The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-03-15
BLIXT'S YERACITY
Attorney Erwin Puts in An
other Day DiSCrediting
His Testimony.
SAYS HE Is AN AWFUL LIAR.
His Manner of Killing Miss
Cling the Chief Point
of Attack.
CALLED DOWN BY THE JUDGE,
Some of the Remarks to the
Jury Termed Highly
Improper.

MINNEAPOLIS, March 8.-A great part
Of the second days plea of Mr.. Erwin
in the Hayward case was devoted to
Claus A. Blixt. Although he drifted to
other subjects several times Blixt col
ored all his objects.
With consummate skill he sought to
establish AN intimate relationship be-
tween the first statement of Blixt and
the testimony of Adry. He insisted
with the keenest analytical reasoning
that Blixt's first statement, made at the
very scens of his crime on that Sunday
afternoon when he drove to the spot
with Mayor Eustis and Chief Smith
was absolutely true in every important
point, save that he had substituted
Harry Hayward for his real accom-
plice, the mysterious third man.
The testimony of Blixt had been dis.
torted and glamored over with the halo
of religious belief. 1t should be analysed
by the searching light of common sense.
He implored the jurors to discredit the
testimony of man who had told SO
many contradictory stories in the hope
of receiving clemency. The attorney
bent the
Whole Powers of His Mind
to an elaboration of the terrible story
told by the real murderer Every Cir
cumstance that had the remotest bear
ing on the material evidences of Bixt's
statements was comprehended in his
argument.
He had the bloody clothes brought
out, and, with these drenched garments
planted on the floor before the IL good
men and true, he pointed to the marks
of blood upon the front of the shirt.
waist, the efflux from the awful wounds
in the nose and lip.
But most plausible of all these was
his comment on the condition of the
sealskin sacque, SO graphically illus
trated by placing the sacque about the
slender shoulders of his slender clerk,
Walter Schumacher. This sacque bore
stain upon the collar, not upon the
rear, where the wound in her head was
found, but on the left side, where it
would be up gainst the cheek.
When court adjourned at o'clock
Mr.. Erwin announced that he would
conclude in an hour or so in the morn
ing and Judge Smith will then charge
the jury.
Silent Witnesses of God.
Mr.. Erwin devoted the morning hours
to a critical analysis of the testimony of
Claus A. Blixt, and especially those
portions which he claims are contra
dicted by the evidence of witnesses and
those "silent witnesses of God"-the
injuries the murdered girl sustained,
the position of the body, the tracks in
the road and the bloodstains in the
buggy, which he claims gave the lie to
Blixt's story. The principal point he
attempted to make was that the girl
was first pounded with heavy instru-
ment, left to die on the buggy seat, and
finally shot to make sure she was
dead.'
Taking up the seal skin coat the
murdered woman wore on that night OF
Dec. 3, Mr.. Erwin went on to show
where the course of the first bullet, the
one that missed it's mark, had plowed
furrow through the fur on the right
shoulder of the coat, but he neglected to
show how it was that this man could
have known he had missed his mark,
had the night been as dark as the EVIL
dence shows it was, and the dying
woman lying on the ground in posi-
ton in which the attorney believes she
was shot. Blixt, he claimed, was liar
when he said he had shot that woman
in the buggy. He lied about that-he
may have lied about the whole transac-
ton, as unquestionably he had in his
first statements made to the mayor and
to the chief of police.
Struggle of Conscience.
Dealing with the struggle of con-
science which Blixt had described, it
was only reasonable to believe that the
man would have driven for over a
mile, as he swears he did, with that
limp body sitting there beside him.
Erwin also went into a lengthy dis
QUESTION on the tracks seen in the road.
They were the tracks of Blixt's accom-
plice, he claimed. The witnesses for
the state had testified that there were
marks in the road, showing that the
buggy had been cramped around and
that man had stood there talking be-
tween the wheels This man was
the accomplice, and the conversation
had been whispered one. 1t was
shown plainly enough in the way the
tracks were displayed and in the evil
dence that the buggy wheels were
cramped. This was not necessary had
the conversation been carried on in an
ordinary tone. The evidence showed
the truth, to the eternal damnation and
everlasting destruction OF this lying,
canting hypocrite, Blixt
Condition of Miss Ging's Clothing.
The veil and hat worn by Miss Cling
the night of the murder were produced
by the attorney, and the rent in it was
made to prove that she had been struck
with weapon to produce the cut on
| her lip. The same blow had made the
cut in the veil, and argued that it was
! patent to any reasoning mind that this
| was the truth. Whether the blow was