The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1873-11-29
CIRCUIT COURT.
THE OUGHT0N MURDER TRIAL
The Testimony.

The Circuit Court opened on Monda.
morning last with q dense audience q
excited persons eager to catch every syllable
of the testimony offered in the trial pcndin!
against George Oughton for the killing 0
Peter Murphy, on Sunday evening, Oct. l2tl
last, on the principal business street IN tn
city of La Sale.
MINOR CASE.
Thomas Leet, lad of 10 years of age, was
first brought up and arraigned for the CRIME
of larceny of some $50. BY advice Of h'
ATTORNEYS, Mcssrs Bushnell IL Bull, and hi'
grey haired, sorrow stricken father, the boy
pleaded guilty, and by consent Of attorney
MAYO, the sentence was not pronounced up
on him but held over him IN terr0reR, as d
surety for his future good behavior and the
boy admonished by the kind hearted Judge
Hon Z. S. Leland whose justice was allowed
to lean to mercys side The boy was per
mitted to 90 and sin no more, with reward
of an approving conscience in the future,
and the sentence never eXeCuCd-in fact, eN-
plunged from the records forever here and
hcrcafter-but should he sin, to be visited
at any time hrrealter.
THE PEOPLE VS. OUGHTON.
Seated behind his nervous attorney e. f
Bull, Esq, and in close proximity to the tall
and dignifed exAttorney General, his other
counsel, sits a well dressed man in the prime
of life, He has light complexion, good
eyes, very red lips, rather cloudy brow bul
withal evidently man who can have warm
friends as well as hot enemics,-a man rather
low sized, but stout, intellectual and rcsolulc'
This is the man whose life is at stake, and in
the balance Of justice now rising with
hope or sinking with despair, rs this or
that witness tells his story. BY his side is Il
matronly young woman, neatly dressed, and
in her arms sweet little cooling nursing,
as innocent of the awful fate which may
render her fatherless and cast bitter shadow
upon her whole life, AS are the tiny play
things which delight her laughing eyes; and
near her are her two elder little sisters, of
perhaps three and five years, and they, too,
scarcely more wise as To the awful doubts
agonies and fears that torment their suffering
mother and distract their poor father, who
now would give half a lifetime to drown in
oblivion the horrible act which, in "A moment
of blind rage and insane passion, duner mol
matter what proyocation, has thus imper.led
his own life and made theirs sad.
TO the rear in deep mourning, il theI
widow of the dead man and her child. Fur
Their forward is the calm and courteous
County Attorney, H. Mayo, Esq, and Dext 10 |
the witness stand, confronting the jury with
his heavy brow and massive head, with locks
that once might have We'd with those Of an
Adonis but now beginning &c show the slight
tinge Of times frosting, is the other Of The
counsel for the people, the irrepresslbe, tai
cntcd. eloquent O'Bricn, with keen wit orI
rounded periods of flowing rhetoric, ever
ready to crush his opponents and strike a
telling blow Tor his cause On the bench is
the grave benevolent and evenly balanced
Judge, anxious to preserve the sDt'nts cor3ahf.
among hi, ;esiy and high strung attorneys,
who. from an un,owaTd event at the begin
min. Of the trial-especially as to two of
tAcl-sit lik. rival volcanoes, ready TO burst
into fearful crruptions on the slightest prov
oca,iOn Beyond the right Of His Honor
are twelve men, more or less grave and wise,
all deeply attentive. These are the jury, in
whose hands rests the mighty responsibility
of determining the fate Of Chis one man-to /
loWs;icc, though the heavens fall ind, iftAey 7
can winnow from this enormous mass ofta-ti-. .
mony, good, bad and Indifferent, relevant and .
irrelevant, positive, presumptiye, circumstan.
tial OF direct, the grains of the wheat called
truth on, Of his vast mountain Of chaT and I
weeds often rightly called legal fog!
THE TESTIMONY.
DR. FRAsIEE sworn: .....
Live at La Sale; there 3i5 months Am
physician and surgeon. DIDN'T know Peter
Murphy, the deceased Visited remains
which | suppose 10 he his, on the l3lh Of o.
,Obgr, in house on the corner Uf FOnuhc
and First streets, nj La Sale, in La SalIe
county, State Of Illinois, at 10 O'Clock 4. NJ.
made py6 DtJItem examinations found two
wounds on the front of the bpdv-onc az The T,
right side OF the pit of the stomach, the other
TO the left, about 80 inches from the center,
over the region Of The heart They were
small, circular wounds, such "a, would be
made By pistol bullets, or such as We cal
gun-shot wounds. Both penetrated the wall, y
Of the chest and passed through the interior
The one on the right passed through the left
lobe OF the liver the other through the left Il
side OF the heart and TO the back bone, be.
tween the 9th and 10tn vertcbral column.
Did not fad the bullets There were DO
wounds On the hack The missiles did no,
come out. consider the lower wound would
cause death IN short time The first might
not prove fatal instantly, and there are icy
cases where tie stomach has been penetrated
and death aiI not ensuc; but death Was sure
~ caused by lhe ball in the heart.
Crosscr0miucd.-One wound was below
the front OF the brcastb1ne az the pr of flr
stomach the balls went direct through ON "a
level The other was "a half inch below ,ur
left nipple Murphy would weigh between