The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-11-02
SUICIDE THE DEFENCE.


 s Philadelphia. Nov. 1,-To-day Judge Arnold decided not to admit evidence oncerning the death of the Pletzel }hildren, That was 8 big victory for ehe defense in a legal way, because the < lstrict attorney fought hard to get on he record the finding of the bones of E he Pietzels in cellars here and there.
 Mrs. Piet2el had been recalled for a < moment to tell that she, too, had been n jail on 0 charge of conspiracy and had been discharged. In cross-examin- atlon the defense said it would show hat it was Mrs. Pietzel who had led Holmes about the country, and not the defendant who had moved her from town to town.
 M The district attorney sneered at that, ESand spoke of subjecting the "poor wo- man on the stand" to a still greater Strain. MT. Rotan, who is hearty hon est and rather impulsive young man, blurted out that the prosecuting officer was understood-that he was simply talking for effect on the jury.
 The black-gowned Judge Arnold want led to know if defense was going to show that Mrs. Pietzel was the Sven- gali.
 Edward H, Cass, Chicago agent for the insurance company, told of having received letters from Holmes, as has already been told Cass said he had received a message from Pietzel in which Pietzel told him who Holmes was and where he could be found.
 The testimony of Cass was more in the nature of corroborative detail than anything else,
 A dapper young man, wearing a light suit, red necktie, and with curly black hair, came forward when the name of John King was called. MT. King was more diffident than his ap- pearance indicated.
 HOLMES OWN STORY IN MANU-
 SCRIPT.
 He hesitated a long time when asked his business and seemed to be quite uncertain for a time what his calling was. Then he concluded that he wasn't doing anything at present. The last thing he did was to read the manuscript of a book entitled < "Holmes Own Story" or something of that kind. The manuscript, the witness said, he had received from Lawyer Shoemaker, who assists MT. Rotan some < in the defense.
 \ The witness couldn't say that Holmes had written the manuscript. It was typewritten when he received it. The typewriter who made the copy was in ca1o visaged and spectacled young woman. The young woman, whose name is < Amy Long, was called upon as the next < witness. She acted as if she thought a dire fate was about to overtake her < at any moment, or that she had com mitted some awful crime in making a copy of the manuscript. A copy of the < book was handed to her and she was 5 asked if she had typewritten it. She thought she had. T didn't read s the book" she said, earnestly. She said the manuscript had been in pencil, # and didn't know if she could recognize the same writing again. Some writing was shown to her, and she said it look ed like the same writing. She had se- < cured the original manuscript from Friend Shoemaker
 A great deal of time was wasted over 3 the young woman, who clearly didn't relish the position she was in. Holmes { and his counsel bored over a copy of the book, which had been put forward by the prosecution. MT. Rotan made a couple of marks in it at points where he wished the witness to read. The dis trict attorney objected to the marks in 5 his book.
 s DEFENSE TRIES TO PROVE THAT PIETzEL COMMITTED SUICIDE. 'It isn't your book, it is my book, " remarked Judge Arnold. The spectators laughed loudly, and 7 the court attendants, scowling at the audience, cried "SilenceW so fiercely as to cause several timid women, whose ! nerves had hardly recovered from the shock of beholding a real live murderer, to hop up and down on their seats like corn in the pan over a hot fire. When every one had recovered Miss Long was asked if there had been any changes in the book since she had made a copy of it. She thought there had been.
 Dr. Leffman came back to tell about deaths from chloroform. According to his own statement, he has never seen a death produced by chloroform. He was called as an expert by the prosecu- ton.
 MT. Rotan wanted to know from the witness if it were possible for a person to take chloroform without outside as- sistance. That the defense wanted later on for the contention that Pietzel had committed suicide, This was to be the defense.
 That much was made plain by Holmes and his counsel If chloroform was in- troduced into the stomach few sec onds. or even a few minutes, before death Dr. Leffman told MT. Rotan, it was possible that the stomach would show no irritation.
 Chloroform he thought, invariably produced inflammation of the membrane of the stomach. No inflammation was discovered in the stomach of Pietzel, though more than an ounce of chloro- form was found there. MT. Rotan tried to pin the witness down to the state- ment that if the chloroform had been taken half an hour before death it would not have produced inflammation, but witness would not say that positively.
 Mir ROta11 did from thR witness