Volume 049-4 - October 1995 (10 pages)

om, But Rice also agreed to loan Vedder a pistol, and on the day of the killing Vedder told Rice he was going to kill Plumer: He said that he would try to get under the floor and catch Plumer and his wife together, and kill them both at once. Vedder told me that [not] Plumer nor any other man could be intimate with his wife until he married her. About midnight Thomas Couch heard screams outside his Pine Street residence, which was about 60 feet from the Vedder house. A glance from his window revealed Lucinda Vedder running from house to house and crying for help— her husband had been shot. Couch quickly dressed and hurried to the Vedder’s steep lot on the south side of Spring Street. The front door was at street level, but a staircase connected the rear of the house to a lower level where outhouses were located. It was at the foot of these stairs that he discovered his neighbor’s lifeless body. After noting there was no sign of a weapon in the near vicinity, he entered the empty house. Plumer’s deputies, Bruce Garvey and Pat Corbett, arrived a few minutes later, at which time Couch went back for a second look at Vedder. To his surprise, this time he noticed a 6-inch Colt’s revolver in plain sight alongside the dead man’s hand. Couch testified: I picked it up and saw it was loaded, and was about examining it more closely when Pat Corbett took it out of my hands. “I'll take that pistol,” said he, coming up to me abruptly, and reaching out his hand, he took it and placed it in his bosom. . . . I saw three caps upon the pistol. I was near the body about five minutes when I first went there, and at that time I saw no pistol lying upon the ground.. . Corbett returned to the house and left the premises a few minutes later with Garvey and Mrs. Vedder and the pistol. Plumer had by this time turned himself in to the sheriff, and as soon as the marshal was arraigned, both Garvey and Corbett had resigned from the police. Garvey’s replacement on the force was James Malbon, who had served more than one term as city marshal, but was an ordinary patrolman on the night of the killing. City lawmen communicated with whistles, and Malbon testified that on the night in question he heard both gunshots and whistles while on patrol near the Methodist Church. Said Malbon: I heard four reports of firearms, and directly after, I heard a whistle blow. I heard it again .. and it was then blown impatiently. .. I heard [a total of] three whistles blow. .. I met two men running from Spring street and they told me that a man had been killed around there. I then went to the place and found Mrs. Vedder crying, who told me that Plumer had killed her husband. Malbon testified that Corbett followed him to Vedder’s body. Half an hour later, when Corbett had departed with the weapon found by the body, Malbon heard a pistol discharge once in the vicinity of the Methodist Church. The pistol confiscated by Corbett was later shown to have fired a single shot. Plumer’s story that Vedder had fired a weapon in the house was not borne out by a careful examination of the interior. Tom Holmes, on the premises ten minutes after the shooting, swore he could find no mark of a bullet. There were no cracks in the floor through which a ball could have passed without making a mark, he said, adding, “There was no pistol loose about Vedder when I went there.” A milkman testified that Plumer owned the house before selling it to the Vedders. Ovid Chauvel, owner of the Hotel de Paris, described Mrs. Vedder’s room at his establishment as being located directly across the hall from that of Henry Plumer and Pat Corbett; he could not recall seeing Plumer and Mrs. Vedder “alone in her room together.” Finally Lucinda Vedder took the stand and described a dismal history of estrangement, physical abuse and jealousy, candidly admitting both she and her husband were badtempered. After repeating her earlier testimony at the coroner’s inquest, Mrs. Vedder blamed her father-in-law for Plumer’s current predicament: Mr. Vedder, senior [has been] talking to me about the circumstances of the killing. He said he would spend the last dollar he had and the last drop of blood if necessary, in order to convict Henry Plumer. I have been advised by my friends that old Mr. Vedder was trying to entrap me—that he was a treacherous man and was seeking the advantage of me. Mr. V. Vedder rebutted her testimony, saying Lucinda confessed to him that she stood within a few feet of her husband when he was shot, and that John Vedder would be alive were it not for her. The victim’s father explained: She told me afterwards that Plumer was asleep when John entered the house. She said she had invited Plumer and Corbett to the house on the evening of the killing. She told me also that she knew that Vedder would be back that night, and that Plumer stood in the door with his head and right hand outside and fired down at John, killing him at the foot of the stairs. She said that she was sorry that she had swom as she did here at the preliminary examination, but could not heip it now. I asked Rice what they wanted to kill my boy for when they knew he was going to Sacramento, and he said he believed they wanted to get her into a house of ill-fame. Judge Searls recessed court on Christmas eve, and the trial resumed on Saturday, December 26. The jury went out at 9:30 p.m. and returned at 1 a.m. with a verdict of second degree murder. On December 30 John McConnell requested a new trial, claiming three jurors had expressed prior opinions of his client’s guilt. Judge Searls gave attomeys on both sides until January 2 tO prepare statements, at which time McConnell offered evidence that before the trial jury foreman George Getchel had said Plumer was guilty and ought to be hung. Similar testi29

