St. Paul daily globe., 1891-05-28
THIS IS THE LAST DAY,
Closing Argument and Charge in
Heilpern Case This Morning.


Heilpern Case This Morning.
The tenth day of the Heilpern trial
opened yesterday afternoon with eyery
prospect of its being brought to close
with darkness. 1t was not. however. 1t
will be past noon to-day before the jury
retireS. The court room was crowded
with lawyers, business men and mis-
ceilaneous gathering TO bear the closing
arguments Of the attorneys for the pros
ecution and defense.
As soon as Judge Pond occupied the
bench, Attorney Hart put his client on
the stand for the last time. The exam
ination was mainly in rebuttal of the
testimony of Neimo, who stated Oh the
stand Tuesday that Leo was forger.
and had to skip from Warsaw to avoid
arrest. Juror G. e. Wingate was next
placed Oh the stand, and, as he could
speak German. he was asked to look it
up in the dictionary and give the mean-
ing of the much-diSputed word 'gnade. -
The word was defined as follows:
"Gnade-feminine plural, meaning
grace, pardon, mercy, clemency, favor"
Capt. Hart was satisfied, he had a
juror who defined the word in the man
ner in which Heilpern said he used it
not as mercy" but as favor"
Both sides then Informed the court
that they would rest their case at this
point. County Attorney Than then
addressed the jury:
MAY it please the court and gentle
men of the jury: The evidence in a
very long case is at last all in. You
have listened to a number of spats be-
tween tue attorneys, but have had
nothing to do with them. 1t has been
said | have been attempting to defend
Zeddler in his work in this business,
but he is not on trial, he has been here
as witness. What is embezzling? 1t
is the worst crime that can be imag-
aglned. EmbeZzling is the horse steal
ing OF the nineteenth century,"
Inc attorney at times got very elo-
quent in his address. He disclaimed
atendency to vindictiveness against the
prisoner, and stated he was prompted in
his zeal purely by sense of duty. and
was disposed to be entirely fair. AS far
as he. was concerned personally he
would not turn over his hand to send
the unfortunate man to states prison.
towards the close of his argument Mr..
Than called attention to what he con-
sldered the convincing coincidence
tnat on every date that a check of the
Columbia company was missing on that
very date there was a deposit to He'll
pern's credit in another bank. This
was not only once, but many times.
The amount of the deposit by Heilpern
was usually little less than the check.
presumably he having kept a few dol
lars out for Immediate use.
Heilpern had stated that he received
money from his relatives Unregistered
letters, but the records in the postof-
ice had been carefully examined. and
but two such letters had been received
by him, and no corresponding deposit
had appeared to his credit at his bank.
With tragic effect he SAID the hand of
God was plainly to be seen ia The man
ner in which he took the money and
immediately deposited it III another
bank. If it was not for this strange
fatality that made murderer visit the
scene of his crime, and an embeZzler
and other criminals leave evidence of
their guilt behind them there would be
but small use for criminal courts and
attorneys.
at the conclusion of Mr.. Thian's able
and eloquent address recess of five
minutes was taken. When court was
called to order Capt. Hart said he did
not know how the Judge and jury felt
about it, but he would much prefer
postponing his argument until morning.
1t would take him fully two hours to
conclude, by which time it would be Z
o'clock.
Mr.. Than, in response to a question
of the court, stated that the state had
no opinion in the matter. Eight Of the
Jurors slgnified their preference to ad-
Journ until morning, so Judge Pond Or
dered them to appear promptly at
O'Clock, when the argument of the de-
tense would be made and the charge
given to the jury.