed when the jurors filed in. Most of the spectators were owners of the Uhls Clinic Corporation stock, now worthless. They had been present almost every moment of the trial. “We, the jury in the above-described case, find the defendant, Dr. Kenn B. Uhls, guilty of second-degree murder in connection with the killing of William E. Gibbs.”
When the verdict was read Uhls pitched forward, weeping, his head falling into his wife’s lap. Both his mother and wife put their arms around him, patting his shoulder and kissing him. The physician’s 7-month-old baby girl, Mary Lou, who had been sleeping in the judge’s chambers, was brought into the court room only a moment before the verdict was read. Because of her interrupted slumbers, she added her cries to those of her father. Uhls’s attorneys announced they would file a motion for a new trial.
Click Here for Part 8
Part Seven: The Trial
The spectators sat on the floor. They stood up. They occupied the seats and the window ledges. They shoved and they pushed. It was the beginning of the murder trial of Dr. Kenn Uhls at the Reno County Courthouse in Hutchinson, Kansas. Almost everybody in town seemed to want to observe the trial. No feeling of antagonism was expressed by the crowd toward the physician accused of slaying William Gibbs, aged recluse and Civil War veteran. The attitude of the spectators was just one of intense curiosity. More women attended the trial than men. Several who obtained “close up” seats occupied spare moments by knitting.
Judge W. G. Fairchild presided over the trial. Harry F. Brown, county attorney, and Judge F. L. Martin, executor of the Gibbs estate, represented the state. Dr. Uhls, wearing a tan suit, sat at the counsel table with his attorneys, J.R. Beeching, William H. Burnett, and Owen Samuels.
In opening remarks, the state contended that Dr. Uhls, fearful of approaching bankruptcy, drove with patient Frank Leonard to the Gibbs home, murdered the aged recluse, and fled with $102,000 in Uhls Clinic Corporation stock. Following the murder, Dr. Uhls displayed the stolen stock certificates, explaining how a mysterious Charles Westhaven brought them to him for transfer. The state said it would attempt to prove that Dr. Uhls intended to resell the stock certificates which had been purchased by Gibbs. They also hoped to prove that Frank Leonard forged Gibbs’ signature on the stolen certificates later found in the possession of Dr. Uhls. The defense stated they would prove that Dr. Uhls had a rock-solid alibi – that he was not in Hutchinson at the time of the murder, but in Newton, Kansas, thirty-six miles east.
The first witness of the day was Orland Jolliffe, who had been elected president of the Uhls Clinic Corporation under the new reorganization. Mr. Jolliffe, who was also president of the Peabody State Bank in Peabody, Kansas, was called by the state to testify about the financial condition of the Uhls institution. Mr. Jolliffe told of his receivership last January and the numerous debts owed by the facility. Pressed as to his official connection now with the corporation, the witness replied, “I’m still paying the bills.” Mr. Jolliffe was asked to identify a letter he had received recently from a man purporting to be Charles E. Westerhaven. The letter was typewritten, even the signature, and was dated from San Francisco.
Westerhaven is the mysterious man from whom Dr. Uhls declared he obtained the stolen Gibbs stock. Judge Martin did not have the letter read out loud to the jury, but he charged the letter was written by Dr. Uhls and not Westerhaven, in an effort to “bolster” the defense in so far as locating Westerhaven. Martin further stated the letter contained the assertion that Westerhaven did not want to get involved in the murder case, hence he would not be present to testify.
George E. Nicholson of Kansas City was the next witness. Mr. Nicholson, appointed receiver for the Uhls Corporation by the federal court last January and discharged last April, testified his official investigation disclosed the Uhls Corporation had no cash except part of the proceeds of a bond issue, which were tied up by attachments of creditors. The current liabilities were approximately $18,000. Mrs. Laura C. Woodford, Hutchinson, new manager of the Uhls Sanitarium, said the company last January owed, in her judgement, between $25,000 and $30,000.
I. P. Shrock, a former friend of the slain Civil War veteran, testifying for the state, identified a signature of Gibbs on an old check. The identification was desired by the state to set a standard of comparison of Gibb’s handwriting. The contention of the state is the name of Gibbs was forged on the stock certificates after they were stolen from him. Fred C. Trench, cashier of the First National Bank of Hutchinson, identified the signature of the slain recluse. He was then shown the stock certificates bearing Mr. Gibb’s endorsement on the back and asked if he thought the signatures were forged. “In my opinion, yes, they are,” Mr. Trench declared.
Dr. Emma DeVries, osteopath and private secretary to Dr. Uhls when he operated the sanitarium, testified that both Dr. Uhls and patient Frank Leonard were absent from the sanitarium December 28 and 29, returning December 30.
The last witness at the close of the morning session was Mrs. Marlon J. Hennessy, who lived across the street from the Gibbs home. She testified she saw a man enter the Gibbs yard about 4 o’clock the afternoon of December 29, hesitate a moment, then walk to the rear. After fifteen or twenty minutes, the witness said the man came out of the front door hurriedly and walked away westward. Mrs. Hennessy described the man as wearing a light tan overcoat and a brown hat. He was a man about six feet tall, she said. Questioned as to whether Dr. Uhls was the man she saw leaving Gibbs’ home, Mrs. Hennessy replied, “He looks like the man.” However, on cross examination she said, “I couldn’t swear the man was Dr. Uhls.”
