State v. Prunty

Decision Date23 December 1918
Docket NumberNo. 20964.,20964.
PartiesSTATE v. PRUNTY.
CourtMissouri Supreme Court

Appeal from Circuit Court, Audrain County; Ernest S. Gantt, Judge.

Jesse Prunty was convicted of burglary with explosives and of larceny, Ind appeals. Affirmed.

A. O. Whitson, of Mexico, Mo., for appellant.

Frank W. McAllister, Atty. Gen., and Henry B. Hunt, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State,

WHITE, C.

The appellant and one Harry Funk were tried on a joint information and convicted of burglary with explosives and of larceny. The defendants filed separate motions for new trials, and prosecute separate appeals from that conviction; the companion case against Harry Funk being No. 2093, 208 S. W. 97.

The safe of the Farber Bank, located at Farber, Mo., was blown open by explosives and the bank robbed on the night of the 13th, or early in the morning of the 14th of November, 1917. Farber is a town of 450 inhabitants in Audrain county, on the Chicago & Alton Railroad, about 20 miles northeast of Mexico, the county seat. The defendant, Prunty, and his companion, Fuck, were apprethended in Peoria, Ill, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, November 14, 1917. The city Of Hannibal was estimated to be 40 miles or more from Farber and Peoria a bout 115 to 125 miles from Hannibal.

On the evening of November 13th, the bank vault, containing money and other valuables, was closed with a combination time lock, set to open the following morning at 7 o'clock. About 1. o'clock a. m., November 14th, several persons in the town of Farber heard five explosions occurring about 10 minutes apart. Investigation showed that the bank had beer. entered and the safe wrecked. It appears that the knob of the combination lock was knocked off, the crevice around the closed door filled with soap to prevent tie escape of gas, the hole in the door filled with explosives, and the door then blown open.

The next morning bloodhounds were brought to the scene, but refused to take the trail, it was said on account of gas which filled the room; $2,965.43 was missing from the bank safe, of which $1,590 was in currency, and the remainder in silver, nickels, and penales. It was discovered the next morning that a wheat field about three-quarters of a mile from the bank had been entered, through a gap in a wire fence, by an automobile, which drove in, turned around, and drove out. It came from the north, and drove out toward the north. A wet place where the radiator had leaked, indicated that the car had been stopped for a time. The footprints of three men led from where, the car had been stopped out toward the road, and toward Farber, and the footprints of apparently the same three were found returning to the car. The ground was soft; the footprints and car tracks were fresh, indicating they had been made the previous night. One or two witnesses testified that the tracks of the car indicated it was a Ford, with smooth tires in front and non-skid tires behind. The tracks of the car led north toward a place called Center, about 15 miles from Farber; the tracks indicating at turns that the car was running fast it was followed in that direction, and beyond Center where it came to a hard road, and the trail was lost. It was going in the direction of New London and Hannibal. There was a bridge across the Mississippi river at Hannibal, and also one at Quincy, 14 miles north of Hannibal. Quincy was estimated to be 80 to 115 miles from Peoria. It was shown by the defense that a large car, not a Ford, passed over the toll bridge at Hannibal about 5:30 in the morning of the 14th, and no other kind of a car passed over that morning.

About 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the 14th, Prunty and Funk drove into Peoria in a Ford car with smooth tires in front and nonskid tires behind. A motorcycle policeman stopped them, because there was no license number on the car. The men and the car were taken to the police station for the purnose of investigation. The men said that three miles back, where they had stopped to get water, they had had a Missouri license tag on their car. The car was dusty, the men were dusty, "their clothes were mussed and dusty, and their faces grimy." Funk was driving the car. They said they had bought the car for $150 from a man they met on the street in Mexico, Mo. They made this statement to the officer who arrested them, and repeated it to the chief of police at the police station in the presence of another officer. The chief asked them if they had a bill of sale. Prunty searched for such document in his pocket, but could not find it, and said he guessed he must have lost it. The men then were released, the car was retained for further investigation, and the officer who arrested the men was ordered by the chief to take the car over to the patrol house for that purpose in doing so he discovered a grip in it. This grip was taken to the chief's office and examined. It was found to contain a revolver, some cartridges, a hack saw, some fuse and fulminating caps, a pair of greasy gloves, four collars and a shirt. Two collars size 15½, were unmarked, and two 16½ collars and the shirt were marked "H. Funk." Funk was a large man, 5 feet 11 inches in height, weighing 185 to 200 pounds; Prunty was about 5 feet 9 inches, weighing about 165 to 180 pounds—probable fits for the two sizes of collars.

