St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-10-18
TRIAL AND CONVICTION.
A Hard Fight for a Hardened
Wretch.
Special to the Globe.

Special to the Globe.
FERGUS FALLS, Mimi, Oct. 17.-Go-
heen was indicted, and then came the
trial, which was fight, as the result
shows, to the death. The prisoner was
represented by Mason & Hilton, of this
city, who were retained by the court,
for the prisoners family has no money.
In the face of this fact their defense was
vigorous, and they made hard fight.
The testimony which the county at
torney had been asSiduously collecting
proved too strong for them. 1t con-
sisted of many circumstances, nearly all
of them trivial of themselves, but of
damning import when grouped together.
When Goheen was arrested several
cartridges of the same caliber as those
which killed the woman were found on
him, and he made desperate but futile
attempt to conceal them. Miss Bray in
timated to friend the night of the MUIR
der that she was going to see party"
that night, by which name she was ac-
customed to refer to Goheen. He was
seen that night running toward her
lodgings. A couple answering per-
fectly to the description of the two
were seen together later in the even
ing on the Great Northern track,
few hundred yards from where
the woman's body was afterwards
found. Another witness testified to
hearing two shots and seeing somebody
who looked exactly like Gobeen run
past his house, near the same place, a
few minutes later. The testimony
gathered in the county where the two
brothers went when they left Fergus
Falls the night after the murder was,
however, the strongest of the trial.
They went to Woodside, a township
where they used to live, and visited
several acquaintance there. One of
these told of Adelbert's uneasi-
ness during the night and of his
saying in his sleep that he
was sorry, but could not help it now.
Another produced a silk handkerchief,
given him by the prisoner, which was
identified as Miss Bray's. The PROSE-
cution explained the voluntary return
of the Goheens to this city by country
witness, who testified that he lent
Adelbeit a copy of the Fergus Falls
journal, in which the first report of Miss
Bray's death-that she was frozen to
death-was printed, and that he showed
symptoms of great relief after read
ing it; while from that moment
the brothers headed directly for
home again. The fact that he had
established. From these and many
other bits of circumstantial evidence
the prosecuting attorneys, DAILY and At
torney General Clapp, wove an in
genious and telling chain of evidence
around the prisoner, and the jury, after
being out twenty-three hours, found
him guilty. His counsel proved an
alibi by the prisoners mothor and his
brother Anderson, which the jury evil
IDENTIFY did not believe. One
of the strong points in favor of
the prisoner, dwelt on forcibly
ard at length by his attorneys, was the
absence of any reasonable motive for
the crime, but this was not sufficient to
save him from conviction. After the
trial and Goheen's sentence to death by
| Judge Searle, who was the presiding
judge. his attorneys made an earnest
attemt to save him from the gallowS by
going to Gov. Merriam with petitions
signed by most of the jurors and some
citizens, and favorable letters from the
| attorney general and county attorney
| asking the communication of his sentence
| to Imprisonment for life.