The Rifton Burglary in Court Before Judge Kenyon Excerpts from a report in the Kingston Weekly Leader December 16, 1887

County Court opened at 9:30 A.M. on Tuesday. The District Attorney moved the case of the People vs. Frank Rose. The prisoner is indicted for robbery and grand larceny alleged to have been committed at the town of Esopus on April 6, 1887. The complainant in the case is Hector Osterhoudt. The prisoner is defended by A.D. Lent and A.H. Van Buren.

The prosecution claims in this case the following state of facts:

J.W. Dimick has a store at Rifton, in the town of Esopus. In that store Hector Osterhoudt is employed as clerk and foreman, and goods are largely sold to the employees of the manufactory at Rifton. The store closes comparatively early in the evening. On the night of April 6th, last, Mr. Osterhoudt closed the store as usual and went to his home. Edward Jagger, a young man, an employee of the factory and by occupation a dyer, lived with his family at a house a hundred yards  from the store of Mr. Dimick. This house had formerly been occupied by Hector Osterhoudt who had vacated the same about a week previous. On the evening in question a man called at the house of Edward Jagger about 9 o'clock and on Jagger going to the door the man said that Mr. Smith, the father-in-law of David C. Relyea, was dying and he wanted some one to do some writing for him. Jagger, not knowing Smith, went to the residence of Osterhoudt to get him to go  with him to see Mr. Smith. Osterhoudt and Jagger then went to the house of Davis C. Relyea where Smith, who was his father-in-law, stopped, when he was in Rifton. Mr. Smith lives in this city [Kingston, N.Y. Ed.] and has a farm at Rifton and often goes there. When Jagger and Osterhoudt got to the residence of Mr. Relyea they rang the bell, but could not get  any answer. As they could not get in the house or make any one hear them, they started to return home. Just as they did so two men passed along the road. After Jagger and Osterhoudt had proceeded along the road for thirty-five or forty yards they met two men coming in the road. It was a moonlight night. The two men came out from behind the cedar trees. They told Osterhoudt and Jagger to throw up their hands at the same time pointing pistols at their heads. The shorter man of the two said that he had been informed that there was between $3,000 and $4,000 at Dimick's store and they intended to have it. Osterhoudt said that there was only $18 or $20 in the store. The prisoner demanded of Jagger his money and Jagger gave him all he had---fifty cents. Each one of the two men had a revolver. The shorter man, who was the person who called at the house of Jagger earlier in the evening, had two pistols. While the shorter man covered Osterhoudt and Jagger with the two pistols the prisoner took some cloths line, that he had got in Jagger's yard,  and tied their hands behind their backs. They all four marched down to the store, Osterhoudt and Jagger in the middle, and the two men, one on each side, with a revolver. One of the men got the keys from Osterhoudt's pocket. The shorter one unlocked the door of the store and lighted a lamp he got of the desk. Rose stood at the shoulder of Jagger. Osterhoudt was asked which key was the key of the safe, and he answered that the little one was the one. There was between $18 and $20 in the safe. Rose, who was the taller of the two men, asked the other man whether he should take Osterhoudt's money. The other man said that they had not got anything for their trouble and had better take it. Rose then took Osterhoudt's pocketbook out of his inner pocket and took $28 out of it. Osterhoudt was then sitting  down in a chair. Both men still had their hands tied behind their backs. Rose held a revolver over Osterhoudt  and Jagger while the other man robbed the safe.  The two men then gagged Osterhoudt and Jagger in the store. A stick was put in Jagger's mouth and a handkerchief in Osterhoudt's mouth.  Both of the men assisted in the gagging. The two men where in the store about forty minutes. They left Osterhoudt and Jagger bound and gagged in the store. Osterhoudt and Jagger managed to get behind the counter, and Osterhoudt got a pair of scissors and loosened the cords that tied Jagger, who then, in turn released Osterhoudt.

Edward Jagger testified as to the occurrences of the night in question substantially as above detailed and he identified the prisoner as one of the two men who committed the robbery.

At the close of the testimony of Mr. Jagger the Court adjourned to Wednesday morning at 9 o'clock.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 14.

County Court opened at 9 A.M., Wednesday. The trial of the case of the people vs. Frank Rose was continued.

The prosecution took up the entire morning with additional testimony, one of the witnesses for the people being Hector Osterhoudt, who also identified the prisoner as one of the two men who committed the robbery.

At the opening of the court  in the afternoon County Clerk Wurts called over the extra panel of thirty jurors and ten answered to their names. Nine of these jurors were sworn in by the County Clerk.

The trial of the People vs. Frank Rose was then continued. After prosecution rested A.D. Lent opened the case to the jury for the prisoner. The defense in this case of that of an Alibi. The prisoner claims that on the night of 6th of April last he was at his residence at Rifton, and that on that evening the prisoner, his wife Elizabeth Rose, Cyrus Polhamus, who resided next to Rose, and Addie Polhamus, the housekeeper of the last mentioned gentleman, met at the house of the prisoner and played cards until 10 o'clock. The two ladies when sworn testified that they knew that this was on the day in question because they intended to spend Easter Sunday in Poughkeepsie and had looked at the almanac to see on what Sunday it occurred. They looked at the almanac and saw that the next Sunday was Easter Sunday. The day of the robbery was on the Wednesday preceding Easter Sunday. The two women spent the next Sunday Easter Day at Poughkeepsie.

[The story suddenly ends at this point. Was Frank Rose found guilty? Did his alibi prove successful? Who was the other robber?  We will have to wait until we find a copy of later issues of this  newspaper. Ed.]