There was also in the grip $1,085.46 in silver, nickels, and pennies, the denominations of the silver being dollars, half-dollars, quarters, and dimes—the same kind of coins as were taken from the bank. Fifty dollars in currency was found on Prunty, three $10 bills and four $5 bills. Some of these bills were torn, had parts burnt or torn off, and small fragments of torn bills were found in the grip. The money taken from the bank was in $5 and $10 bills. Some of the nickels found in the grip were done up in packages and wrapped with blank checks of the Farber Bank. It was shown that the Farber Bank was accustomed to wrapping its nickin the vault of the bank on the night of the els in that manner, and had some so wrapped robbery. The officers also found in the grip a code book, such as is used by banks to abbreviate telegrams, which was identified by the bank officials as belonging to the Farber Bank. In the code book, as it was found in the grip, was an envelope containing a check drawn by one R. Christoferson, payable to one John F. Kaiser, for $10.20. This check thus placed in the envelope and in' the code book, as was shown by the officers of the bank, had been left at the bank for the purpose of delivery to the owner when called for, and they were in the vault when the bank was closed the night of November 13th. There was also found in the grip the screw head of a bolt which, when tried, fitted the hole in the door of the safe in the Farber Bank, from which it is supposed to have been blown by an explosion. This would indicate that the burglars in their hurry swept into the grip, without inspection, everything that was loose in the vault, including the telltale articles mentioned.

The Ford car in which the men arrived in Peoria was identified by N. E. McCoy, a minister of the gospel, who swore that it was stolen from him at Slater, Saline county, Mo., November 10, 1917, four days before it appeared in Peoria.

After the discovery of the grip in the car, the two men were rearrested and examined separately by the officers as to where they got it. This was after they had had time to change their clothes. Prunty said, as they were driving along the road between Farmington and Peoria, they overtook a man walkin, carrying his grip. He asked for a ride, and they took him in and brought him to Peoria. Farmington is about 25 miles west of Peoria. The grip, with its contents, weighed about 60 pounds, or more. Prunty was asked, also, about the currency found in his pocket, and he said he did not know where he got it; that he just had it.

When Tunk, separately, was asked about the grip, he admitted that he owned it, and said the reason his collars and some of his effects were in it was that he had loaned it some time before to a man to take a trip. He did not know the man well enough to know his name, and did not look in the grip to see what might be in it. He said, when they were driving through Quincy on the 14th, he saw the man to whom he had loaned the grip standing on the street, and they picked him up and brought him to Peoria. Quincy was shown to be 80 or more miles from Peoria. It was not shown what Funk's calling was, but Prunty had been a saloon keeper and bartender, and a demonstrator for the Maxwell car.

In defense Prunty told a different story from either of those the two hats related to the officers when arrested. The officer, who intercepted them because of the absence of a license tag, testified that at the time there was a third man on the back seat of the Ford car. He saw him there in dim outline at the time the car was stopped. The curtains were on the car, when there was no apparent need for them; that was one thing that attracted his attention. He did not see the man on the back seat after that, nor know when he left the car; nor did any one else see him. He was not in the car when it was taken to the patrol house for detention, and the sight of the man by the officer was such that he could not identify him if he had seen him again. On that shadowy individual the defense seems to be built up. Prunty testified that be and Funk went Farmington, which is about 25 miles from Peoria, on the morning of November 14th, leaving Peoria about 7 o'clock that morning. They went there for the purpose of buying a car from one Isaac Dalton. They did not see Dalton nor find him in Farmington on that day, but early in the afternoon a man by the name of Adams drove through Farmington in the Ford car. In conversation with him they discovered that the car was for sale; Funk recognized the man driving the car, and introduced him to witness by the name...

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