The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-10-12
ARGUING THE
LUETGERT CASE
Opening Address of the
Prosecution Duly
Begun.
Attorney McEwan Says the
Murder Charge Has Been
Sustained.
Building Up an Appeal for Convio-
ton on Purely Circumstantial
Evidence.
Special Dispatch to The CALL

CHICAGO, I'LL, Oct. II. - The final
arguments have been concluded in the
Luetgert trial and the case will bs given
to the jury by the end of the week. This,
at least, is the expectation of the attor-
neys. The defense expected to-day to
take most of the session Offering sure.
buttal evidence but 20 ne OF the witnesses
were not present when their names were
called, and it was decided that the case
might as well 60 on. Assistant State IS
Attorney McEwan began the opening ad-
dress for the State, and he will speak for
two days at least. He will be followed by
Attorney Phalen for the defense, and At
torney Vincent will close in behalf OF
Luetgert. Then will come the closing of
the State, which will be made by States
Attorney Deneen.
Assistant States Attorney McEwan ad =
dressed the jury for three hours this after
noon and barely outlined his argument at
the hour OF adjournment for the day. He
will resume the argument tomorrow
morning and will talk all day.
1.-The State was conservative in its as
sertions as TO what It would prove on the
witness-stand some weeks ago." said the
speaker in his opening. I'VE made no
boasts. We told you in the simplest
language we could employ iast what the
evidence would disclose. Our prom ises
have been fulfilled. Testimony given
from the witness-stand hes disclosed and
developed more than We promised you.
No stronger case under similar evide nee
was ever presented to Jury. Search the
iaw-books the world over and you will
nd M ,yr II
now world-famous Luetgert trial The
crime is one of the most remarkable in
criminal annals, yet when the details are
followed up and linked together in cir
cumstantial chain the motive and the act
are extremely plain and undeniable. The
claim has been made here that we have
failed to establish properly the corpus de-
about this from the attorneys on the o her
side. The body of the crime has been
sufiicie shown by the circumstances
which establish that Mrs. Luetgert met
her death through criminal agency.
''There Is no more necessity of proving
the corpus deficit further than there would
be to produce house in court 10 prove
that person on trial for burglary broke
into 1t, or to produce the horse before the
jury which thief is alleged to have
stolen"
McEwan referred to the fact that nearly
six months had elapsed since Mrs. LueI-
sert had disappeared from her home.
she still remains absent and will re-
main missing as long as the world en-
dures," shouted the assistant State $
Attorney, staring at Luetgert.
Then the case was taken up chron-
ologically and all the incidents were traced
briefly down to the date of the opening of
the trial. This started with the inquiry
of Diedrich Bickner for his sister, and
Luetgerts Indifferent reply that she had
left in a temper and would return when
she got over her ''mad."
Finally came the notification of the
police and the subsequent Developments.
Ali these were traced by the speaker who
praised the police for the excellence of
their work.
THE conviction of innocent men upon
circumstantial evidence ha sometimes &C.
Cured" said Mr.. McEwan, t'but such
men died as truly to support law and
order as the sailor or soldier killed in bat
tIe.''
The alleged relations of Luetgert and
Mary Siemmering were touched upon and
were declared to have furnished the mo-
tive for tue crime. Then law was read TO
impress the jury with the scope and sig
nitcance OF circum stantial evidence
Tomorrow special attenti ton will be paid
to Mary Sic mmering and William Charles,
and DR.. Walter Airport, the bone expert,
will also be considered at some length.