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Judge Who Threw Out Jesse James CaseBy F. A. Behymer(A Staff Correspondent of the they were looking for, that theyoldest judge in continuous serv- | ice in Missouri.• There will be another election j coming up in a couple of years, j I Will he run again? The judge ] hasn’t made up his mind about it. In one way it would be rather'TRADITIONAL BEDROOM IN COTTONPost-Dispatch)had come to the wrong place.nice to quit and spend the rest ofhis days in peace and comfort atHERMANN, Mo. March 23. Ransom A. Brcuer isn’t that his farm homc a couplc ()f mikJesse James (if he is still in the Kind of a judge. Always just, he . from town. But though he v.-as 8*land of the living) made the mis- can be humane when circum- ! last February, he doesn’t feel the Itake of his life when he went be- stances justify, but in cases that years pressing upon him too'ore Circuit Judge Ransom A. have no such claim, like the caseBreuer at Union, Mo., the other of Jesse James or J. Frank Dal-day asking for the return of his ton, he bears down with all the name. Judge Breuer has no re-, firmness that the law gives himspect for Jesse James, living or dead, and he is not the sort of man to say anything else.For 40 years Judge Breuer has been on the bench, serving the circuit of Hermann, Union and Linn. In that time he has had a lot of bad men before him. Always he has held true to the dictate that justice may be tempered with mercy, but he has never had any patience with an outlaw or a man who claims to be an outlaw.The man who calls himself J. Frank' Dalton, sojourning at the reputed age of 102 at Meramec Caverns near Stanton, Mo., was at this double disadvantage when he asked Judge Breuer to pronounce him Jesse James.Judge Breuer listened for a day to testimony pro and con, then came up with a decision that was Solomonic. If Mr. Dalton was Mr. James, he said, that was all there was to it, and if he wasn’t who he claimed to be he was a fraud anid that was all there was to that’ In other words, there was nothingthe right to exercise.In that case as the judge says‘I just opened up and said whatmuch. He can climb the many! stone steps to the courthouse on | its hill and the two flights to his j ! office without shortness of breath, j I In 40 years he has nevei missed I I a day in court because of illness Ibefore the court.Thus the petitioners’ identity— J. Frank Dalton or Jesse James— is still as undetermined as it was before he asked Judge Breuer to straighten it out. And if the petitioner actually was Jesse James, said the judge, then he “should ask the good God above to forgive him, so he may pass away in peace when his time comes to go.”Outlaw^ and impostdrs have never had easy going in any court presided over by Judge Breuer, but they are not the only ones. It used to be the custom in big lawsuits, as well as criminal cases, for changes of venue to be1 felt.or from any other causeThat is what Judge Breuer has I, ,n ,** ,car.ly days: h,avinR »« been doing all the years that he!,ravlt;!l by lram anlt;1 hack' “ washas been on the circuit courtquite a chore to get to Union or !k. u . i,„ ,■ •„ Linn. Usually lie made the tripbench, always, of course, within .. , , . , *1 the day before, * 1the law as he understands it and j y~ ,u.a,r U,IU1C' so ,JS ^ 0,1 |I hand to open court on time. Now,interprets it. with good roads, he can make the |It has been because of his trip by automobile in an hour.forthrightness that the people of If there’s anything he hates,his district, having elected him in it is to hear a man whine about j1910, have re-elected him at in-j his age. “Oh, I’m so old,” he hearstervals of six years ever since, with no opposition in primary or at the polls, until 1946, when he won against J. T. Tide of Owens-ville.All that time JiMge Breuerlias been a Republican, stanuch in his adherence but making no dis-tictions in court on account ofpolitics, friendship or religion. That is what everybody says and that is why Republicans and Democrats have elected him time after time and have been content to let him serve them.The man who opposed him insome one say, and it makes him I mad. “There’s nothing to it,” he IA Colonial bedroom appropriately decorated with cottons in Colonial prints. The quilted spread is in a pattern called “Williamsburg Flower”. The chair is upholstered in a harmonizing cotton print. Canopy and flounce on the bed are of cotton scrim, edged in ball fringe trim. The fabrics are by F. Schumacher.says. “I’m going to stay young as —long as I m here. With reasonably | old. Anyone who broke the law ' raised in Gasconade good health, nobody has a right I I;ounty andto say ‘Oh, I'm so old.’ ”I was a crimnal, without regard to j has lived in the county ever sinceage. Now young offenders areI f2 years in Hermann. In appearWithout being asked, he says: | lance and in homely wisdom he‘I have enjoyed every minute ol | «lven a chance to mend their j nag becv likened to Abraham Lin-my judicial caieer, and before ways and that he finds is better, j coin. Thereis a suspicion thatthat w’hen I was prosecuting at- ! And there are pardons and par- i torney for four years and county , oles, which were not granted lor- j likes the comparison, but hecollector for six years, and be-1 mtrly except in certain cases, fore lhat when I set up here as I “The new way isn’t perfect,” a young man just out of school, |for the practice of law.” ] he says, “but it is an improve-He became a lawyer by in- | ment over thc old way-”1946 brought nothing against him | clination and choice and has nev-i Teen-agers? If they are worseexcept that he had been on the | er regretted it. He likes the law than they used to be they do not bench a long while and maybe it i because it is an ever-changing and i differ from older people. All arewas time for a changeI------ v... - w.angmg ana jWith i growing thing, always unfolding I living in a fasterage. “We havenothing worse than that against ; and developing—“lopping off at I some mighty good young people,” him. the judge didn’t bother to one ena and adding on at the Judge Breuer said. “The courtssays he never bothered about it After all, he says, “every tub has to stand on its own bottom.” Asked about his religion, Judge Breuer is grimly hesitant. “I have tried to live the dost I know how,” he says, “by the mandates of the Good Book.”Judge Breuer might have dismissed the J. Frank Dfclton-Jesse James ease before the hearing on the ground that thereto that effect and further proof that he was in fact Jesse James, to have it changed back. When, ho,vex er, no claim was made of such a prior change, the evidence offered that he was the real Jesse James had no pertinence, in the xiew of the judge, and he denied the plea.“The people of Missouri and the courts of Missouri,” Judge Breuer sternly said, “have always ' .i ! r. tii . a .s . . . Lom 111 lt;'ground of Missouri to be forgiven.”As lor the crimes committed by Jesse James, Judge Breuer sayslie does not know of any charge of murder ever having been made against him, but if there is such a charge it could be pressed, as the statute of limitations doesn’t apply to murder.Jesse James, whether before him in person or long moldering in his grave, the judge says, was a plain outlaw who dd Missouri a lot of harm. The people of the: jMALONETHEATREContinuous Showing from 2 p. m._ Every Daymake much of a campaign. If the | other,” as he expresses it. That1 are Lying to make it easier forpeople wanted him to serve Ihem j is, it is always being improved I tnem, both in their living and in 1 was no legal issue involved, butyet awhile, all right. If they did I by abandoning old procedures 1hc way that correction is ad- the jurist, true to the practice thatnot, he would step down with ! and adopting better one. I ministered whe nthat has to be. I he lias pursued through his yearsno hard feelings. By their votes, I There have been lots of chan-j There is m great difference be- j on the oench, took the positiona thousand more than he needed, j ges in procedure since he bc-|iwcen people, young and c Id, as | that the petitioner was entitledthe people told him they didn’t gan. In the early days there were ! lho’ arc now and as they used to his day in court,want him to step down just yet. 110 juvenile courts. There was the i to be.” * There was the possibility, too,!So he is still on the bench, the same treatment for young and Judge Breuer was born and that the man might have had hisname changed to Dalton by legal action. In that case he would beSUNDAY A MONDAY MAY 21 A 22juhbusSLtaken from St. Louis to one of the ! judge’s country courts in thc pro- I sumed expectation of gaining some advantage. Lawyers found out, if it was an easy judge thatROBERT UflORIs This The Home You Want?I
Newspaper Details
Sikeston Daily Standard
Sikeston, Missouri, US
Sat, May 20, 1950
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Joplin P.
MO, USA 19 Sep 2024
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