Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-06-02
THE WHITAKER CASE.

There was dramatic scene in the
Whitaker investigation case at West
Point last week A correspondent des-
cribes it by saying: 1t had been under
stood that to-day was to bring forth a
sensation, consequently everybody in
West Point attended the sitting of the
court-generals professors and cadets.
First Whitaker was subjected to a
long series of questions designed to
show inconsistencies in his defense
against the charges that he inflicted
the injuries on himself, and some of
them were very successful. Then came
the reports of the five experts in hand
writing that had been suppressed. The
entire five agreed that Whitaker had
written the threatening letter. The re-
ports were long, but all reached the
same result with positiveness. These
created a great sensation in the court,
and the expressions were freely made
that Whittaker's case was up; but the
crowning sensation was yet to come.
Expert Southwort, of Boston, had
made discovery A letter which
Whitaker had begun to his mother
was among the papers found in his
room and submitted to the experts
with the anonymous threatening let
ter. Expert Southwort, after satisfy
ing himself that the handwriting was
the same in both letters, discovered
that the threatening note had been
written on a slip of paper torn from
the letter begun to the cadets mother.
Placing the two side by side the edges
matched perfectly, and where bit had
been torn from one side the correspond
ing piece that fitted it was on the other.
Where the paper was thin in spots in
one the same thinness matched tho
other. The expert brought the letter
into the court room fastened between
two pieces of window glass in such
manner as to show conclusively that
the two were from the same original
piece of paper. Everyone in the court
room could see at q glance that it was
so. The court was in an uproar of ex-
citement in an instant. Cadet Whitta-
ker did not move muscel or show
bit of emotion. No one spoke to him.
Whitaker, however, continues to be-
have with GOODNESS, and not only de-
nies that he sent the note of warning
or that he bound and injured himself,
but his friend, Prof Greener, insists
that the evidence is all circumstantial,
and there is nothing in it to fasten the
guilt upon Whitaker. His room, he
says, was always unlocked, and it was
an easy matter for whoever wrote the
note of warning to enter his room and
take piece of paper from his desk. 1t
was on his desk after he had been ab-
sent some time that he found the note.
This would account for the fact that
the sheet on which the note of
warning was written fits the sheet
on which letter to his
mother was written. But it does not
account for the fact that five experts
agree that Whitaker wrote the note of
warning; still they may be mistaken.
One of them found another lot OF man
uscript, which he was certain was
written by the writer of the note of
warning, and this was not Whittaker's.
The theory of Whitaker and his
friends is that his handwriting was
closely initiated, and that the paper on
which the note was written was stolen
from Whittaker's desk.
The investigation is about closed.
Whether or not intentionally 80 upon
the part of the conductors, it has from
the start seemed like prosecution of
Whitaker, the burden being put upon
him to show that he did not mutilate
himself. Possibly the last of the case
has not been heard.