Photo from the May 30, 1912 Warren Mail Twice tried for the 1911 Emile Amann, John M. Andrews was found not guilty by a jury in Erie County in May 1912.

John Andrews’ appeal to the state Supreme Court for a new trial in connection with the Jan. 1911 killing of Emile Amann on Tanner Hill was successful.

The state’s Supreme Court “after a considerable delay… handed down an opinion deciding that he had not had a fair and impartial trial and that he was entitled to another hearing,” according to a news report.

That was the first step for his attorneys.

The second may have been just as important – getting the trial out of Warren County.

The Warren Mail reported on Feb. 22, 1912 that Andrews’ counsel, Delford Arird, presented “affidavits and newspaper clippings in support of allegation that Andrews cannot obtain a fair trial in Warren County.”

The prosecution responded by arguing that the motion was “made for the sole purpose of delay.”

The Mail, typical in this case, published the entire motion, which included a statement that “the affiant avers that from undue excitement against him in the county of Warren that he cannot obtain a fair trial.”

But the coverage and deep public interest in the case were not the only issues cited.

Counsel asserted that “there is a combination against him (Andrews) instigated by influential persons by reasons of which he cannot obtain a fair trial.”

County Judge Hinckley told the defense and prosecution to hammer out agreement on a location and several counties – Jefferson, McKean, Venango, Clearfield, Crawford and Erie were all discussed.

Just over two weeks later, the court granted that petition and the second trial was moved to Erie County.

The Mail reported in May that Erie County also had trouble finding a 12-person jury to sit for this case.

Their report indicated that the flow of jury selection was quashed when “some person stepped on a dog that had crawled under the spectators’ chairs and the howls emitted by the dumb animal caused the lawyers to turn from their questioning of the jurors.”

One potential juror refused to disclose his age to the prosecutor, simply telling the prosecution that “he was old enough to be the attorney’s father.”

DA Frank Lyons asserted that the “motive for the crime would be shown in the shortage of accounts of the Warren Water Company,” according to the Mail, which also spoke to Andrews.

For his part, Andrews asked the media not to, per the Mail, “humiliate his wife when she appeared in court.”

“She’s the only woman I love and is having it hard enough,” Andrews said. “They can hang me, if they will, but I would ask you to spare her feelings and not refer or to publish her picture.”

I’ll spare you the hundreds of column inches devoted to coverage of the specific trial testimony but, the end result appeared in the Mail on May 30 – “JURY ACQUITS ANDREWS.”

They reported that deliberations ran nearly four hours and noted that “Andrews was overjoyed and thanked each juror personally.”

Because the Mail was published weekly, the jury verdict was actually handed down on May 18, 1912.

“Andrews was nearly behind himself with joy,” the Mail reported. “His brother and sister-in-law Mr. and Mrs. Harry L. Andrews, of Pittsburg, rushed in and embraced him. Andrews tried to jump up to thank the jury before the court had formally adjourned and his attorneys had difficulty in restraining him. The audience was in an uproar though Judge Walling had cautioned the spectators not to make a demonstration, saying ‘This is a courtroom, not a theatre.’

“When court adjourned Andrews jumped over to the jury box and thanked each juror personally, then was hurried away in an auto to the home of a friend. Later he was entertained at the Elk’s club room. Andrews said he had no immediate plans for the future but might have something to say later.”

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Amann is dead.

Andrews has been tried, convicted and then acquitted in the wake of appeal.

Stella Hodge, the woman who made a confession in the killing and retracted it weeks later, was released and left town.

So what’s next?

A report in the Smethpost McKean Democrat on Jan. 30, citing the Mail, assumed that there was a chance new developments would arise.

“Many persons are ‘sick of the subject,'” that report claims, “but let the hand of the law strike again and interest will once more rise to fever heat.”

A May report in the Warren Mail said that one of the star witnesses in the Andrews trial was under some kind of investigation. That never materialized into anything.

An article in that publication in July claimed that a “number of arrests likely to be made” and reported that that the murder may have occurred somewhere other than the reservoir. “The body, it is thought, was carried to the reservoir and a and a revolver thrown down beside it to give the impression that Amann had suicided, but later it was discovered that the unfortunate Amann was the victim of foul play….”

A report in the Titusville Herald in July adds some sensational details to that theory.

“It is said that Amann, on his way to the waterworks, stopped at the house mentioned and being found in a conversation with a young married woman by her husband who entered and finding them seated together, shot Amann twice…. Then, according to the narrative, men in the party got together with the intention of preventing a scandal in which they would all be involved and taking vows of secrecy carried Amann to shere he was found dead.” The report professes that such evidence was “suppressed” during Andrews’ trial.

Hodge pops back into the picture in October when the Greenville Evening Record reported that she had been “arrested in Erie, Pa., by Postoffice Inspector Robert Lewis. She is charged with using the mails to extort money from E.L. Wilcox of Philadelphia, formerly a private detective.”

The New Castle News followed that up in Dec. with a report that says the subject – they identify the individual as “H.G. Silcox” and claimed that was the individual “who obtained the supposed confession” in the Amann case “which she declared had been obtained from her by coercion.”

The letter, according to that report, demanded $500 and threatened his life if he didn’t pay.

Hodge admitted to the conduct and was given a suspended sentence after pleading guilty.

According to a New Castle News account in Aug. 1914, Hodge died at a Buffalo state hospital on Aug. 10 “having been committed to the hospital from Niagara Falls, NY, after she had made a confession that she had killed Mrs. Louise Bailey at Freeport.”

The Bradford Era reported the next turn in the case – Andrews died in Nov. 1914.

Under the headline “MEETS GREAT JUDGE,” the Era reported that Andrews died in New York City of pneumonia.

He’s buried in Sherman in Chautauqua County, NY.

As for the Amann murder case? It’s still cold. No one else was arrested or punished in connection with the killing. It sure seems like everyone in Warren had an opinion on who did it at the time but, like many historical curiosities, we just might never know what happened that night on Tanner Hill.