Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/599

 the children she pushed the door ajar and saw the show. Then she closed the door, went off, and never spoke of it to any one except her husband. Of course, her testimony fell as lightning from a clear sky. There was no means of refuting it, and it turned the scales against the defendant. But after the conviction the refutation became ample: Mrs. George Anderson met Mrs. Manning on the train and heard her story, and she asserted that “when she got to the kitchen door there was no one there, so she went to the dining room door, and there saw Stepp and Florence on the floor.” Then, as she swears, this Mrs. Manning was living with her son on land rented from the Days. And that is of importance. It gives us the missing link and the motive. Thomas B. Wood, of Sarles, made affidavit that for 15 years he had known Mrs. Manning, and during that time she had changed her name several times; that her reputation for truth is bad; and that he would not believe her under oath.

Lizzie Lurton, of Sarles, made affidavit that for 15 years she had known Mrs. Manning; that her reputation was not good; and that she would not believe her under oath, and added: “I believe she would swear false for money.”

A. L. Wheeler makes a similar affidavit.

William Winfield swears: “I have known Mrs. Manning 15 years, and I would. not believe her under oath.” Julia Welcome swears that in the summer of 1919 Mrs. Manning visited at her home in Sarles and said to her: “I don’t believe Hiram Stepp is guilty, do you?” “The reputation of Mrs. Manning for truth and veracity is bad, and I would not believe her under oath.”

Guy L. Welcome swears: “I reside at Sarles. I have known Mrs. Manning for 20 years”; that during the summer of 1919 she stayed at the home of himself and his wife, and she said: “I don’t believe Hiram Stepp is guilty; do you?” The witness says:

“Mrs. Manning is a sister of my father, and that for two years her husband has been in Colorado, and she keeps company with other men; that her reputation for truth and veracity is bad, and I would not believe her under oath, and that she is a trouble maker and does not get along with her neighbors. And that she lives with her son, Henry Aldrich, who rents land owned by Mr. Day, the father of Florence.”

With such testimony given on a third trial, the chances are that a