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The Monroe City Police Chief Rick Stone reported the following activity for the past week.
Police responded to a report of a disoriented man walking down the highway. He said he was going to Pizza Hut.
A burglary was reported at 530 Boulder St. in Stone’s Trailer Park.
Police also assisted numerous motorists who had trouble due to snow and cold.
Police arrested April L. Knouse on a Carroll County warrant. She posted bond and was released.
On Jan. 6, police received a report that W. Mayfield had run off of the road and hit a tree. He left the scene before officer arrival but the property owners did not want to file a report, according to police.
Police issued a summons to Kimberly E. Beers for driving with an expired driver’s license.
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Joshua C. Cole to Derrick R. Moss
Laura A. Williams to C&S Companies, Inc.
Gerald Sharp and Carol U. Sharp to Eileen Mershon
Russell B. DeLaporte, Personal Representative of the Estate of Richard A. McCollum, to Charles L. Anderson
Kevin D. Buss and Patsy A. Buss to Matthew B. Walker
Dale A. Nilges to Mark Borgmeyer and Pamela Borgmeyer
Mary M. DeStefane to Sohail Gulzar
Russell Eugene Tobin and Dorothy L. Tobin to Clarence B. Wheeler and Lisa L. Wheeler
C&S Companies, Inc. to Tyler Pickett
Mississippi Valley Gun Club to Hannibal Pops Club, Inc.
Hannibal Pops Club, Inc. to Bryan Lee Luckey and Carol Lee Luckey
James N. Myers and Lisa K. Myers to Thomas C. Strubinger
Meaghen Shanks and Jim Shanks to Rodger Lewis and Debra Lewis
David G. Houchins and Mandy A Houchins to Dennis B. White
Bonnie J. Morrison to Timothy E. Helbing and Debra S. Helbing
Fannie Mae to Cecil V. Bastian III and Hollie M. Bastian
Federal National Mortgage Association to Cecil V. Bastian III and Hollie M. Bastian
John Ortwerth and Sherri K. Ortwerth to James N. Myers and Lisa K. Myers
Paul Tretiak to Gary Riney
Richard Sanders and Carole Sanders to Richard Wesley Sanders
William J. Rasch, Trustee of William J. Rasch Revocable Living Trust, to Chet Caylyn Rasch, Trustee of the Rasch Irrevocable Trust
Owen Loan Servicing, LLC. to Federal Home Loan Mortgage
Kenneth Yaeger to Gerald L. Sellers and Margaret F. Sellers
Kaden Family Revocable Living Trust to Andrew Scott Lehenbauer and Jessica K. Lehenbauer
Nicole E. McGlone-Santisteven to Fredric Dennis Koehler and Suzanne P. Koehler
Robert L. Fisher, Trustee of Robert L. Fisher Revocable Trust, to Christian W. Lehenbauer and Patricia M. Lehenbauer
Gary and Marsha K. Peery, Mark and Cathy S. Sutton and Rex More and Debby E. Moore to Marvin Rex Moore and Deborah E. Moore
Robert Fountain and Beth Fountain to Patsy U. Miller   4559 100113 1/13/2010 cnw

The following were recorded as paying fines to the Associate Division Fine Collection Center for Dec. 29.
For speeding: Christina S. Buie, Paris; William L. Dyke, Madison; Stephanie A. Fifer, Columbia; Eric E. Hillenbrand, Indianapolis, Ind.; Raymond A. Hofheins, Buckner; Michael J. Melion, Ashland; Dawn R. Peak, Paris; Joseph M. Rexroat, Madison; Shannon D. Schladweiler, Lexington; Carolyn R. Thompson, Monroe City; Andrey C. Totten, Shelbina; Jeffrey S. Wilmes, Columbia, also no seat belt.
The following were recorded as paying fines to the Associate Division Fine Collection Center for Jan. 5.
For speeding: Darren E. Day, Columbia; Julieanne Hagedorn, Columbia; Susan E. Lantz, Hannibal; Luke A. Long, Monroe City; Brent D. Morgan, Madison; Chelsea E. Taylor, Columbia; Natalia S. Usoltseua, Waukesha, Wis.; Karen K. VanCleve, Moberly. For failure to stop at a stop sign: John D. Heathman, Shelbina; Erika R. Logsdon, Madison. For seat belt violation: Benjamin C. Wilt, Shelbina.
