Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-02-15
CLAIM OF AN ALIBI
The Sheet Anchor Of Harry
Hayward's Defense.
BUT VERY POOR PROGRESS MADE,

Defenss Occupying Considerable Time to
Prove Things the Prosecution Is Ready
to Admit-One Witness Who Did the
Accused Harm and Another Who FlatIy
Contradicts Biixt-The Jury Examines
the Clothing of the Murdered Woman.
MINNEAPoLIs, Feb. 15vThe defense in
the Hayward trial is out at last, and it is
an alibi. So said John Day Smith in his
opening to the jury. This is to be backed
up by the impeachment of the testimony
for the state in certain particulars. But
if the defense cannot do better than it did
on the first day it will make poor show.
Nearly the whole afternoon was spent in
the examination of a number of police Of
ficers. who swore that there We're pointed
shoe tracks and buggy wheel marks at the
scene of the tragedy. There was nothing
especially significant shown in that, for
the officers had two buggics ut the scene
and the doctor had driven one. Yet the
defense made much of it, and showed that
the tracks at one point were where the
buggy tracks turned over them, Erwin
and talked with somo one in the buggy.
htu tncn Waikeu Denlnu u.
Saw Pointed shoe Tracks In the Road.
Then the alibi theory was begun and
forty minutes We're spent in question.
ing the usher at the the Grand Opera
House over point which the state will
admit-that Harry was at the theatre
with Miss Bartelson the night of the
murder. Sergeant Getchel swore that he
saw pointed shoe tracks in the road near
the place where the body was found; that
they apparently left the road and went
into the grass at n point near where the
body was, and then We're merged with
other tracks in the center of the road.
About fifty feet beyond was where a very
light wheeled buggy had turned about,
and where it turned there were other
tracks, looking as if there had been some
tramping there.
Begins ON the Alibi Claimed.
He also saw a buggy on Portland ave-
nue. and Lake street, a mile and halt
away from the lake. earlier in the evening
and heard some one speak in an excited
voice but he could not swear that it was
Goosman's rig nor that it was a woman
who was liz the buggy. Lincoln Bean, r.
A Plumrer and John Fay. police officers.
corroboratcd the first part of Getchel's
story, but said they did not think much
of the tracks at the time. Then came the
alibi when Merrill Bartlett, head usher
at the Grand Opera House, stated that he
saw Harry and Miss Bartelson come to
the theater at about s: ID o'clock. Nye did
not cross-examine to any extent.
Contrasiicts Claus A. BIlxt.
Edward W. Murphy stated that he was
at the Grand Opera House the night of
Dec. :; and saw Hayward there with Miss
Barteison. He saw them go out when the
play was over. Hayward appeared to take
pains to have himself seen and reccg-
nized. Ole Thorson said he lived at the
house where Blixt said he called the night
of the murder and stated that there was
a light burning there all night, and no
one called or knocked that night. The
other witnesses Were John Walsh, the
morgue keeper who prepared Miss Ging's
body for burial, and Terence Connolly,
an undertaken, who had custody of her
clothing. These grewsome relics were
examined by the jury in the hunt for
blood spots.
Did the Accused Man Harm.
The witness Murphy actually did Hay
ward harm, for the prosecution has shown
tnat Harry Hayward took extraordinary
measures to secure the appearance of an
alibi. His plans in this regard were as
perfect as it was possible to make them,
so the prosecution says, and Murphy's
testimony was corroborative of the asssr-
ton.