Bloomington (Monroe County, Indiana) Telephone, October 24, 1893, p. 4. NOTE: The item below was abbreviated from the original as noted by the ellipsis. PARDONED! >From a Life Sentence; Bent Jones is Free; Details of a Remarkable Trial Benton Jones, serving a life sentence in the penitentiary, was pardoned by Gov. Matthews Saturday, the son of the prisoner, with unspeakable joy, being the messenger bearing to him the joyous tidings releasing him from imprisonment. Jones was a life prisoner from Monroe County and sentenced after a remarkable trial. He was indicted with his brother, Lee Jones, Thomas Tolliver, a brother-in-law, and Dr. Parks Tolliver, a brother of Thomas, in April 1875, by an Orange County grand jury for the murder of Thomas Moody on March 2. The killing aroused great public indignation. The friends of the prisoners were nearly as strong numerically as those who sought to bring these men to the bar of justice for punishment. This crime had been antedated by another assault on the Moodys on the night of June 24, 1871, when a dozen or more conspirators made a night attack on the Moodys in Lawrence County, and by the use of hand grenades and other murderous instruments, an attempt was made to murder Thomas Moody, his two old bachelor brothers, and his two old sisters. They were all old people held in the highest regard. Shotguns and revolvers were also freely used in this night attack, and Thomas Moody was shot through the body as he was climbing a fence. Jugs of gasoline, coal oil, and blazing torches were thrown into the room of these old people, after the doors and windows had been broken in, and the house was soon in flames in every room. Then it was that hand grenades made of slugs of iron, horseshoe nails, steel screws, gun powder, etc., were thrown into the burning room. The Moodys employed Col. George W. Friedley, Senator Voorhees and other eminent lawyers to fight their legal battles growing out of this conspiracy and succeeded in having him, and nearly a dozen of his relatives, indicted. Old Tom Moody was extremely desirous of having Bent Jones punished but was so conscientious on the witness stand that he would not even identify the voice of any of the party. He spent his money lavishly in other directions, also, and employed the best detective talent to be had, a detective being employed for nearly two years working continuously on this "night attack," as it was called at subsequent trials. The late Major Gordon had charge of the defense and subsequently succeeded in securing acquittals. At this time, Bent Jones was trustee of the township in which Mitchell is located and was a prominent politician. He was also at the head of an extensive lumber business and employed many hands with all of whom he was popular. One Eli Lowery was also indicted in April 1875 for the murder of Moody and was imprisoned in the Paoli jail at the time the Jones and Tollivers were confined there and subsequently made a full confession implicating the two Jones and the two Tollivers. Lengthy habeas corpus proceedings followed, and at all of the trials subsequently, Lowery gave the full details connecting himself and his fellow prisoners with the awful murder and sustained himself to the satisfaction of the prosecution during cross examinations, unusually searching and exhaustive, lasting fully a day. The final trial of Bent Jones came off in this city in June 1876, and was one of the most interesting and protracted criminal cases ever tried in Indiana. Eight days were consumed in taking of the evidence of the 200 witnesses from Lawrence and Orange counties, while a week was taken up with the arguments. The state was represented by her then prosecuting attorney, Judge R. W. Miers, the late Judge Frances Wilson, Col. George W. Friedley and other eminent lawyers. The defense was conducted by Hon. J. Ralph Burton, now Columbian fair commissioner from Kansas; Charles H. Burton, special pension examiner for this district, now stopping at the Nation Hotel; Judge Cyrus F. McNutt and other leading lawyers. .. At the following term of court, Lee Jones was convicted, and he was imprisoned until pardoned on the 20th of last July. Subsequently, Dr. Parks Tolliver was also tried for this crime in this county and, while the jury were out considering their verdict, he became alarmed at their delay and fled on the same night on which his jury decided to acquit him. A sealed verdict was handed into the court next morning, but as the prisoner was gone, it could not be legally opened, and to this day it remains unopened. For many years the action of this jury remained a profound secret, and it has only been within the last year or so that the secret was given up. On the appeal of the Bent Jones case to the supreme court, D. O. Spencer, the official reporter, furnished the transcription of the evidence comprising 3,300 pages.