Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/397

she said she found them; that the place where his daughter led this affiant was to a clump of bushes about 16 steps east of the Wolff house, and there this affiant found a piece of old brown paper and a piece of table ailcloth, which looked as though it had been wrapped around something. Affiant’s daughter picked up the oileloth and shook it as if she was trying to shake out something. Affiant further states that about two days later he saw two sons, ages 6 and 9, respectively, playing with two pieces of cloth; the younger son had one piece of cloth about 6x8 inches over his face using it as a mask to frighten his little sister. This mask had eyes, nose, and a mouth cut in it. This affiant scolded said son and made him take the mask off. The son then put on the other piece of cloth, which was about the same size as the first, but had no holes cut in it. Both masks had strings tied to the corners with which the boy tied them around his head. This affiant asked his said son where he found the masks, and he told this affiant that they were in the same clump of bushes where the said Martha Hofer found the cap and shell above mentioned.”

Magdalena, wife of John Hofer, also made an affidavit which in some respects corroborates that of her husband.

John Hofer, Jr., son of John and Martha Hofer, made an affidavit to the effect that he found one of the masks about five or six days before his father saw the two smaller boys playing with them; that the mask he found was the blacker one of the two, and had no holes cut in it. He also states that he found it in the pasture east of the Wolff farm buildings about 12 steps fram the fence. He states he picked it up and carried it to the house.

The affidavit of Mathias Kiemele, who has resided in McLean county for the past 18 years, and who owns a farm near Turtle Lake, which he had leased during the season of 1920, in substance shows that on the second day after the discovery of the dead bodies of the Jacob Wolff family, and during the month of April, he went to work on the Wolff farm; that he and his wife cleaned up the house and the premises, and that he finished seeding the land on the farm that was not seeded at the time that Jacob Wolff’s family were murdered; that he took care of the stock on the said Wolff farm until the day of the sale; that from the day he commenced to work on the farm until the work was completed, a period of about two weeks, he was on the place every day; that he went over every part of the yard and over a large part of the farm, and that he