The Winchester in the Bottoms

A farmer in the Indian Territory, last seen alive around noon, was found dead in the road in a creek bottom two miles from home at four o'clock, shot with a Winchester. Between two and three o'clock, two witnesses had seen the farmer's hired hand, who had been clearing his land, a few hundred yards from the spot, walking toward them with a Winchester. The farmer rented his land from an Indian, but it was also claimed by a Choctaw woman. The hired hand had boasted he would marry her and get the land, and married her four days before the killing. Prosecutors also called a witness who said another man had vanished after last being seen with the accused and his brother. The defence called the vanished-man evidence prejudicial and argued the evidence could not support a conviction.