The Madison Daily Leader

INTENT TO KILL
Shooting of Senator Goebel of
Kentucky Evidently Delib-
erately Planned.
Chief Wonder Is That the At-
tempt Was Not Entirely
Successful.
Five Shots Fired, Only One of
Which Was Effective---Great
Excitement.
FRANKFORT, Ky., Jan. 31,-1:30 p. m.
-Goebel's condition not so good and
grave fears are entertained. He him-
self is calm and insists that he will not
die.
FRANKFORT, Ky., Jan. 31.-Senator
William Goebel was shot and very se-
riously injured at 11:10 a. m., while
passing through the state house yard on
his way to the capitol building.
The shots were fired from a rifle, only
one of them taking effect. It struck
Mr. Goebel in the right side, one-third
of the distance down from the armpit to
the hip. The ball passed entirely
through the body, coming out below the
right shoulder blade. It is thought by
the physicians in charge that the wound
will not prove fatal, unless complications
set in. Harland Whittaker, a farmer
from Butler county, is under arrest,
charged with having fired the shots, but
he denies that he had anything to do
with it. Five revolvers were found
upon him when he was taken into cus-
tody.
How It Occurred.
Mr. Goebel, in company with Colonel
Jack Chinn and Warden Eph Lillard of
the Frankfort penitentiary, was walking up the sidewalk leading from the
street to the capitol building. Goebel
being on the right of the three. When
the three men were two-thirds of the
distance from the street to the capitol, a
shot was fired from the third story of
the building, occupied by the offices of
the governor, secretary of state and
other leading officials of the state. The
ball struck Mr. Goebel in the side and
he instantly dropped to the pavement.
Chinn and Lillard instantly seized him.
Chinn saying as he did so:
"I guess they have got you, Goebel."
"Yes," replied the wounded man,
"guess they have got me for sure."
While Chinn was holding the wound-
ed man, supporting his head in his arms,
four shots were fired at both men. All
of them struck close, making the dust
fly from the brick pavement. Both
Chinn and Lillard stuck to their friend,
neither of them moving from his side
until the firing ceased.
Arrested One Man.
Within three minutes after the shoot-
ing, a line of men was thrown around
the building from which the shots were
fired, with the intention of preventing
the escape of anybody from the struc-
ture. John Wiles, an aged citizen
of Frankfort, was standing at the foot
of the stairway leading from the first
floor of the office building to the west,
when a man, evidently a mountaineer,
came rushing down the steps. Wiles
instantly threw his arms around the
man, and held him, calling loudly for
help. It was close at hand, and no es-
cape was possible for the prisoner, even
had he attempted to make the effort.
Men stood around him on every side
with drawn revolvers in their hands,
and the slightest attempt at resistance
would have resulted in his instant
death. He submitted to arrest very
quietly, claiming again and again that
he had nothing to do with the shooting
He gave his name as Harland Whittaker
and said that he was in the state office
building when he heard the shots, and
believing the long-predicted battle in
the streets in Frankfort had come at
last, hastened out to see what was going
on. He was searched at once and three
large revolvers, all fully loaded, were
taken from him. None of the cartridges
had been exploded and there was no
sign of any of the weapons having been
in use.
Maintained His Innocence.
He was hurried to the jail, three
blocks away, with all possible speed, for
it was feared an attempt might be made
to lynch him, and it was accomplished
before the crowd could lay hands on
him. He did not lose his composure for
an instant, notwithstanding the excite-
ment around him.
"I don't know no more about it than
any of you all," he remarked. "I was
there on the first floor, I heard the shots
and heard somebody say somebody was
shot. I thought maybe that all this
trouble they have been talking about
had just commenced and I ran down
the steps to see what was going on. A
man grabbed me and other men got
around me, and here I am, and that's
all I know, and that's a fact."
Deliberate Attempt to Kill.
That the attempt to kill Mr. Goebel
was deliberate admits of no doubt what-
ever, and the only wonder is that it
failed. There was no reason why it
should have failed, except for poor
marksmanship. The window from
which the shots were fired was raised
about eight inches from the bottom, and
the man who fired at him had a perfect
range of not over 500 feet with Goebel's
tall figure in a black overcoat in sharp
relief against the white snow-covered
ground behind him. It is claimed by
many judges of good shooting who
abound in Frankfort at the present time,
that the would-be assassin was misled by
the looseness of the overcoat and fired
too much to one side.
The soldiers who have been on duty
for two weeks are in charge of the state
capitol building.
They rushed from the arsenal already
uniformed within a very few minutes
after the attempt at assassination was
made, and in double-quick time pro-
ceeded to the state house. Guards were
placed at all the entrances and no one
allowed to pass in.
Militia Ordered Out.
CINCINNATI, Jan. 31.-Company H, of
the Second Kentucky, Captain Bennett
commanding, has been ordered to Frank-
fort and will leave on a special train.