Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1893-07-12
CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.
Little Things Which Operated to Save or
Take Away Life.

Take Away Life.
The question whether the person who
fires pistol or a gun at'another during
a dark night can be identified by means
OF the light5produced in the discharge
has long interested medico-legal minds.
The question was first referred to the
class of physical science in France, and
they answered it in the negative. A
case tending to show that their decision
was erroneous was subsequently report
cd by Fodere.
womantpositively swore that she
saw the face of a person who fired at
another during the night surrounded
by kind of glory, and that she was
thereby enabled to identify the prison
en- This statement"was confirmed by
the deposition of the wounded man.
A case is quoted by Fonblanque in
which some police officers were shot at
by hlghwayman on dark night.
One of the officers stated that he could
distinctly see from the flash of the pis-
toll that the rObber rode a dark brown
horse of remarkable shape about the
head and shoulders, and that he had
since identified the horse in London
SNNNSAO' Lis NNINAChCC TWAS dCCCDUCU,
for 1T was considered more satisfactory
than that of the man who swore that
he recognized robber by the light
produced by a blow on his eve in the
dark
In case of murder by strangulation
the woman who perpetrated the crime
had been nurse in an infirmarv and
accustomed to lay out dead bodies.
After the murder she carried out un-
thlnkingly her professional practice by
smoothing the clothes under the
body of her victim, placing the legs at
1ull length, the arms out straight by
the sides, and the hands open. The
doctor who was called in at once de-
clared such condition of the body was
inexplicable on the supposition of sui
eide, considering the amount of violence
that must have attended the strangu-
lation.
In another case the criminal had at
tempted to make the death appear like
the act of suicide by placing the lower
end of the rope near the hand of the de-
ceased, but he selected the left hand,
whereas the deceased was right-handed,
and he did not leave enough rope for
either hand to grasp in order to pro-
duce the very violent construction of
the neck which had been caused bv the
two coils of rope. A surgeon pointed
out these things. Both criminals con-
tessed their crimes before execution.
An escaped tconvict was on trial be-
lore a French court and the question
turned upon his identity with prison
sar known 70 hoa -, MI
was no appearance of colored marks
upon his arm, and the question sub
mltted to M. Leroy, medico-legal ex-
pert, was whether the man had ever
been tattooed. M. Leroy applied strong
friction to the skin of the mans arm.
This had the effect of bring out white
lines as cicatrices, with slight blush
tint. By this means the word Sophie"
was plainly legible in white marks up
on the Redeemed skin. This proved the
identity of the convict and he was re-
leased.
The Importance of examining closely
the hair found on weapons was shown
In a case in which Ratchet, having
clothed blood and hair adherent to it.
was produced as evidence against
prisoner suspected of murder in little
country town. 1t was found under his
bed. This, with other circumstantial
evidence, had turned public opinion
strongly against the prisoner, but
when the hair was examined by a
microscopic who CHANGED to be in the
court room it was found not to be HUI
man, but that of some animal. The
circumstance led to a more complete
sitting of the evidence and the accused
was acquitted. 1t turned out that he
had killed dog with the Ratchet and
had carelessly thrown the weapon un-
der the bed. So his life literally hung
on hair.-Toronto Mail.