Morning journal and courier., 1889-12-10
THE CRONIN TRIAL.

MT. Forest Resumes His Address on
 Behalf of tho Defense-He Tries to
 Show That All the Witnesses for the
 State Were Perjurers.
 CHICAGO, Dec. 9.-At the opening of the Cronin trial this morning Mr. Forest re- sumed his address to the jury on behalf of the defense. He proceeded at length to ar- que on the unreliability of circumstantial evidence.
 The evidence tending to prove that con- spiracy existed in camp 20, the attorney said he had agreed not to touch. It was not necessary. Attorney Foster had exhausted that part of the case. There was nothing in it. By it the jury would be compelled to acquit Beggs, and the case against the other prisoners. So far as the camp 20 conspiracy went it must be dropped. The credibility of witnesses was then discusssh, and Mir. For est made very plausible argument. Every witness discovered since the coroner's jury was suspicious one, said the attorney, the State's witnesses had an interest in giving damaging testimony against the defendants. For instance, it was worth $100 week to Dinan to have it generally believed that his white horse was the one that took Dr. Cro- min away, that being the amount Dinan re- ceived from the dime museum. As for the Carlsons they were poor people, and were now using their cottage as 8 museum and charging admission to curiosity seekers. The interest had by the Irish witnesses was very plain to Attorney Forest. There was asplit | in the Clan-na-Gael society. One side charged the other with sending in nocent men to England on dangerous business and de- 1 Iivering them over to the English govern- ment. The side making the accusation was oh the witness stand for the State, the side
 accused was in the prisoners chair. Re- venge was wanted by the former. Opportu-
 nity to wreak it was in their grasp and they | used it.
 l In like manner Mir. Forrest handled and
 discussed the other witnesses. All either
 had interest in testifying as they did, or else
 their feats of memory were so remarkable as to be simply ridiculous. Running through his argument was apparently desire to show | that all the witnesses for the State were per- jurers. The urging which the State had to
 use in court on Nieman to make him iden-
 tify Coughlin and Kuuzs was handled very
 skilfully. The expert testimony he combat
 ted with the expert testimony of the defense
 his deduction being in effect that the expert
 witnesses for the State should go through
 college again.
 MT. Forest then weat' into the cause oi
 death, arguing that from the testimony i
 was not known. The evidence of Mrs. Hoer
 tel, he declared, was hideous in it's absurdi } ty. Take for instance the wounds on tn, head of the dead man. Not one of tn wounds caused 8 scratch on the skull and ye l Mrs. Hoertel swore that when she passed thu . cottage that night she heard the sound Q } blows. "Blows she heard through the doc 3 from her place on the sidewalk, and yet n scratch on the skull" ehoutei the attorney r Mir. Forest next took up the trunk and tn
 course taken by the wagon seen on the nigh
 of May and supposed to have carried tn f trunk. With the aid of a map he traced tn
 course alleged to have been taken by tn : men, and argued that the wagon did nc v contain the trunk having the body inside, Q !. having it, the doctor was not murdered . the Carlson cottage. His reason for thi : theory was the roundabout route taken b 1 the wagon, route that went through ,. thickly settled part of the city-a very un f likely one for murderers. Mr. Forest d. t voted some time to an attack on the identit 8 of the trunk, after which the court adjourne until tomorrow.
 CHICAGO, Dec. 9.-The owner of the blood Q trunk which Police Captain Scheuttler wei