Omaha daily bee., 1885-03-19
THE MoKUNE MURDER.
Ninth Day of the Trial of Dr Gross Tor
HI Murder of DIR. McKune-The
Case to be Submitted.
NINTH DAY.

~
GLENwooD, Iowa, March 1S.-The
court room was comfortably filled at the
opening Of court. The Council Bluff,
delegation, at whose disposal the 60 hal
placed a special car, Will not arrive till II
o'clock. The number In attendance from
"the initial point" increases daily. A
day passed at ''the great railroad center
has Satisfied your correspondent that thIl
case is the one topic of paramount Inter
est at the metropolis of Western Iowa.
Counsel engaged in the trial Of this
cause and those Immediately interested
have taken permanent quarters here and
will patiently await the verdict of the
Jury. Not 80 with the camp
followers on either side. These
birds of passage, come and go ct will.
One day they are here In force, the next
their places will be vacated. One of the
most noticeable features of this great trial
10 intense interest manifested by the
ladies. Woman Is naturally q partIz,n,
and 1t is safe to say that not n of them
has changed her mind, either by force Of
fact or argument. The McKune forces
occupy the north side of the court room,
and there has been no assertions thus far.
Mrs. Keller always sits at the right hand
of Mrs. Cross, and Mrs. Cros, never fails
to be at her husbands side. Her devo.
ton to her husband attracts universal at.
~tention and admiration. She has shown
herself a wife any man might we'll be
proud of, and regardless of what the YER
dict of the jury may be, che has
won the respect of sll disinterested spec
tators. The McKune forces far out
number that of Cross, but 1t can not be
claimed hat they are superior either In
social standing or intelligence. The ad-
mittedly high social position of all the
parties has attracted wide attention to all
the details of the tragedy. "
MI. John N. Baldwin began the argu.
ment for the defense at 9:45 this morn
ing. The exordium was short, tbut of a
character we'll calculated to command
the respect and attention of the jury. He
has a pleasant voice, a commanding fig
ure and winning address. His arts are
those of the orator rather than those of
the logician. He has however, q trick of
coloring adverse facts In a manner
well calculated to deceive the
very alert. As he proceeds
1t Is often difficult to separate the facts
from the conclusions of the speaker. His
first efforts were dsrected against the
points of law by the Atate. His defini-
ton of the law of malice was In direct
conflict to that given by MI. Pusey. He
then entered upon an exhsustless exam
nation Of all the details Of the evidence.
He compared, explained, reconciled with
consumate skill. His argument was con-
cluded at 11:40.
JUDGE HUBBARD
followed in the further presentation for
the call for the defense. He continued
to review the evidence, dwelling at
length npon the threats alleged to have
been made by the accused. He clearly
reviewed all the circumstances of the kill
ing. He claimed the plea Of self
deIen'e to be abundan,ly sustained by
the evidence. He pictured the final
stru ggle-McKune stealing up behind
Gross, dealing the terrible blow upon the
back of his head, Cro,s staggering from
the effects, partially falling. Then fol.
lowed the. second blow full in the face,
the bones of the nose broken. Cross
blinded. dazed and partially insenrlble.
Then his assailant %grappled Cross by the
throat-he could not breathe, his senses
we're leaving him. It was the supreme
moment of his life. The struggle WAS
one of life and death. Both Of Mckuue's
hands were claspiug his throat. He man.
aged to draw his revolver from his peck
ct. McKune saw his danger, loofened
his hold upon his victims throat and at
tempted to wrest the revolver from him.
He turned 1t towards Cross. By
a superhuman effort he succeeded In turn
Ing the revolvertoward's McKuns's body
his own left hand clasped over the muz-
zle of the revolver-pulled the trigger
and McKune fell to the ground dead.
By the circumstances Immediately sur
rounding this tragedy 1t must bs deter
mined whether Cross, acting as a reason
able man, bad sufficient cause to appre.
bend that McKune intended to kill him
or intiict great bodily Injury. If he had,
then this is justifiabls homicide and
Cross will be acquitted. The fact that
there was or was not ill-feeling and bad
blood between these men would not
Justify the assault by McKune. Cross
acted in this matter as any reasonable
man would have done under like circum.
At three o'clock this afternoon
COL. W. r. SAP
upon the closing argument for
The State. He briefly addressed the court
upon questions of law, and then gave a
circumhtsnttal history of the case in the !
courts. His argument to the jury was
airectsd to the purpose of refuting the |
propositions claimed by defendants at. |
to have been established by the
evidence.
At this writing Col. Sapp's argument
uncompleted. The charge of the
court has been carefully prepared and
will be read at the conclusion Of this ar
The cass will doubtless be
finally submitted to night. Nothing
now remains of this great trial save to
patiently await the bringing in of the
A New Ofice-seeker.