Circuit Court
For Dec. 22: Billy Joe Lehenbauer, Paris, trespass in the first degree, six months in the Monroe County Jail, probation revoked on trespass in the first degree and sentenced to six months in the Monroe County Jail to run concurrent.
For Dec. 23: Courtney K. Brammer, Madison, no seat belt, $10; Gerald D. Nichols Jr., Centralia, speeding 70 mph, $105.50.
For Dec. 31: Michael A. Etter, Shelbina, trespass in the first degree, 30 days in the Monroe County Jail.
For Jan. 5: Scott W. Holmer, Barnhart, speeding 64 mph, $200.50; Kathy J. Dyer, Quincy, Ill., speeding 66 mph, $87; Jeremy P. Knoche, Russellville, speeding 64 mph, $200.50; Michelle M. Gause, Monroe City, speeding 59 mph, $200.50, failed to maintain financial responsibility, $50.50; James P. Johannaber, Paris, passing bad check, 30 days in the Monroe County Jail; Avrell G. Tillman, Paris, trespass in the first degree, four days in the Monroe County Jail; Anthony E. Rost, Monroe City, driving while driver’s license revoked, six months in the Monroe County Jail, driving while intoxicated, $500 fine and six months in the Monroe County Jail; Todd A. Grigsby, Monroe City, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident, $500 fine and six months in the Monroe County Jail.
Civil Court
Karen Gigax vs. Julie Neer Hamilton, judgment for the plaintiff $1,250; Citibank (South Dakota) N.A. vs. Ben Serenil, judgment for the plaintiff $1,983.55 plus court costs and interest; US Bank vs. Joyce P. Stahlschmidt, judgment for the plaintiff $3,771.29 plus court costs and interest.   4560 100113 1/13/2010 cnw

The following cases were heard in Monroe City Municipal Court by Judge Michael Wilson on Jan. 7.
Kayla Renee Bichsel did not appear on a charge of failure to register annually with the Department of Revenue. A warrant was issued for her arrest and bond was set at $100 cash only.
Jason Dennis Birdno paid a fine of $59 for failure to stop for a stop sign.
Kelly D. Bradley had a charge of failure to register annually with the Department of Revenue continued to Feb. 4.
A warrant was issued for the arrest of Rachele A. Breuer. She failed to make payment on a fine stemming back to March of 2009 for disorderly conduct.
A bench trial was set for Feb. 4 for Jamie Chambliss who faces charges of assault in the first degree.
John Michael Fulton paid a fine on a charge of failure to stop for the stop sign.
Caleb C. Gottman paid a fine of $74 on a charge of following too closely.
Dillon C. Johnson forfeited bond on a charge of disorderly conduct in the first degree. The charge stemmed back to April of 2009.
Micah Isaiah King forfeited a fine on a charge of possession of intoxicants by a minor. The bond was applied to his fine. On a charge of driving while intoxicated, bond was also forfeited on the fine.
Racheal Ann Leake paid $33.50 on a charge of failure to maintain financial responsibility.
Anling Lin paid $74 on a charge of following too closely.
Rebecca Marie Lipp forfeited a bond on a charge of disorderly conduct.
Deidra B. McKay paid $74 on a fine of speeding.
Harry W. Miller had a case of failure to stop for a stop sign on Feb. 4.
William Randall Mudd III paid the balance of fines on charges on driving while intoxicated, drug/narcotic violations and drug equipment violation. The charges stemmed back to February of 2008 and the defendant was discharged.
Camille L. Murphy failed to appear on an abatement notice and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Bond was set at $1,000 cash only.
A charge against Joshua B. Null for failure to register annually with the Department of Revenue continued to Feb. 4.
Charges of failure to stop for the stop sign and driving while intoxicated against Jessica Kay Portwood were continued to March 4.
James V. Ramey paid a fine of $74 on having no chauffeur’s/operator’s license.
A case against Dustin W. Rice for destruction of private property will be reviewed again March 4. Rice is in the Marion County Jail.
Ben J. Serenil appeared and pleaded guilty to a charge of speeding. His fine was taken from his bond.
Melissa Ann Shuck had a charge of failure to maintain financial responsibility continued to Feb. 4. Ronald J. Stark paid a fine of $74 for following too closely.
Saylor C. Timbrook withdrew a previous not guilty plea to a charge of speeding. He was fined $200 plus court costs. Two other charges were dismissed.