The state rested its case against Dr. Kenn Uhls just before noon, and after a lunch recess the defense began the task of trying to convince the jury of twelve men that Dr. Uhls had no connection with the brutal murder of William Gibbs. Owen Samuels of Emporia made a powerful plea on behalf of Dr. Uhls in the opening statement, dwelling on the ruin heaped upon the Overland Park physician since the start of the year. Mr. Samuels declared that Dr. Uhls did not seek to evade arrest or hide from the Reno County authorities. He revealed that after suffering from the humiliation of his false arrest at Olathe, Dr. Uhls shut himself in a room at the Kansas City Club and debated whether to kill himself or face the music.
Mr. Samuels then began to lay out his case for Uhls having a perfect alibi. He declared that the state could show no motive and that the Gibbs stock was of no value to Dr. Uhls because it was no medium of exchange. Mr. Samuels then outlined the visit of the mysterious Mr. Westerhaven, who came to the sanitarium about 10 a.m. on the morning of December 19. Two witnesses will testify to his visit, the lawyer declared. One of these wrote the visitor’s name on a card and gave it to Dr. Uhls. He was shown through the sanitarium and introduced to Mrs. Uhls.
Mr. Samuels then went into the details of the trip taken by Dr. Uhls and Frank Leonard on December 28. Dr. Uhls wanted to visit oil property he had purchased in Peabody, Kansas, the attorney declared. He pointed out that Dr. Uhls made no effort to disguise this trip. He registered in the hotels at Newton and Topeka under his own name, as did Frank Leonard. Dr. Uhls frequently took trips with patients, he said. Dr. Uhls spent the night of December 28 in Newton because of poor hotel facilities at Peabody, the attorney declared, and on the following morning drove to Peabody where he met Elmer H. Culleson. Mr. Culleson took the stand and confirmed he met with Dr. Uhls sometime during the holidays, but he couldn’t recall the exact date. He also said that Dr. Uhls wore a black derby hat and not the brown hat described by several witnesses for the state. R.O. Bailey of Oil Hill, Kansas, testified that Dr. Uhls had bought gasoline at his filling station in the early afternoon, and recalled he was wearing a black derby hat.
Samuels stated that Uhls and Leonard then traveled to El Dorado where he left a business card, dated, at the office of prominent local physician, Dr. Dillenbeck. The physician took the stand and testified that he met with Uhls. The pair then drove to Eureka, Toronto, Yates Center, Burlington and then had to backtrack some distance to find two spare tires they realized had fallen off the vehicle at some point. Testimony revealed that the two accused men arrived in Topeka shortly after midnight on December 30th, ate at a restaurant and started for home. Some distance out they encountered a sleet storm and turned back, registering at the National Hotel.
The defense then presented the case that Gibbs was murdered after 1:30 a.m., instead of in the early evening; that the front door which was closed at 1:30 a.m. was later found open and that the wind could not have done it. The defense claimed that the condition of Gibbs’ body when found did not indicate death had occurred early Saturday night.
Mrs. Delores Wilson, office girl at the Uhls clinic testified that a man giving the name of Westerhaven, visited the clinic on December 19. Mrs. Uhls, wife of the defendant, took the witness stand about 3 o’clock. She testified that a man named Westerhaven had called on the clinic the morning of December 19. She testified her husband introduced him to her at their bungalow.
The defense scored a temporary victory at least when the letters written by Frank Leonard were barred from evidence by Judge Fairchild after argument on the part of the defense attorneys. The court held that until the state could connect these letters with the accused man they could not be used. The state planned to use the Leonard letters as the basis for a handwriting comparison, hoping to show that Leonard is in fact the mysterious Mr. Westerhaven. It was the contention of the prosecuting attorneys that Leonard endorsed the powers of attorney on the Gibbs preferred and common stock and signed the name of the dead man.
In the closing argument, Harry Brown, Reno county prosecutor, brought out one point effectively. Frank Leonard, drug addict, who was Dr. Uhls’s companion on a motor car trip at the time of the murder, was in Reno County jail, about 100 feet away from the courtroom. “Yet the defense failed to put Leonard on the stand to tell exactly where Dr. Uhls was at the time of the murder.” Brown pointed out, “He was the only man who could tell accurately of the movements of Dr. Uhls.”
The fate of Dr. Kenn B. Uhls was placed in the hands of a jury on May 30 at 11:55 a.m. A verdict was reached, and the jury returned at 8:50 p.m. The courtroom was packed when the jurors filed in. Most of the spectators were owners of the Uhls Clinic Corporation stock, now worthless. They had been present almost every moment of the trial. “We, the jury in the above-described case, find the defendant, Dr. Kenn B. Uhls, guilty of second-degree murder in connection with the killing of William E. Gibbs.”
When the verdict was read Uhls pitched forward, weeping, his head falling into his wife’s lap. Both his mother and wife put their arms around him, patting his shoulder and kissing him. The physician’s 7-month-old baby girl, Mary Lou, who had been sleeping in the judge’s chambers, was brought into the court room only a moment before the verdict was read. Because of her interrupted slumbers, she added her cries to those of her father. Uhls’s attorneys announced they would file a motion for a new trial.
Click Here for Part 8
