The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-11-01

The defense objected strenuously and the jury was taken from the room while the argument upon the question was made. The matter before the court was the most important that had yet come up. The commonwealth undoubt- edly had based much of its case upon the evidence of the killing of the chil- dren by Holmes, not alone for the eff feet 1t would produce. If evidence of | the murder of the children was barred out the commonwealth's case would lose much of It's strength, as the evidence of the killing of Pietzel is purely pre- sumptive and circumstantial and the prosecution might have difficulty in proving directly the murder by Holmes, With the facts in view MT. Graham ar gued at great length and with much | earnestness. He quoted from authori- ties sustaining his position and burn | ing words of denunciation of Holmes and his crimes fell from his lips Holmes | sat unmoved beneath the lash of the | eloquence of Mr. Graham and even smiled at times as he made notes of the | argument of the district attorney MT Graham's whole contention was that the motive for killing the family was a mercenary one, as it was only by wip- | ing out the Pietzel family that Holmes could obtain entire possession of what was held in common between him and | Pietzel. So vital was the evidence of the killing that MT Graham hinted that if 1t was rejected Holmes might be ac- quilted
 MT. Rotan made the argument for the
 defense. For young and compara-
 lively inexperienced lawyer MT. Rotan made an able speech in favor of his
 contention. His plea was that the courts of Pennsylvania had decided time and again against the admission of evidence of one crime to help con- vict man of the offense for which he
 was being tried. The arguments con- stunned an hour and then Judge Arnold rendered his decision. The judge ruled the evidence out on the ground that the killing of the children had no direct bearing on the crime for which the prls- oner was arralgned.
 l While the judge was speaking Holmes had kept his eyes intently on his face and when he heard the words that may give him a fighting show for his life
 his face lit up and he swallowed a lump in his throat that had been nearly | choking him.
 The jury was brought back and De- tective Geyer resumed his place on the stand for cross-examination. This was very brief and then MT. Graham tried to work what looked like a clever trick to introduce his evidence of the killing of the children. He asked the court if he could not introduce evidence dis proving Holmes statement that the | children were given to Minnie Williams, | but Judge Arnold somewhat dryly re- piled that he considered that statement | had already been sufficiently disproved. Geyer then stepped aside and Superin- tendent of Police Linden was called to the stand. Superintendent Linden had an interview with Holmes January 6, 1895. In this interview Holmes repeated to Linden the story of Pietzel's suicide much as he had told 1t to Geyer. l To Linden Holmes also denied that he killed Pietzel. Prior to making this statement Holmes had told him the story of procuring the body of a corpse from New York. While MT. Shoemaker was cross examining the witness he returned to the coroner's warrant that was mentioned in yesterd SIS testimony and began to question MT. Linden l about it. MT. Graham objected, but Judge Arnold would not sustain him. | Nevertheless the defense obtained no information regarding the warrant. l It is their contention that this war rant was one for murder and 1t was used to terrify Holmes into confessing | to the insurance swindle. If Superin- tendent Linden knew anything about the warrant it could not be learned from | him.
 At 5:15 the court adjourned until to- morrow morning.