The Portland daily press., 1897-10-02


scheme was given up for setting those
fires in June? So much for the motive
which the state failed to show Won We
have shown you that Waite could not
have a motive and the state is at loss to
account for his motive and is absolutely
at fault here.
Now we come to the governments
case. What have they for this case? The
only thing they have Is the alleged confess
sion of Waite, which shows Waite to have
been a man of bold operations. The
state has besides this not shown that
Waite was present at a single fire except
ing one and this confession is all the evil
dence that they have to convict Waite
with these fires. And surely the fact that
Waite was present at one fire was not
a matter of suspicion and not enough
grounds for arresting him. If it was
thank heaven, didn't go to that fire or
| might have been arrested too.
Now we come to this very strange
document In very strange case. Waite
told you that he signed this paper after
1t had been written by Brady. You
have heard Brady tell you that Waite
didn't write this paper himself, but that
1t was written at Waite's dictation.
Now, why did he sign this document
which he hadn't seen and didn't writeP
You know it was for money. For the $500
which had been offered him if he would
sign it.
Money has played a very important
part in this case. 1t has been the motive
for many people in this case. City Mar
shall Sylvester told you he had never seen
that notice of a $500 reward. Now you
see how large this poster is. He saw this
poster, but he has forgotten it. Possibly
the money affected his memory. Now
II money could SO affect the memory of
SO honorable a gentleman, Is 1t strange
that Waite should be tempted by the offer
of $500, and that ii would SO far affect
the Imagination of Waite that he should
sign document alleging to have com.
mitted all of these crimes?
Mr. Sylvester paid Mr.. Brady tor
trapping Waite. 1t was not the city of
Portland who paid him. Brady was told
by Sylvester that Waite was the man he
wanted to get. 1t seems very strange that
Sylvester should pick out Waite when
up to that time there was not suspicion
pointing to Waite's guilt What mans
liberty Is safe if men are to be convicted
on such documents as thatP Is your liber-
ty safe, Mr.. Eoremanf Surprising a dozen
or more Of you were gathered together
telling yarns and one of you should tell
of something which he claimed to have
done. Couldn't you be arrested for that
under the same methods that have been
pursued in this case?
Now Waite was man in poor circum-
stances and he wanted that $400 and q po-
sition paying $500 month. Waite was
willing for this to sign paper on which
was written lot of things which these
detectives told him it didn make any
difference whether they were true or not.
Now these men told Waite that there
was d company in Montreal which was
doing large business and this company
required of Waite bond stating that he
had done something startling. They
didn't want any petty crime or a murder
or anything of that kind, but they want
ed something to show that he was very
bad. And so, little by little, they roped
him in and got him into the tolls of
the law by the aid of this document
And there is little doubt that my client
may have been told that there was lutte
smuggling scheme and that he believed
that this would prove of benefit to him.
"Now the state divided their case into
three parts. The county attorney told
you that he would first pr We motive,
then the opportunity, and thirdly, that
Waite did it. We have shown you that
be did not have the motive.
How about the opportunity? Matches
are not long enough TO reach from
Knightville to Portland. II the state had
started in to show that Waite had some
queer invention by which he could press
a button in Knightville and set fire in
Portland, they might have convinced
you that Waite set these fires. But they
didn't start in to show this and SO they
can't prove that he set the fires for we
have shown you that he was where he
couldn't have set them at the time they
took place.
On December 18th there was a fire in
the Clapp building on Middle street. The
| alarm was rung in at 6. A a. IN, The
burden was on the state to prove that
Waite set this fire and they haven't done
IQrpTn ~
severe blizzard and snow storm, and this
was the only one in December and the
greatest of the winter. Waite lived at
| this time in an upper tenement On Q
street in knightville. MI. and Mrs. Green
law lived in the lower part of the house.
morning at $50 a. m. After that he took
shovel and tried to clear path in the
street. He ate breakfast and left the
house at 6.35 O'Clock. He had heard no
signs of life in the Waite tenement up
to this time. AS Greenlaw left his house
at $50 he saw Mr.. Tibbetts shovelling
a path out of his back yard to the side
walk, his face to the sidewalk. After
he had shovelied the path in his yard he
began to shovel towards Waite's house.
| Now we have MIR. Greenlaw and Mr.
Tibbetts to say that since $50 O'Clock
and that up to O'Clock they had not
either OF them seen Maite.
! NOW hrs. UTtCHldW IlNeU JuSG D6lOW
the Waite house and up to the time of g. 80
she had heard nothing of the Waites in
the upper tenement.
At 7.15 Waite knocks at her door and
asks Mrs. Greenlaw for the snow shovel
and goes out on the sidewalk where Mr..
Tibbetts was at work. Waite went to
work shovelling snow and Mr.. Tibbetts
said it was about 7.15 and so Mrs. Green
law says and Mrs. Tibbetts said it was as
early as O'Clock. 1t was not later than
I7l5 at any rate and Mr.. and Mrs. Green
law tell you that they never saw such a
thing as MIR. Waite in the morning be-
fore Mr.. Greenlaw went to work at $50
O'Clock and the fiend who set these fires
set them between six and seven O'Clock
every morning.
4 Now John Hayden the neighbor who
lived opposite Waite saw Waite on the
morning of the big blizzard at 7.15. He
didn't know the exact date but it was the
morning of the only big blizzard of the
winter. Hayden eaw Waite that morning
and saw him throw bit of snow at Mrs.
Waite who came to, the upper winoow to
speak to her husband. Hadyen saw that,
and Mrs. Waite also tells you about it,.
Gentlemen, men who have such gentle,
| DlavfuJ vuavc oo,1J5 not c0un noit su0h ar,