Louis Fillhardt
Cincinnati Enquirer, 19 April 1910, page 9
LEFT FOR WICHITA
News of the arrest of John DeMoss on the charge of murdering
Louis Fillhardt in Melbourne Ky. on May 16, 1909, was received yesterday by
Sheriff Joseph Dietz of Newport Ky. who left with Deputy Chris Milius for
Wichita to bring him back.
They will stop at Frankfort to obtain requisition papers as a matter of caution, although the Wichita dispatches indicate that DeMoss is tired of being hunted and is willing to return without papers. Some time ago Sheriff Dietz learned that DeMoss had been at Washington Kan. this information coming from L D Walters, a special agent of the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. The description sent by Walters tallied with that of DeMoss and Sheriff Dietz kept the wires and mails hot in an endeavor to have the fugitive apprehended.
White the correspondence was being conducted between the officials DeMoss went to Wichita and Sheriff Dietz promptly wired to Chief of Police Burt, of that city, to look up DeMoss. Burt did so with the result that DeMoss was taken into custody. When arrested Demoss at first denied that he was the man wanted. When his trunk was searched and letters from his wife were found, he admitted his identity and agreed to return to Kentucky without papers.
DeMoss was the station agent at Melbourne. A piece of property was in dispute between Fillhardt and himself. Fillhardt secured possession of it for a baseball ground and it is said, DeMoss threatened to get even. Several days after the men had words Fillhardt walked into his saloon for the purpose of starting up the gasoline lighting apparatus and was shot in the back.
As he turned to seek refuge in a back room two more shots were fired at him. Fillhardt lived but a few hours. DeMoss, it is alleged, compelled a boatman to row him across the Ohio River at the point of a revolver and disappeared.
When Sheriff Dietz left for Wichita yesterday, he took with him $750, the result of a popular subscription to go t the person or persons who apprehended DeMoss. This money was raised by friends of Fillhardt, for the latter was extremely popular in the little hamlet of Melbourne, where he had been born and spent his life. An additional reward of $250 was offered by Governor Willson, but this will probably not be forthcoming until DeMoss has been officially identified. The money will probably be split up between the railroad special agent and the Chief of Police at Wichita.
***************************************
Cincinnati Enquirer, 22 October 1910, page 10
Murder Trial in Newport
It is expected that most of the proof in the case of John DeMoss on trial at Alexandria on a charge of shooting and killing Louis Fillhardt at the latter's home in Melbourne, will be in by tonight.
Felix Griese was the principal witness for the state to the shooting and said that Fillhardt was shot through the back. Louis Vogel heard Demoss make threats that he would get Fillhardt. Jackson Wright explained how DeMoss, after the murder, ran to the river bank and at the point of a gun compelled him to row DeMoss across the river to the Ohio side. George Quehl, who was a Magistrate at that time, told of having taken the murdered man's statement, while the medical testimony was given by Drs. Phythian, Pinguely and Coroner Digby.
****************************************
Cincinnati Enquirer, 7 February 1914, page 2
COURTS RULING
News that the Appellate Court had affirmed the judgment of the Franklin Circuit Court, granting a writ of mandamus to John DeMoss, of Campbell County, who in 1910, was sent to the Reformatory at Frankfort Ky. for a term of from two to twenty-one years for manslaughter, was received with great interest in Newport yesterday, where many attorneys were interested in cases which the indeterminate sentence law had been invoked.
DeMoss was convicted under the indeterminate sentence law and has served the minimum term, two years. After he served the minimum sentence he applied for a writ of mandamus, in which he sought to have the Prison Board parole him. The Franklin Circuit Court sustained DeMoss's contentions and the case was taken tothe higher Court.
DeMoss was convicted of killing Louis Fillhardt at Melbourne Ky. May 16, 1909. The two men had some trouble over a baseball grounds and Fillhardt was shot and killed. After the killing DeMoss escaped by rowing across the river to the Ohio side. Several months later, after roaming about various parts of the country, DeMoss was captured in the West.