Ottawa, Kans., Feb. 26.--Frank Schneck and Mrs. Mollie Stewart, charged jointly with the murder of Schneck's wife and two children at Centropolis on the night of February 3, 1907, were bound over for trial in the district court by Justice C. L. Robbins last evening. Ed Stewart, husband of Mrs. Mollie Stewart, gave the evidence which broke down Mrs. Stewart's positive alibi for Schneck. Stewart testified that his wife and Schneck were up during the night, that the Stewart horse had been driven and that there was blood on the buggy. Justice Robbins will decide an application for bail today. Frank Schneck and Mrs. Stewart came into the court room shortly after 11 o'clock, closely attended by Under Sheriff Latimer. Schneck had visited the barber shop in preparation for yesterday's appearance and was looking his best. Mrs. Stewart wore a gray suit, and had evidently avoided as far as possible any suggestion of a residence in jail. Her efforts at dress had been successful. Schneck and Mrs. Stewart were seated behind their attorney, Mr. Melvin. Beside them sat Eli Schneck of Lawrence, father of Frank Schneck, an old man whose black hair and whickers are just beginning to show signs of gray. To the group was later added Richard Schneck, of Kansas City, a brother of Frank. Schneck and Mrs. Stewart were read the new complaint by Sheriff Cody. When this formality was over, they chatted together and Schneck repeatedly grinned. It was the first talk they had had together since their arrest and there seemed to be many amusing features. Over to the north of the smiling party, at one end of the jury box, sat a man who glanced occasionally at the two prisoners. This was Ed Stewart, husband of the woman charged with assisting Frank Schneck in the murder, and the man on whose testimony the arrest are said to have been made. Sampson Bales was the first witness called. He is the nephew of the late Mrs. Schneck, who helped move the family back to Centropolis, and who found the bodies of the murdered victims. It was clearly the purpose of Attorney Melvin to place the state's witnesses on record on every possible detail of the murder story for purposes of comparison with the testimony to be given before a jury in district court. Mr. Bales made a good witness and told his story with much composure. There was much inquiry about the fastenings of the doors. The crowd had broken open the locked east door. The witness had first tried the south door, and though the screen was latched. He had found the north door locked. Some of the windows had had sash latches, he said, and some had not. Bales said he did not go into the room where the bodies lay, when the crowd broke in. When he looked int he window he looked directly into the face of the dead boy. The blood marks on the face looked like finger prints. The boy lay next the wall, and the girl in the middle of the bed. The blood marks on her also looked like finger prints. Both children lay upon their backs with the bed clothing pulled up over them. The mother's body was invisible from the window. Dr. L. W. Roller, of Centropolis, was next called. He described the positions of the bodies. "The bodies of the children were in such position as if placed so after death," said the witness. Objection was made to this testimony. There was a flurry in the crowd massed about the railing and it was found that a young woman, Miss Leone Calvin, daughter of L. J. Calvin, of the north side, had fainted. Dr. Roller said he discovered finger prints in blood upon the forehead of the two children. The thumb print on the forehead of the little boy was from a large thumb--"Larger than mine" said the witness. "There were distinctly separate prints of the fingers." "The wounds were smooth, clean cut, as though made by a sharp knife," said the witness. There was much blood upon Mrs. Schneck's pillow on the front of the bed. There were bloddy marks over her face, as though a hand had brushed across her face. The feather tick of the bed was partly off, and Mrs. Schneck's body rested partly on that. "Did you find any knife or instrument about the room?" asked Attorney Melvin. "A small case knife," answered the witness. "Was it sharp or dull?" "Very dull." The witness was excused. F. M. Shadle was the next witness. He followed the party called by Bales to investigate the murder. Shadle said that after midnight Sunday night he heard a rig going past his house. The ordinary road to Ottawa from the Schneck place lay by his house, he said. ... B. S. Howell, a farmer living south and east of Centropolis, was called. Between 2 and 3 o'clock on Monday morning, a rig, rapidly driven, passed the Howell place, coming from the direction of Centropolis and going toward Ottawa. He happened to be up. His dog lunged off the porch and followed the rig but was unable to keep up with it. When the crime