The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-03-15
ELOQUENT ERWIN.
Strong Plea Made for Harry
Hayward by His Lead
ing Attorney.
TEENS WITH FIERCE INVECTIVE.
The Prosecution and Its Lead
ing Witnesses Bitterly
Denounced.
BLlXT HIS CENTRAL TARGET.
Alleged Accomplish Comes in
for Most SCathing Ar
raignment.

MINNEAPOLIS, March THE thou.
sands. who crowded into the criminal
| courtroom to hear Attorney Erwin
plea listened to the bitterest and most
scathing arrignment that ever issued
from the lips of man. An attack on the
character of the states witnesses had
been expected from the defense i'll the
Hayward case, and there had been gen
eral recognition of the power that lay
in the tall, ungainly frame of the coun
sci for the accused, but if any antici
pated the picture he drew of crawling
groveling, fear-crazed criminality, tC
| illustrate Claus Blixt's relation to this
case, there was nothing in the thou
sand awe-struck Mortified faces turne,
toward him to indicate that it wa
what they expected.
Was Memorable Effort.
1t was q day of triumph for W. W.
Erwin. Whatever may be the outcome
| of trial in which extraordinary Cir
cumstances have conspired to defeat
him, his effort will linger for year.
in the memory of the vast crowed
that surged in the old court room.
And the student of criminal procedure
cannot do better than study the remark
able speech of that truly remarkable
man.
Mr. Erwin began his address promptly
at 10 a. m. before an audience that filled
the room to the point of suffocation.
At o'clock, when court adjourned, he
announced that he was but halt
| through.
His Picture of Blixt.
With gestures so hideously uncanny
that they stirred the hearts of men and
women alike, Erwin pictured this MUIR
derer from his point of view. With
back curved in bow and face distorted
beyond human conception of hideous-
ness-his long fingers hanging loosely
downward, Erwin pictured Blixt as a
bloody minded scoundrel from the tips
of whose CORY fingers the blood Of poor
| Catherine Cling was constantly and for
ever dripping, and dripping and drip
ping.
-,
contemplated his own uselessness and
hung himself. That was what Blixt
should have done, and then the forgive
ness of God, perhaps-expiation, then
forgiveness.
The Weakness of Adry.
Another witness for the state was a
man so weak and deformed of mind
that he had not been able to compre.
bend even the divine command
''honor thy father and mother" man
so ill-starred of mentality that he be-
came highway robber-plotted crime
for recreation, and ended by plotting
| the death and destruction of a brother.
This was the creature by means of
whose falsehood and perjury on the wit
ness stand the state had offered to cor
roborate Claus Alfred Blixt. Recreant,
| renegade to soul and mind and blood
| this tiger, this fiend in human shape,
had been placed on the witness stand to
corroborate a cruel, bloody, shameful,
| hypocritical murderer, a canting tiger
of bloody mien-these were the wit
nesses the state asked the jury to
believe.
| AS to Wilson and jerks.
Erwin paid his respects to M. B.
Wilson and George w. jerks and
wound up by stating that this long in
troductory address had been made in
order properly to prepare the minds of
| the jury to consider the evidence.
Mr.. Erwin entered in an explanation
of the rules under which the jurors are
to act in arriving at verdict. These
rules, he hoped, would be prominently
brought into view in this case.
He wished the jury to fully under
stand the position of the attorneys for
the defense. Their duty first was to aid
the court in setting forth all the evil
dence, and in the second place to aid the
| jury in sitting as the august judge of
| the facts.
Analysing the Testimony.
81 am here to help you find the
| TRUTH" said Mr.. Erwin in entering upon
an analysis of the testimony. what
ever may have been my ambition when
young man, that is gone. am here,
and with Gods help, will try to show
you the light, the truth. You are here
to seek justice and truth, and not to
meet the approval of public clamor. Let
us see what this case is? The defendant
is accused of inducing Claus A. Blixt to
take the life of Catherine Cling What
evidence does the state rely upon? You
| look at the evidence and not the charge
Who are the persons relied upon? Whose
evidence alone is relied upon? Here
you are confronted by your first duty
| The States Witnesses.
| "You may be careful who you bring;
! but if you bring murderers and insane
men we will criticise. And who have
they brought? A man from whose finger
tips the blood Of Catherine Cling is con-
tinually dripping, while from his eyes
drop penitenGial tears He walks upon
the stand-blood and tears. They next
bring up man having all evidence of
mental weakness and a deformed
mind, SO weak and deformed it could
never comprehend the command of God
to honor father and mother A man
| who was so weak and deformed in
mind that he became highway robber.
A man so weak that he plotted