The Portland daily press., 1895-08-14
SUICIDE THEORY PROMINENTLY
PRESENTED.
Attorney Pierce Responded and Much Old
Testimoney Was Introduced-The Hear
ing Was Continued Until Today When
it viii Close.
ESPECIAL TO THE rREss.j

hearing for the Stain ana Cromwell
pardon. Over the columns of figures in
its pages many eyes have travelled in the
past fifteen years for there, it is claimed,
is the evidence of Barron's defalcation.
Judge Crosby has quite library here. A
scrap book tells in chapters made of
newspapers dispatches the long story of
the Dexter bank robbery, and then there
are the two great Volumes of evidence
taken at the trial
This forenoon, refreshed by nights
slumber after his three hours argumet
yesterday, Judge Crosby started in
vigorously to discredit the testimony
given by Edison Maddocks at the hearing
on the motion for new trial for Stain
and Cromwell. Maddocks at the time of
the robbery kept livery stable in Dexter
and testified that he had driven Stain and
Cromwell from place to place in Maine in
1877. Charles Stain also testified to trips
made in 1877. but Judge Peters had de-
clared that Stain must have been wrong
in his dates, and these trips must have
been made in 1876 Yet if Stain was
wrong SO was Maddocks, for he also made
the date 1877. In view of this, Mr.. Crosby
could not understand how Maddocks's
testimony had so much weight against
the granting of the motion for new
trial However, Judge Crosby said that
perhaps the Court had not been informed
of the real character of the witness, who
was q man who would not command con-
fidence in Dexter Then Judge Crosby
read the decision of the Court granting a
divorce to the wife of Maddocks. Mad
docks was not able to identify Stain and
Cromwell in the Bangor jail, although
by his own testimony he had seen them
many times and should have been much
better able to recognize these men than
the Dexter people who saw them only
once, and claimed to be able to identify
them ten years later.
People who read the reports of the trial
of Stain and Cromwell will recall that
Dexter people who sclaimed to identity
them told Of two suspicious men who
were in Dexter on the day of the robbery,
one man wearing brown cap, the other
q rubber coat. 1t was to show that Nc
Pheters, a St. Alban man was in Dexter
on that day, and was wearing brown
coat that Mr.. Crosby put in the affidavits
he read last evening. This morning he
said that on that day he had himself met
a man whom he knows wearing a
peculiar rubber coat.
Judge Crosby cited the celebrated
of identifcations. Mr.. Crosby told a
story of his own practice to illustrate the
point. He told how esquire Knowles
of Corinna, had been deceived by man
who resembled his absent son, and mad
given the impostor food shelter and
clothing for a considerable time until the
fraud was discovered 1T has been repre-
sented that as Washington's S birthday was
a holiday Dexter streets were deserted.
That was not so, said Judge Crosby, as
on that day the stores and mills were
generally open, only the banks, suspend
ing business. The affidavit of Dexter
store keeper read by Judge Crosby,
showed that in one of theS twenty or
thirty stores in the village, there were
twelve customers from out of town on
February %, 1878. If this is so how
many strangers then must have been in
town on that day, not strangers to Dexter
people with whom they had business, but
strangers to a majority of the people they
met on the streets
Then Judge Crosby returned to
THE SUICIDE THEORY,
and detailed the conditio of things in
the bank when Barron was found there.
He called attention to the fact that while
a coal hod was found lying on its side.
the coal was not scattered about as would
have been the case had there been a
struggle. The du st on the floor in the
back room where the coal hod was found
was not disturbed. There was no dust on
Barron's clothing. The rope around his
neck was apparently cut from a piece in
the bank. Murderers would have been
likely to have had rope with them, not to
take the time to find piece in the bank
HhlCQ fh1nGC CrlsOo Irr mali nj 1,ry
the advocates of the suicide theory in
Dexter to uphold their point They say
that the condition of things in the bank
was just what might have been found
had a man tried to give the impression of
fight, and that the undisturbed dust,
the coal hod looking as if it had been
carefully laid on its side instead of over
turned in struggle and the use of a
piece of rope around Barron's neck exact
ly like piece known to have been in the
building, showed the true nature of the
case after suspicion had been once
aroused that it was suicide and not
murder.
Judge Crosby at this point called upon
Hon. Josiah II. Drummond of Portland,
who was of counsel in the civil suit
brought by the Savings band to recover
the amount OF Barron's alleged shortage.
Mr.. Drummond told how Barron, who
was treasurer of the bank at the same
time that he held other Offices of trust,
kept all his money in one draw, and
mixed up his accounts in small cash
book, which was at first thought to have
belonged to the bank, but was later dis
covered to be Barron's own property The
books which had been used before this
one could not be found. Had they been
accessible, Mr.. Drummond believes it
would have been possible to show for
what transaction Barron gave the note of
$4,000, running to the bank and secured
by the life insurance policy. Mr.. Dunn
mond said that Barron as he received and
paid out money during the day apparent
ly made memoranda on slips of paper and
then entered them on this general petty
cash book 1t was evident that he made
alterations in the books at several times
during 1877, as the time for the bank ex
aninatinns drew near Is was early in
that year that Barron was $17OO short in
his accounts That he began to be
troubled, was shown by omissions which
then first appeared in his books. Up to
August, the stubs in the check books
show for what early check was drawn.