Kansas Charley Makes Headlines

Newspaper Gives Opinion Instead of Fact

Kansas Charley, after confessing to a double murder, traveled to Manhattan, Kansas and turned himself over to Sheriff Joseph Meyers at the Riley County Jail in the fall of 1890. He spent that first night confined alone in jail. The following day the sheriff took Charley into his own parlor. The sheriff had arranged for him to give an interview to Albert Stewart, publisher and editor of Riley County's leading newspaper, the Daily Republic. No one warned Charley to be guarded about what he said to this reporter, or to anyone else, less it be used against him when he eventually went to trial. Nor was an attorney present during the interview, or any other time while Charley was incarcerated in the Riley, Kansas's jail. Later, the write-up of the interview spread across the nation, hitting every major newspaper in the country. A part of what was reported probably did as much damage to Charlie's case as anything the boy had said or done previously. Stewart's transmission, in part, said that Charley: "has a kind of cat eye, which betrays a dangerous character when aroused or angered." And so the dye was cast in the case of the Boy Murderer.

Possible Failure of America's Social System

When the Cheyenne, Wyoming newspaper, the Leader had gathered the facts it, at least, paused to give thought in an editorial concerning the neglect of a nation that would allow a youth to exist in the deplorable circumstances that Charley Miller had. It rose the question that, although Charley had committed the murders, how much blame should also be placed on America's social system?

Headed for Cheyenne

Soon after the interview Charley was whisked away to Cheyenne, Wyoming where his fate would be decided. It was a question of whether he would live the rest of his life behind bars or receive a death sentence.

Walter Stroll, Prosecutor

In Cheyenne, Wyoming Charley Miller's case for the prosecution was assigned to attorney Walter Stroll. Stroll was well on his way up the Cheyenne ladder of success when he took on Kansas Charlie's Murder Case. Since 1889, when he had become a member of the political and socially prestigious Cheyenne Club:, Stroll had been rubbing elbows with the elite. Amongst his acquaintances were United States Senators, Wyoming's Acting Governor, the State Attorney, as well as the editors of Cheyenne's two daily newspapers. He also associated with were the local cattle barons who actually ran the political show, a production that Stroll desperately desired to have a leading role in. If Stroll won this case he could look forward to that staring role.

Condemned Before Tried

During this time of Kansas Charlie's stay in jail as he waited for his trial, the local cattle barons had an on-going situation of their own. The big cattle owners were irate over settlers moving onto public lands that the owners of large ranches considered theirs for grazing of their vast herds by right since they were using them first. According to the cattlemen, the settlers were rustling their cattle. It was also the cattle baron's opinion that Kansas Charley, though he had nothing to do with the cattle baron/settler situation, should be hung as a fine example for any one else who wanted to go against the law-the real law or that assumed by the big cattlemen.

Kansas Charlie's Trial Begins

On December 7, 1890, sixteen-year-old Kansas Charley was escorted from his jail cell to the Laramie County Courthouse. There, he was to stand trial for the murders of Waldo Emerson and Ross Fishbaugh. Although Charley had languished some two months in jail, receiving regular meals finally, he was still slight of stature. Charley was small for his age, perhaps a result of the poverty he'd known.

Premeditation and Malice Beyond Doubt

In the courtroom Charley took his seat next to his attorney Frank Darwin Taggart who had yet to be admitted to the Wyoming bar. It would be another year, in October of 1891, before this occurred. Taggart had advised Charley to plead not guilty, in spite of the fact that he had already admitted to the crime. This would mean that the prosecution, in order to ask for the most severe verdict, murder in the first degree, would have to prove every point in the indictment, namely that Charles Miller had killed his victims with premeditation and malice, deliberately and willfully, beyond reasonable doubt.

Evidence Irrelevant and Incompetent

As the trial progressed, Prosecutor Stoll called witness after witness. With each witness for the prosecution defense attorney Taggart persisted and continued to confound each person's statements. With each piece of material evidence submitted Taggart also persistently objected to each, declaring that each were "either irrelevant, incompetent, or both." Both attorneys and the judge well knew that these constant objections were a means of laying the groundwork for a later appeal.

Kansas Charley Makes Headlines continues with Kansas Charley Tried for Murder

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