Questions from Mr. Hobart, Esq. to Mrs. Finnegan.

Mrs. Finnegan:

It is my duty and obligation as prosecutor of Franklin County to ask you a few questions.  I assure you madam that if my questions seem intrusive, they are necessary to the pursuit of justice. Your cooperation is appreciated.

Madam,

Where are you from?

Right down the road from the inn being used for a courthouse.  My sister in law and niece work there.  Originally from Paris, KY.

What was the nature of your business at the cabin? 

I stopped to rest.  I thought I was going to catch the stage there, but was informed by three different people that service had stopped.  Each person told me a different date service had stopped.  Mr. McKenzie informed me the last stage had gone through the day before I got there.  Mr. Downard informed me it had been six months.  Mr. Cooper said it had been ten years.  If I wasn't suspicious of some of them, I became suspicious by the time I heard the third version.  Last time I had traveled through, probably about 15 years ago, the stage stand was in full swing.

Where were you going when you stopped at the cabin? 

I was on my way to Frankfort to file my husband's will in probate.

What relationship did you have with Downard? 

He seemed a nice enough fellow.  He readily agreed that I could stay overnight in exchange for some mending of clothes.  He offered to share food.  He even suggested having a Bible reading on the second day I was there. 

What relationship did you have with MacKenzie? 

Mr. MacKenzie was quieter and not quite as outgoing as Mr. Downard but seemed glad to have his jacket and trowsers repaired.  I was impressed that he figured out a 'magic' trick that Mr. Cooper tried on us.  He was very handy and made a new maul out of mock orange wood in about fifteen minutes and dug stone steps on the side of the creek bank in quick time too.

What was your relationship with the Coopers?

They were strangers who came along to the stand after I arrived.  Mr. Cooper acted like he had expected the cabin to be abandoned and was most unhappy to find the two young men and me there.  He introduced Mrs. Cooper to them and then made a joke about one of them taking me for a wife.  He didn't make a very good first impression.

Tell me about you conversation with Mrs. Cooper while you were outside. 

She said that Mr. D and Mr. M had known her husband years before, that they had been in the slave recuperation trade and had had a falling out.  I noticed that they had almost no trappings with them and she said they had to leave Lexington quickly and that their belongings had been stolen from their hotel room. 

Have you ever conversed with Mr. Cooper?  Pray,tell me of that conversation.

Mr. Cooper was no gentleman.  He used foul language and I asked Mrs. Cooper to ask him to desist but he became more surly in his manner after that and was rude to me personally.    The extent of our conversation had to do mainly with me trying to ask him to remember there were ladies present and him saying he didn't see any ladies.   Mrs. Cooper was pleasant enough.  I felt sorry for her, having to put up with him. 

Could you detect any animosity between any of these people?

Mr. Downard got along well with Mr. McKenzie but when the Coopers came along it seemed like all he could do was to show animosity toward Mr. Cooper.  They had quite a few firearms around and would go out to check the horses carrying as many as they could.  Mr. Cooper was likewise mean toward them.  Mr. Downard was excited at dinner time about 'getting the ham bone' in his beans and came to the window to exclaim about it and Mr. Cooper got so angry I thought he was going to jump in the window after him.  Later they fought over this.  It seems that Hambone was the name of a valuable slave that was killed while in their hands.  Mrs. Cooper told me this also.

What is your assessment of your companions at the cabin? 

I felt like a fish out of water.  They all knew each other...not so much Mrs. Cooper, but I think she already knew about Mr. D and Mr. M.  As soon as the Coopers arrived, the air began to crackle.  The air was electric.  By the second morning I was ready to walk the rest of the way to the new stage line and get away from them with my purse intact and my husband's will still in my bag.

What kind of relationship did the Coopers have with each other?

I told her I didn't understand how she had ever seen much in Mr. C.  She said there was more to him than I saw and that usually he was nicer to her.  Usually they were trying to get each other to do work they didn't want to do.  He did put together a tripod to hang her cooking pot from and made a nice little handle to pick up the lid with and a nice hook to hang the pot on.  When he was shot, she didn't show much emotion.  I tried to console her but she didn't seem to want any consolation.  She wouldn't let me turn him over to try to help his wounds.  She said part of his face was blown away.  I never saw any tears at all when he died.

