The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-11-23
ARGUMENTS OF ATTORNEYS.
Most OF the Day Is Taken Up-N. v.
ooker Closes for Plaintiff.

argument at Q a. m. yesterday and spoke
about an hour and a half. He said that the
defense had no sympathy for the lynchers
of Marion Tyler, and that they, as well as
the defendants themselves, would do all in
their pc ar to bring the murderers to jus
tice. He declared that at no time was the
sheriff negligent in his protection OF Marion
Tyler. He said that whenever the sheriff
had received any intimation that his pris-
oner was in danger he had acted immediate
ly. He said that the person most interested
in the suit was the widow of Marion Tyler,
and that she had suffered no damage In his
death.
Mr.. Cockrum gave some Of the witnesses
for the defense an unmerciful scoring. He
is the possessor of an unlimited supply of
fine sarcasm which cuts to the quick and is
used with telling force. He said that he
thought the sheriff was justified in the open
ing of the door to the mob, because he firm
ly believed il to be the marshal who was on
the outside. Goblin could not have given the
alarm because he was covered with guns
that were in the hands of desperate muir
derers. He said that if the jury returned a
verdict for the plaintiff they would wiring
it from a poor, insignificant citizen of Scott
county, who had been elected to a paltry
office, and they would not be Furnishing the
murderers of Tyler. Said he: 1T is not the
province of the jury to wreak vengeance
upon any one"
FOR THE PLAINTIFF.
Mr.. ockrum was followed by T. NJ. Eek
ley. OF McLeansboro, ILL.,, attorney for the
plaintiff, who said that the point for the
jury to consider was whether the sheriff
had been guilty Of negligence in the death
of Marion Tyler. He said that there had
been a good deal OF extraneous matter
dragged into the case with which the jury
had nothing TO do. He declared that a YER
diet for the plaintiff in this case would mean
erected a monument TO his poor murdered
boy. He said that II Goblin had not been a
poor. weak man the lynching of Tyler would
one Of the bondsmen, had he been elected
sheriff by the people of Scott county, would
He said that the reason the sheriff had made
no better effort to save the life of Tyler was
because he did not wish to; Said Mr.: Eek
same circumstances the sheriff would have
been liable for damages"
Alonzo Green Smith followed Mr.. Eckley
and closed the argument for the defense.
His argument was forcible. He referred to
the history of Scott county and said that 1t
had a record as a law-abiding place which
Would Justify i any one in the mo belief as that that
that there were but two questions to be dis
cussed. one Of negligence and the other the
that the only evidence. that there had ever
been any danger of a mob came from
Charles Thomas. and the question of negli-
mony. He said that every rumor of a lynch
ing had been traced to Charles Thomas.
Said he: There would be no rumors with
out statements from Thomas" MIR. Smith
said that neither Thomas nor his father
had given any testimony before the grand
jury on which any suspected persons could
have been indicted. He said that, while the
sheriff and his sureties had given all the
help they could to Attorney General Tay-
lor. 1t was equally true that the Thomases
them.
THE CLOSING ARGUMENT.
w. ". Rocker. who made the closing ar
gument for the plaintiff, said, in part:
Gentlemen of the jury-This is a case of a
few important features, and 1t seems to me
that 1t will be an easy, though important
case, to decide. Sometimes we do not know
the outcome, even as We canno foretell the
outcome of a great battle. To my mind, the
only things to be considered are the i'm
mediate circumstances surrounding the
lynching of Tyler. You have heard the tes-
timony of the Witnesses; of how Goblin had
been informed that a mob was forming,
and you remember the night of the lynch
ing, when Mrs. Goblin first heard the knock
at the door, and how her husband, the
sheriff. Immediately opened 1t and allowed
the mob to enter and take possession of the
keys which unlocked the cell of Tyler. We
have maintained that Goblin was guilty of
gross neglect in not protecting Tyler from
that position. nor will / desert any of the
courageous men who have testified here in
open defiance Of the mob; You know. gen
ceived by the sheriff from Dave Reed.
Thomas Barton. Noble Williams and
testimony of Goblin before the coroner, in
which he said that he couldn't tell who all
had told him about. the mob" Mr. Rocker
the coroner in which he said that Thomas
and Barton had informed him of the COM
ing of the mob.
GOBLIN DENIES 1T.
yet, gentlemen of the jury he con-
tinued, this man Goblin comes before you
now in this hearing and says that he never
had any conversation with Charles Thorn
as about the lynching Of Tyler. I say to
you, gentlemen of the jury, that whoever
tries to a you believe a thing of that
kind. in the face of this evidence. casts a
reflection on your intelligence. Neither do
I intend to run from the proposition that
Goblin aided and abetted the mob. There
was method in the madness or getting rid
of all the guards at the time just before
Tyler was lynched. HOW easy IL was 1or MN
to procure the keys of Price by represent
inG that the commissioners objected to him
carrying them. The commissioners deny
that they ever made any such objections.
There Is also a discrepancy in the argu-
ment of the attorneys for the defense. one
of whom says that Goblin. on tho night of
the lynching, did not return from Seymour
until 10 o'clock. Another says that he was
at Jeffersonville Mrs. Goblin says that the
last she saw of the keys was at 3 o'clock,
| when her son Cal had taken the prisoners
their supper. There is no testimony that
when Goblin came home from Jefferson
vile or Seymour, that he ever went up 10
the room of his son and got the keys from
him, and yet we hear him exclaim in heroic
tones, that he told the mob that he would
rather die than give them up. How did
Goblin get the keys?
Then we maintain that the sheriff was
negligent and grossly so, in that he did not
look out of the w~indow-and you will re-
call that Ii was a bright moonlight night
TO see who was there before he opened the
do you not think that ordinary prudence
would have required him to do so? Then,
again. / say that there were no members
OF the mob in the room with Goblin after
they had gone with the light 10 the Jail.
or else they thought themselves in the
ten minute in which time Goblin could
have alarmed the neighborhood. and we
claim that II is the grossest neglect of duty
that would prompt such an act.
THE SHERIFF RAN AWAY.
1.-THE sheriff ran away from his post OF
duty when, according to his own testimony,
Marion Tyler was hanging, crying to God
to save him from death by s~traRgulation at
the end Of a rope. For these things we ask
his money, for money is no more sacred to
him than is his duty TO the people whom he