Brittany Emiko Utterback paid $33.50 on a charge of failure to maintain financial responsibility and $58 for speeding. She also paid $59 for non-working headlights.
Rita B. Washington had charges of failure to register annually with the Department of Revenue and failure to maintain financial responsibility continued until Feb. 4.
Charges of peace disturbance in the first degree and disorderly conduct in the first degree were continued until Feb. 4 for Bradley Joseph Williams.   4561 100113 1/13/2010 cnw

On the evening of Dec. 29, 1888, Hannibal’s elite gathered at 207 North Fifth Street, home of former Mayor William Munger, for an evening of cards and dancing. One of the state’s wealthiest citizens, Amos J. Stillwell, and his wife, Fannie, left the party about midnight and walked to their home in the 100 block South Fifth Street. Before they could get settled down for the night, Fannie later told investigators, an unknown intruder appeared in the bedroom they shared with their two youngest children, brutally murdered the packing house magnate with a double-sided axe and fled the scene. Fannie fainted in fright. The children slept through the assassination.
When she regained consciousness a short time later, Mrs. Stillwell woke family servants to take charge of the children and began trying to wake neighbors to come to her aid. One of the first to arrive on the scene was Dr. J. C. Hearne, her physician and a guest at the Munger party. Working through the night with law enforcement, he and the other neighbors discovered the bloody murder weapon and money that had apparently been dropped by the assassin. The servants tidied up the murder scene and washed Stillwell’s body. He was embalmed the next day for a speedy and well-attended funeral. Some said the widow was too grief-stricken to attend and Dr. Hearne stayed by her side.
With little physical evidence to go on, no arrests were made and the case went cold.
If the community was shocked at the crime, all but a few were even more surprised when the widow Stillwell and the good Doctor Hearne were married exactly a year after the crime. Stillwell’s son by his first wife, Richard Stillwell, and his wife attended the nuptials; Marion County Prosecuting Attorney Clay Heather was the best man.
Nearly seven years later Clay Heather would present the State’s evidence against Dr. and Mrs. Hearne after they were indicted for Amos J. Stillwell’s murder. They were returned from their home in California and transferred to the Pike County Jail in October 1895 on a change of venue from Marion County to await trial. The Monroe City NEWS claimed to have the most complete coverage of the testimony presented at trial, although the case was a national media event.
What today might be considered “dream teams” of attorneys were lined up for both sides. The state was represented by Prosecuting Attorney H. Clay Heather, of Marion County; Prosecuting Attorney Pearson, of Pike County; Hon. R. P. Giles; Hon. Champ Clark and Judge Dempsey. The defendants were represented by Col. Nat C. Dryden, Hon. David A. Ball, Col. R. E. Anderson, Hon. G. M. Harrison, Judge Fagg, Hon. E. B. Hicks, Hon. Majors and Col. Motley.
On Dec. 9, 1895, Col. Dryden presented a motion to have the cases tried separately, which was honored by the court. The Hon. Clay Heather asked that the state try Dr. Hearne first and his motion was approved.
As the prosecution’s case was presented and witnesses called, the events of the past seven years were presented to a spell-bound newspaper audience. Not long after the funeral Fannie Stillwell checked into a sanitarium in Battle Creek. Richard Stillwell, who had worked with his father in the packing business, was in charge of wrapping up his father’s estate. The local gossips back in Hannibal were apparently casting suspicion on those they believed might profit from Stillwell’s death, despite the fact that Fannie had posted a reward for those responsible. In his first court appearance for the state, Richard Stillwell read a letter he had written his step-mother Jan. 28, 1889, that said in part:
“When I was in Chicago on my way to Battle Creek I saw Pinkerton (of the Pinkerton Detective Agency) and he informed me that he thought Dr. Hearne was implicated. When he asked me what I proposed to do, I told him Dr. Hearne was our family physician and a perfect gentleman and could be guilty of no crime. I told him the family did not care to spend time or money in this direction. I dropped by Dr. Hearne’s office as I came down to supper and asked him to write tonight. Pinkerton told me every member of our family had been mentioned as possibly implicated, from me down. Both you and I are innocent of any complicity in my father’s death. I will send you $200 Monday to pay your expenses at the sanitarium. The partnership inventory will be ready next week and I will send you the amount of your estate so you can guard yourself in the future.”
