As For the Real Story...
Following the conclusion of the trial, William Weeks provided a credible statement about the true events of the evening of December 16-17, 1878.
Rhodes had started to sell what was left of his fish to people in New Cassel. In fact, he had knocked on the door of the Seaman home, where Weeks happened to be visiting at the time. Making a sale, Rhodes had to make change, and in doing so he removed from his pocket what Weeks and James Seaman mistook for a very large roll of bills. Thinking he was carrying at least one hundred dollars, the two men soon went out after the peddler.
They attacked him in a deserted spot, only to discover that he possessed no more than eighteen dollars in bills, which had looked like more money because the bills were wrapped around a roll of paper. To divert attention from the site of the crime, they drove his wagon eastward, away from New Cassel, with Rhodes inside, lying unconscious. Then they managed to get the wagon and horse up the side of the railroad embankment. They started to drive west along the track, as if Rhodes had never made it to New Cassel. Soon the horse's front legs slipped into the cattle guard, and the horse's sudden drop broke off the wooden shafts that projected forward from the wagon. They extricated the horse and led it down the embankment, leaving it on farmland. They pushed the wagon further, and then smashed it to make the staged wreck seem more serious. Finally, they rolled it down one side. At that point, Rhodes - perhaps still alive - was thrown headlong down to the culvert from the other side. Then they moved his body further into it.
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