Springer, because he would demand delaying the second trial of
Hale and Ramsey until his own case was resolved.
Before the retrial of Hale and Ramsey for the murder of Roan
began, in late October, a Justice Department official advised St.
Lewis, the prosecutor, that “this whole defense is a tissue of lies,
and it is up to us to get at the facts.” He added, “There will be no
one to blame except ourselves if they succeed in fixing this jury.”
White’s men were assigned to safeguard the jury.
The prosecution presented essentially the same case, though in
more streamlined form. To the surprise of the courtroom, Mollie
was briefly summoned to the stand by Hale’s attorney Freeling.
“Will you state your name?” he asked her.
“Mollie Burkhart.”
“Are you the present wife of Ernest Burkhart?”
“Yes, sir.”
He then exposed the secret that she’d long kept from Ernest,
asking, Was Henry Roan your husband at one time?
“Yes, sir,” she said.
The prosecution protested that the question was immaterial,
and the judge agreed. Indeed, there seemed to be no point to the
line of questioning other than to inflict more suffering upon her.
After she identified a photograph of Roan, she stepped down from
the stand and returned to the gallery.
When Ernest Burkhart was on the stand, the prosecutor Leahy
questioned him about his marriage to Mollie. “Your wife is an
Osage Indian?” Leahy asked him.
“She is,” Ernest replied.
At an earlier proceeding, he was asked what his profession was,
and he said, “I don’t work. I married an Osage.”
One of Hale’s lawyers now asked Ernest if he’d pleaded guilty to