When asked why, after an early show of support for his step-mother that even included attending her wedding to Dr. Hearne, he had now come to believe they caused his father’s death, Richard Stillwell replied that in light of new testimony presented in a “libel case” he had come to believe they were guilty.
Dr. and the new Mrs. Hearne left Hannibal in 1891 for St. Joseph and from there went to California where he opened a lucrative practice. The marriage turned sour and on Aug. 10, 1894, Fannie Hearne was granted a divorce in California on the grounds of cruelty and failure to provide for her. Dr. Hearne convinced her to marry him again shortly thereafter, but not before a reporter got wind of the Hannibal murder and started his own investigation. Dr. Hearne sued M. H. Young for libel, but by then detectives that the reporter had hired had unlocked secrets that had been hidden for years. The judge barred any direct mention of the libel suit, but several prosecution witnesses did testify that Mrs. Stillwell and Dr. Hearne had been meeting in more than a casual manner for several years prior to her husband’s murder.
Hon. J. F. Davison testified that he resided next door to Dr. Hearne’s office in 1888. He had noticed the peculiar conduct of Dr. Hearne and Mrs. Stillwell for four years prior to the murder. Dr. Hearne remarked to him on a train while coming from St. Louis that Mrs. Stillwell had sent him (Hearne) word that she would like to sleep with him one night to know what it would be like to sleep with a healthy, vigorous young man (her husband was nearly 20 years her senior) and he had replied to her that she could have the opportunity.”
Mrs. Susie Hayward, a long-time friend of Mrs. Hearne, testified that a year before the murder, she had come to Hannibal to visit Fannie and discovered that she and the doctor were having an affair. Fannie confessed and asked her friend to help her “break it off” with the doctor because he had such influence over her she couldn’t do it alone. When Mrs. Hayward met face to face with Dr. Hearne he said he wouldn’t give Fannie up. She could get a divorce or “I could have him slugged for $2.50.” He then confessed that Mr. Stillwell had come home unexpectedly one night when he was in the house, and when Mrs. Hayward asked what he would have done had he been discovered he said “he would have shot him and he would have been taken for a burglar.” She testified that he also stated he would kill anyone who came between him and Mrs. Stillwell.
The prosecution offered other witnesses to the ongoing affair but told the jury it would be up to them to say “whether or not we have presented the proper parties as the authors of this black and bloody crime.” He admitted the case against Dr. and Mrs. Hearne was circumstantial, as is “almost always the case in crimes of this character.”
The defense painted a picture of Dr. and Mrs. Hearne that was quite different from that of the prosecution. They focused on Dr. Hearne as a widower with two children who had enlisted in support of the Confederate cause when he was a young man in Kentucky, then graduated from college in Columbia and continued his medical training and became an admired and respected member of the community. The NEWS reported that the jury was composed primarily of Confederate sympathizers.
The state’s witnesses had portrayed Mrs. Hearne as a socialite, bored with her aging husband and family life. She was to be tried separately but testified at her husband’s trial as to the circumstances of the crime itself and her relationship to both the victim and the defendant. Under questioning she was modeled as a loving wife who had remained faithful to her husband of 20 years and had given him six lovely children.
The Monroe City NEWS of Dec. 26 1895 said: “Friday and Saturday were two solemn anxious days for the Hearne’s. After all the rebuttal testimony had been given the defense declared themselves ready for argument. Then the best of the fight began in earnest. Able arguments from Attorneys Giles, Ball, Heather, Hicks and Harrison, consumed all day Friday and far into the night. The two lions Clark and Dryden, consumed the day Saturday ‘till four o’clock, and it is said, both made the strongest arguments ever made before a Pike county jury. Dryden’s pathetic appeal kept the entire court room in sobs and tears during all of his speech. While that of Clark’s was in a different vein, it was just as strong and able. Clark finished his speech at four o’clock p.m. and at 4:15 the jury retired. At 5:15 they filed back into the courtroom and up to the judge’s stand. The foreman, Shelton Cochran, after announcing that a verdict had been returned, handed the judge a folded sheet of paper from which he read: ‘We, the jury, find the defendant, Joseph C. Hearne not guilty.’”
Mrs. Hearne was released on bond and her case was not pursued. Officially the murder of Amos J. Stillwell is still an unsolved mystery.

  4562 100113 1/13/2010 his

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