was first discovered, Schneck, who had been staying at the Stewart home in North Ottawa, and his wife, had just moved back to Centropolis. Following the murder Mrs. Stewart told a story, establishing an alibi for Schneck the night of the killing. Stewart made public yesterday the first testimony interfering with that alibi. Stewart swore yesterday that at 4 o'clock the morning after the murder he was awakened by the sound of a whispered conversation in his kitchen. He noted the absence of Mrs. Stewart from his room. The voices were those of Schneck and Mrs. Stewart, he said. Mrs. Stewart soon returned to the room, dressed, he said. The next morning Stewart found Schneck's overcoat and shoes, which had been left down stairs at bedtime the night before, upstairs by the stove. At the barn Stewart found that his driving horse had been hard driven during the night. There was blood on the harness and on the side of the buggy. A woolen robe was missing and has never been found. The barn doors, which had been wired shut the night before, had been pulled open. The day after the murder Stewart found his wife washing and scraping blood from a shirt which had been worn by Schneck, he said, and Stewart was cautioned by his wife that hey had better get their stories together as the implication of Schneck in the murder would mean the implication of them all. (Lawrence Daily Journal, July 26, 1908) SCHNECK TRIAL Ottawa, Kans., April 13.--The trial of Fran Schneck for the murder of his wife and children at Centropolis began today in Ottawa. Mrs. Molliw Stewart, who is accused of being an accomplice, is to receive trial separately. When court convened this afternoon the court toom was filled with a large crowd who were anxious to hear the testimony of the SCHNECK TRIAL Ottawa, Kans., April 13.--The trial of Frank Schneck for the murder of his wife and children at Centropolis began today in Ottawa. Schneck seems to be as cheerful as usual and does not seem more worried than he has at any time. His two sisters, Mrs. Harry Stevens and Mrs. John Morrow, are both here from Oklahoma, and are with him. Mrs. Stewart, too, seems to feel cheerful and not worried because she is on trial for the murder of a woman and her children. ... -- The state contends that Schneck and Mrs. Stewart drove from the Stewart home in Ottawa, facing a terrific storm of snow and wind from the northwest, and that hwile Mrs. Stewart held the horse Schneck forced his way into the little frame cottage where his wife and children were living and cut their throats. The defense will contend that Mrs. Schneck killed her children and then committed suicide. ... Each of the three victims had been butchered. The gashed in the throats extended entirely through the neck to the backbone. On the forehead of the little boy and girl were found the bloody print of a large hand. ... Frank Schneck and the Stewarts were friends. Schneck was a bronco buster, a hardy, dare-devil, whose exploits at horsemanship were the talk of the neighborhood years ago. ... (Lawrence Daily Journal, April 13, 1908) Ottawa, June 2, 1908 -- Judge Smart yesterday afternoon sentenced Frank Schneck to be taken to the state penitentiary, by the sheriff, where he would be kept for not more than a year, at hard labor, at the end of which time, unless sentence be commuted by the governor, he should hang by the neck. (Lawrence Daily Journal, June 2, 1908). Mrs. Stewart was also convicted (see numerous newspaper articles for further information).
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Lawrence Journal-World, Mar 10, 1934 Supreme Court Decides Frank Schneck has Civil Rights-- Topeka, March 10. (AP)--The order of the Wyandotte district court quieting the title of Frank Schneck , once convicted to be hanged for the slaying of his first wife, to 34 acres of land which had been owned by his second wife prior to her death, was affirmed by the supreme court today. Schneck's right to the property was contested by a half sister and several nieces and nephews of his second wife, Mrs. Ellen King Schneck on the ground that his marriage to her was void as he was a felon at the time of the ceremony because the pardon under which he was granted his liberty was granted without notice. Schneck was convicted in Franklin county in 1908 of murder in the first degree and was sentenced to be hanged under a law which provided he should be confined in the penitentiary for a year and then hanged if the governor signed the death sentence. The death penalty was repealed, however, before expiration of the year and he remained in the penitentiary. Ten years later, in 1918, Schneck was pardoned by then governor, US Senator Arthur Capper, on the condition that he enter military service. He was married to his second wife in 1920.
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Harshman-46
