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On Trial
“On Trial For His Life” read the headline in The Parsons Advocate on December. 3, 1897, when proceedings against Bob Ridley began. “By now Conley’s paper had demoted him: the sub-headline read “The jury selected which will decide the fate of R. W. Eastham,’ ” his great nephew reported.
That jury selection hadn’t been easy. It proved almost impossible to find 12 unbiased men. The first panel was exhausted and the sheriff and his deputies sent out into the county to round up another batch of prospective jurors. Even the 12 seated in the jury box on December 3 were challenged by the defense as having been unlawfully selected for the jury panel by the county commissioners in the first place, according to Eastham.
Bob Ridley’s lawyers fought the charges against their client inch by inch, prompting compliments even from the editor of The Parons Advocate: ‘The wit and wisdom displayed by the attorneys is simply stupendous and especially is this so of Messrs. Davis and McCormick,” wrote Conley.
Who Fired First?
The key issue was who fired the first shot. “The question was never answered ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ during the trial despite lengthy interrogations of witnesses on the point.’ And there were at least 62 eye witnesses! The parade across the witness stand included most of those who were present in the railway car. Several witnesses candidly admitted that they took cover fast when the shooting started, some through the windows of the railway car, and, really, were in no position to testify as to who fired first,” Eastham reported.
Toward the end of the trial, Bob Ridley took the stand in his own defense and gave his version of the sequence of events. “Several times during his testimony he asserted that he shot
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