Did you ask Downard and Mackenzie where they thought the shots came from?

No.  I knew where they came from.  I saw the smoke and the backs of two people running through the brush into the woods toward the road at the top of the hill.  D and M weren't there.  They were off checking on the horses and after we called them for a few minutes, they came running down the road from the direction they had left in.

Do you know the whereabouts of Downard and MacKenzie? 

No.  Are they missing?  It looked like they were just getting cozy in the stand.

Do you know the whereabouts of Mrs. Cooper?

No.  I never saw her after that day.

That is all for the present. We shall renew our interview shortly.

Thank you, Mrs. Finnegan.

Thomas Hobart esq.

Attorney for the Commonwealth

Franklin Co., Kentucky

Second Set of Questions.

Mrs. Finnegan:

Thank you for allowing me to ask you a few more questions. After retiring to my quarters and reading  my notes of your answers to my questions yesterday, some additional questions have come up in my mind.

What is your husbands full name?

Michael Francis Finnegan.

Were you able to conclude your business in Frankfort?

Yes.

When you saw the backs of the two men running away after the shots, did you recognise their clothing? 

No.  They seemed to have on brown or tan jackets and one of them had one of those new-style high-crown hats...a behive.  It was black.

Please describe to the best of your recollection, what clothing  Downard and MacKenzie were wearing?

They were wearing brown or tan jackets.  Mr. Downard had a tan vest with brocade collar.  I don't remember what kind of hat he had or what his trowsers looked like.  Mr. MacKenzie had they type hat I saw on one of the shooters.  His trowsers were a tan window pane check.

Did either man look back and if so did you see their faces?

No.

Do you know if Mr. Cooper was armed? 

He had a really big knife.  I never saw him with a gun except to handle one of Mr. D's or Mr. M's guns.

Will you testify in court to the things you have told me? 

Yes.

Although we cannot talk about your opinion in court would you tell me who you think fired the shot that laid Mr. Cooper low? 

I really couldn't tell.  I know both Mr. D and Mr. M walked away in the opposite direction from where the shot came several minutes before the shooting and came running back from that direction so it's hard to think that they could be in both directions.  On the other hand, no one else was around and one of the shooters was wearing a hat like Mr. MacKenzie's.  There was also the matter of the friction between the two men and Mr. Cooper.  As awful a man as I thought he was, nobody should be shot down without being able to defend himself.  I hope the killers get caught.

Thank you, Mrs. Finnegan. You have been very helpful.

You're welcome, Mr. Hobart.

Mrs. Michael Finnegan

Third Set of Questions.

These are from Sheriff Sawyer to Mrs. Finnegan.

Mrs. Finnegan,

It has come to my attention that among the things found in the cabin were a banjo and some military items.  While you were staying at this cabin did you ever hear Mr. Downard or Mr. McKenzie play the banjo?

I heard them talking about the banjo and how they really didn't know how to tune it.  Later Mr. Cooper tried to play it like a guitar.

Did you ever hear any conversation regarding the military items, for example that either one of them had been in the military?

They said they had taken the oath.  There were an awful lot of military things around.

  

When you last saw Mr. Downard and Mr. McKenzie as they left the cabin, did their dog accompany them?

The dog did go with them and came running ahead of them when we called them and they returned.

  

And finally, is there anything else that you can remember that might be of assistance with this investigation?

I'm sorry, I can't think of anything else that I haven't shared already.

Anything at all that seemed unusual, out of the ordinary?

The entire encounter with all four of the people at the stand was unusual. I had decided to make the best of it and enjoy a roof over my head for the two nights but I was happy to be making plans to get on my way.  If I hadn't taken the rest, I don't think I could have made it to the stage.

  

Thank you,

Sheriff Sawyer.

Franklin County, Ky.