om, But Rice also agreed to loan Vedder a pistol, and on the day of the killing Vedder told Rice he was going to kill Plumer: He said that he would try to get under the floor and catch Plumer and his wife together, and kill them both at once. Vedder told me that [not] Plumer nor any other man could be intimate with his wife until he married her. About midnight Thomas Couch heard screams outside his Pine Street residence, which was about 60 feet from the Vedder house. A glance from his window revealed Lucinda Vedder running from house to house and crying for help— her husband had been shot. Couch quickly dressed and hurried to the Vedder’s steep lot on the south side of Spring Street. The front door was at street level, but a staircase connected the rear of the house to a lower level where outhouses were located. It was at the foot of these stairs that he discovered his neighbor’s lifeless body. After noting there was no sign of a weapon in the near vicinity, he entered the empty house. Plumer’s deputies, Bruce Garvey and Pat Corbett, arrived a few minutes later, at which time Couch went back for a second look at Vedder. To his surprise, this time he noticed a 6-inch Colt’s revolver in plain sight alongside the dead man’s hand. Couch testified: I picked it up and saw it was loaded, and was about examining it more closely when Pat Corbett took it out of my hands. “I'll take that pistol,” said he, coming up to me abruptly, and reaching out his hand, he took it and placed it in his bosom. . . . I saw three caps upon the pistol. I was near the body about five minutes when I first went there, and at that time I saw no pistol lying upon the ground... . Corbett returned to the house and left the premises a few minutes later with Garvey and Mrs. Vedder and the pistol. Plumer had by this time turned himself in to the sheriff, and as soon as the marshal was arraigned, both Garvey and Corbett had resigned from the police. Garvey’s replacement on the force was James Malbon, who had served more than one term as city marshal, but was an ordinary patrolman on the night of the killing. City lawmen communicated with whistles, and Malbon testified that on the night in question he heard both gunshots and whistles while on patrol near the Methodist Church. Said Malbon: I heard four reports of firearms, and directly after, I heard a whistle blow. I heard it again ... and it was then blown impatiently. ... I heard [a total of] three whistles blow. ... I met two men running from Spring street and they told me that a man had been killed around there. I then went to the place and found Mrs. Vedder crying, who told me that Plumer had killed her husband. Malbon testified that Corbett followed him to Vedder’s body. Half an hour later, when Corbett had departed with the weapon found by the body, Malbon heard a pistol discharge

once in the vicinity of the Methodist Church. The pistol confiscated by Corbett was later shown to have fired a single shot. Plumer’s story that Vedder had fired a weapon in the house was not borne out by a careful examination of the interior. Tom Holmes, on the premises ten minutes after the shooting, swore he could find no mark of a bullet. There were no cracks in the floor through which a ball could have passed without making a mark, he said, adding, “There was no pistol loose about Vedder when I went there.” A milkman testified that Plumer owned the house before selling it to the Vedders. Ovid Chauvel, owner of the Hotel de Paris, described Mrs. Vedder’s room at his establishment as being located directly across the hall from that of Henry Plumer and Pat Corbett; he could not recall seeing Plumer and Mrs. Vedder “alone in her room together.” Finally Lucinda Vedder took the stand and described a dismal history of estrangement, physical abuse and jealousy, candidly admitting both she and her husband were badtempered. After repeating her earlier testimony at the coroner’s inquest, Mrs. Vedder blamed her father-in-law for Plumer’s current predicament: Mr. Vedder, senior [has been] talking to me about the circumstances of the killing. He said he would spend the last dollar he had and the last drop of blood if necessary, in order to convict Henry Plumer. I have been advised by my friends that old Mr. Vedder was trying to entrap me—that he was a treacherous man and was seeking the advantage of me. Mr. V. Vedder rebutted her testimony, saying Lucinda confessed to him that she stood within a few feet of her husband when he was shot, and that John Vedder would be alive were it not for her. The victim’s father explained: She told me afterwards that Plumer was asleep when John entered the house. She said she had invited Plumer and Corbett to the house on the evening of the killing. She told me also that she knew that Vedder would be back that night, and that Plumer stood in the door with his head and right hand outside and fired down at John, killing him at the foot of the stairs. She said that she was sorry that she had swom as she did here at the preliminary examination, but could not heip it now. I asked Rice what they wanted to kill my boy for when they knew he was going to Sacramento, and he said he believed they wanted to get her into a house of ill-fame. Judge Searls recessed court on Christmas eve, and the trial resumed on Saturday, December 26. The jury went out at 9:30 p.m. and returned at 1 a.m. with a verdict of second degree murder. On December 30 John McConnell requested a new trial, claiming three jurors had expressed prior opinions of his client’s guilt. Judge Searls gave attomeys on both sides until January 2 tO prepare statements, at which time McConnell offered evidence that before the trial jury foreman George Getchel had said Plumer was guilty and ought to be hung. Similar testi29