Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1881-12-22
Guiteau's Trial.

prisoner opened the session with a brie
| speech, in which he expressed SOlici
tude for the health of the Jurors ant
suggested that they take long walk be
| fore breakfast. Several more WitnesSe
who had known Guiteau and had never
regarded him as insane were examined
for the prosecution. The prisoner vic
lently contradicted one of them whC
said he knew Guiteau in Logansport
where he was selling life of Moody
The Rev. DR.. Shippen of Washington
boarded in the same house with Guiteau
for time, and saw nothing about him
to suggest insanity. DR.. Noble, the ply
sician of the Jail in which Guiteau is
confined, said the assassin was perfectly
sane. Guiteau had told him that if the
President should die he would be con-
firmed in his belief that the Lord had
inspired him. Mrs. Scoville, the prison
er's sister, wished to ask the witness a
question of vital Importance. Both Mr..
ScOville and Guiteau objected. Mrs.
Scoville then wrote out the question and
handed it to her husband, but he refused
TO put it to the witness. Mrs. Scoville
was annoyed, and objected to letting the
witness leave the stand.
Joseph A. Reynolds, Chicago lawyer,
testified that in July last he had three
interviews with Guiteau in Jail. He read
his notes of Guiteau's conversations. In
the first interview, on July IA, the assas-
sin said that after the American people
had come over to his side he would be
discharged. On July Is he said he ex-
pected his friends whom he had placed
in power to save him from punishment
On July Is he seemed astonished to learn
that the men on whom he had counted
as his friends condemned his act On
July 10 he gave the witness an address
to the public, in which he said that if
his act united the Conkling and Blaine
elements, he would be delighted to hear
Of Garlield's speedy recovery.
Guiteau frequently interrupted the
witness, and, while admitting the truth
of his statements, declared that he had
deceived him in order to obtain such in
formation. He was at times very vio-
lent. He scolded Mr.. Scoville and his
sister, and denounced District Attorney
COrkhill for having deceived him.
The principal witness for the prosecu-
ton in the Guiteau trial Friday was
DR.. Hamilton of New York. He made
three personal examinations of the pris-
oner, finding no indications of congeni-
tai defect, snd believed Guiteau to be
sane, although eccentric, ond able to dis
between right and wrong, and
to know the consequences of his acts.
DR.. Hamilton noticed a difference be-
tween Guiteau's behavior in Jail and his
behavior in court which led him to think
he wasEplaying part. The croSs-exam-
inatlOn oS this doctor was not concluded.
DR.. Loring of Washington examined the
prisoners eyes in Jail, and saw no indi-
cation of disease of the brain. Mrs.
Grant, in whose boarding house in
Guiteau lived for more
than month, and until two days before
the assassination, noticed no indications
of insanity in the prisoner. Mrs. Dun
mire, Guiteau's divorced wife, never
saw any insanity about him. Guiteau
was violently angry when she was called
to the stand, and said it was an outrage
for District Attorney COrkhill TO place
her in such position, and he wanted
the President to kick Corkhill out of of
fice.- He was appeased when he saw
that the examination of Mrs. Dunmire
"ttS NOhhhOO w q low quEobAOlio, anu uO
told Mr.. Scoville to cut the cross-exam-
ination short, and became angry again
when his counsel persisted in asking the
witness questions. He denounced Mr.
the witness who interviewed
him in jail last summer, as a spy, and
while the District Attorney was read
ing newspaper clippings which Rey-
nolds took to him in Jail, Guiteau made
comments. He insisted
that the only question for the Court and
jury was whether his free agency was
destroyed, and he defined insanity to be
an Irresistible desire to do something
You can't help doing.
The trial was adjourned until Monday.
On Monday upon the converting of |
court, the death of the juror Hobbs, was
and court adjourned until |
Wednesday when the trial proceeded.