The morning call., 1892-01-21


tail. Regarding the rejection by the Pro-
curator of Langin's and JOhnSon's teSti-
mOny, on the ground that their stories did
not agree perfectly, the Captain said:
These two men were our strongest wit
nesses. testifying as they did directly to
the shooting Of Rigyjn by the soldiers. The
court has TO find some plea for rejecting
their evidence and hit on the fact that they
appeared not to have known each other be-
fore the trouble occurred. This is very ma
tural Langin was not Il member of the
BaltimOTe's crew at the time. He was a
sailor on an American vessel wrecked in
Valparaiso harbOr some days before the
men were assaulted, and enlisted on the
Baltimore a week after the riot. As for the
statement that the men dined together in an
eating-hOuSe on the day of the riot, 1t IS pos
sible that two men could eat at the same
hotel without meeting each other
KILLED BY CHILEAN SOLDIERS.
In fact there is no possible doubt that
RigIin was killed by the rifle bullet fired by
the soldiers johnson was STOPPING over
aud supporting Riggln on his left arm ana
shoulder The soldiers fired when only six
feet distant. The bullet pierced the shirt
and neckerchief covering on the right Shoul-
der of johnson and then struck Riggin in
the neck, ranging downward and inf1ichng
the wound when the doctors say caused in
slant death. Blood poured from the wound
and covered JOhusOn's shirt This shirt
was shown TO the Valparaiso court, and yet
the PTOcuratOT Fiscal states that he rejects
J0hnSOn'S testimony because there were no
h!OOd-stainS on his sleeve, as there must
have been If hts story were true. The Pro
CuratOr'S statement that no one testified
who fred the shots is false, as Johnson and
Langin both testified that the solnIers fired
them"
BULLET FROM A RIFLE.
Regarding the dispute as to the weapon
from which the bullet that killed Riggin
was fired Captain Schey said: This is
what l knew would occur as soon as | heard
experts had been summoned. The daY
after the mob Valparaiso paper stated that
one of the BaltimOre's men fired pistol at
a policeman, missed him and killed Riggin.
This theory was at once seized upOn by the
ChIleanS, but when an examination OF Rig
gins body was made 1t WAS found bullet
mad passed through over nine inches OF the
frmest tissues in the human body, passed
through the yertebIR. shattering them, and
then through the shoulder blade. and after
all this left the body on the other side with
such velocity that the flesh was hardly torn
at all. There is no pistol in existence that
could iutiict such a wound as this. There
ia no possible doubt the ball came from the
riff. 1t was necessary for the Chleans TO
prove that il was a revolver 0uud IN order
to eXOnerate the police, and they therefore
called IN two physicians as experts. As was
expected, these men, only one or whom was
really a physician, the other being merely
hospital nurse, and one Of whom had never
examined Higgins body, testified that the
wound was inflicted by pistol bullet This
gave the Court an excuse TO reject the entire
testimony.
TESTS BY NAVAL OFFICERS.
Lieutenant McCrae and Dr. White, of the
Baltimore, made careful tests by firing pis-
tOl and rifle balls through a shirt and neck
eTchlef Ike JUhnSOn'S INTO piece OF meat,
ami found the r!he-ball penetrated through
both cloth and meat exactly the same as
those in REgin's case. Dr. White has just
treated three or four hundred rife wounds
and was an expert on the subject. Both
McCrae and White testified most positively
before the court that the wounds were
caused by rife bullet, giving their reasons
Tor the opinion,
a PARTISAN JUDGMENT
The sentences recommended by the
court in Valparaiso are very curious.
Thus Carlos Gomez, one-armed Chilean
sailor, who COnfesses to having stabbed
Uurnbull, is recommended to be imprisoned
tor three years, While Davidson Of my crew,
who knocked him down with a stone ia at
tempting 10 prevent his doing this is re
ommenhedto ten or fifteen years impTis0n-
ment. The PcCcurator's statement that
there is no evidence to show that IuTnbUli
and Riggin died Of their wounds is really
novel l suppose the Court imagines they
died Of slow CONSUMPTION"
THE CHILEANs TO BLAME.
Lieutenant Sears Of the Baltimore, while
speaking OF the finding Of the Chilean Pro-
curator FiscaPs agent in the Baltimore sail
oTs' case, says: The whole thing 10 a nut
shell is this: Tie ChieaBs at first arrested
a number Of our men, investigated their
conduct, and released them with a written
statement that there were no charges
against them. Now they claim The affair
was a drunken row, and that our sailors
we're equally 10 blame with the Chileaus.
But their FIRST statement is the only one ell
titled 10 weight. and it was TO the effect
that after the row in which two of our sail
oTs were killed and many wounded they
had no charges 10 make against any OF the
BatimuTe's men. 10 that ease, il our men
were not TO blame, the Chileans must have
been. All the arguing In the FIscaPS re-
port cannot change this. The charges
against Davidson were an atterthOught.'
NO SCARCITY OF SAILORS.
Speaking Of the reported scarcity Of sail
Ors to man the waT-ships here, Captain VIII
son Of the receiving ship Independence to-
day said that although he had compaIa-
lively few men on the Independence,
there were plenty TO fully man all the ships
now 10 commission at the yard. II others
were needed they could be obtained without
difficulty.