Omaha daily bee., 1891-03-11
NEWS FROM COUNCIL BLUFFS,
Some Interesting Testimony as to Henry
Halls Sanity Brought Out
CONFUSION OF A MEDICAL EXPERT.
An In suranCc Com rany In Court AM
nunl Report ufthc CITY rrcasurcr.
Look ing For Missouri
valley Burglar.

The Hall murder trial was resumed ycstcr-
day morning In district court The first wit
ness was Jake Rogers. He testified that he
had known Hall for some years. and that
Hall had sent for him several times since he
was imprsouc lie thought that Halls
actions indicated that he was not entirely in
his right mind. When County Attorney
Organ took the witness In hand he became
very much confused, aud before he n" com
pletcd his testimony he was willing to admit
that hC diuut know very much about the
case.
+. +. Maycrs, alias Miller was the next to
occupy the witness box. Miller IS the man
who went To house owned by a Mrs. Miller
an North Eighth street about siN months ago
ana said he wanted to rent Il room He was
taken throu gh the house and after he had
left Mrs. Miller missed a lot Of jewclry that
had been kept in one of the rooms which he
had examined Miller had trial on the
charge of the larceny ithe jewclry, and was
given an eight months sentence in the
county Jail During his confinement
he claimed that he had had an
opportunity to become better acquainted
with Hall, and il was Oh the strength OF this
acquaintance that the defense introduced
him as a witness In general. Miller tcsti-
mOny was that Hall mad been in the babit of
walking to the window of the county Jail and
pointing out at his children, who he saldWcrc
playing in the yard. He considered him par
tally insane, Ou cross .cX amin alton County
Attorney Organ attempted to throw n cloud
| over Nliller's statements 10y probing into his
past life. He asked him what had
| been the last work he did. Mil
Ter thought some time, but apparently couldn't
| think back that far. He after some time
| stated that he had been in the picture bust
| ness previous to his arrest The name OF the
| firm for " hich he worked he would not dis
close, for that would give away his true
name. After a CroSS-cxamnation of some
| length he admitted that all he knew about
| the case was tnat Hall had at times appeared
| absent minded and had acted strangely but
| whether or not he was insane he could not
| say.
The first witness in the afternoon was Dr.
! Stewart He kept u livery stable next to
that Of David Gray and had Often noticed
| Hail. queer actions when he was at work.
| He descr bed him as being "cross, grabbed
| and cranky" but he seemed not to know
that the question of insanity was at stake,
| and he would not admit that he had ever
seen anything in Hall that would lead him to
think that he was even partially insane.
| Maudc Hail the Youngest daughter of tho
| defendant. was then put upon the stand for a
| further questioning as to what occurred on
| the cvcnin preceding the shooting OF Mrs.
| Hall. No new facts of any particular I'm
| pOrtance Were elected from her testimony.
DIR. A. j. Cook was the next witness He
testified that he had examined the defendant
soon after the shooting and considered him
insane. He was questioned as to the symp-
toms that characterize insanity and his eX-
animation lastedsome time
His crOsseX animation, however, lasted a
good deal longer County Attorney Organ
asked him if he thought Hall was insane at
the time he examined him soon after the
shooting, how 1t was that he did not say so to
the grand jury when he gave his testimony
before it, In reply he stated that his reason
for negleCting to do so was that the grand
Jury had not ken the trouble to get it out Of
him. He also said n few minutes after that
he had changed his mind since the grand
| Jury was III session as he had made more
| careful eX amin alton of the case.
Some time was taken up by the attorneys
| in trying to find out what dis stinction there
was in the witness mind between insanity
and msoundness of mind. At first DR.. Cook
! thought there was a distinction, but before
he had finished he had come to the conClu.
sion that he was mistaken. number of
books were before the court in evidence, on
the subject of insanity. DIR. Cook quoted
quite freely from these, but stated that hc
had not read their contents for perh haps
twenty years or more. There was one large
sheep bound, lcOrncd looking book that the
county attorney picked up and fondled a mo
ment, after which ne said;
"EOw long, doctor, has 1t been since y0u
read this book ~
80, | read that last evening" was the
Whom does this book belong top
~ don t know
"Where did you get it:'
"Well. - said the witness, as he fdgctet
nervously in his seat, Judge Ayleswortt
brought itaround to my office last evening
40, perhaps that accounts for your chang,
of opinion in regard to the Old mans in
sanity said Organ.
At this smothercd laugh went the round.