The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1889-12-11
FORESTS PLEA.
Eloquent Address to the Jurors
In the Cronin Case.
Unreliability Of Circumstantlal Eyi-
dence Again Shown by Facts.


An Insinuatlon That all Witnesses for the
state Were Pcrjurers- Remarkable Tes-
tlmony Picked to Pieces. sta
CmIoAGo, Dec. 10. The usual large
crowd was in waiting at Judge McCon-
nell's court yesterday for the resump-
tion OF the Cronin trial. Mr.. Forrest
resumed his address to the jury by con-
tinuing the discussion Of the different
methods of treating circunstantial evil
dence as used by the defense and by the
State. "Those who are opposed to US
on this question have very pretty
axiom which reads thus: Witnesses
may lie, but facts never This sounds
very nicely, but 1t is not true. There Is
nothing in the world that tells so many
lies as what are called facts and circum-
stances. Facts can be made to prove
anything" The speaker then referred
to the question Of our tariff and said
that Republicans and Democrats argued
from the same facts and drew diamet-
rically opposite conclusions.
Mr. Forrest read from law book a
number of instances Of circumstantial
evidence in which the circumstances
pointed almost without possibility OF
contradiction to certain conclusion,
and yet this conclusion was false.
The credibility of witnesses was then
discussed and Mr.. Forrest made very
plausible argument. Every witness
discovered since the coroners jury was
suspicious one," said the attorney.
The States witnesses had an interest in
giving damaging testimony against the
defendants. For instance it was worth
500 week to Dinan to have 1t general
ly believed that his white horse was the
one that took DR.. Cronin away, that be-
ing the amount Dinan received from the
dime museum. AS for the Carlson's,
they were poor people and were now
using their cottage as a museum and
charging admission to curiosity seekers.
The interest had by the Irish wit
nesses was very plain to Forrest. There
was a split in the Clan-Na-Gael society.
One side charged the other with send
ing innocent men to England on danger
GUS business and delivering them over
to the English government. The side
making the accusation was on the wit
ness stand for the State-the side ac-
cused was in the prisoners chair Re-
yenge was wanted by the former. OPP
portunity TO wreak II was in their grasp
and they used 1t. In like manner Mr..
Forrest handled and discussed the other
witnesses. All either had interest in
testifying as they did or else their feats
Of memory we're so remarkable as to be
simply ridiculous. Running through his
argument was apparently desire to
show that all the witnesses for the State
we're perjnrers.
Mr.. Forrest then went into the cause
Of death, arguing that from the testi-
mony given 1t was not known. The evil
dence Of Mrs. Hoertel, he declared, was
hideous in its absurdity. Take, for in
stance, the wounds found on the head OF
the dead man. Not one of the wounds
caused scratch On the skull, and yet
Mrs, Hoertel swore that when she passed
the cottage that night she heard the
sound Of blows. "Blows she heard
through the door from her place on the
sidewalk, and yet no scratch on the
skull" shouted the attorney.
Mr.. Forrest next took up the trunk
and the course taken by the wagon seen
on the night of May and supposed to
have carried the trunk. With the aid
of map he traced the course alleged
to have been taken by the men, and
argued that the wagon did not contain
the trunk having the body inside, or,
having it, the doctor was not murdered
in the Carlson cottage. His reason for
this theory was the roundabout route
taken by the wagon, supposing the cot
tage to bo the starting point, route
that went through thickly settled part
Of tho city-a very unlikely one for
murderers. Mr.. Forrest devoted some
time to an attack on the identity OF the
trunk, after which court adjourned.