The suburban citizen., 1901-09-28
MURDER in THE
FIRST DEGREE.
Jury at Buffalo Finds Leon CzOIgOsz
Guilty In Short Time.
ASSASSIN is OF SOUND MIND.
The Trial Consumed 0nly Eight Hours and
Twenty.slX Mlnutes-The Prisoner TO All
APpsaraRees Not Affected by the Fate
Which Awaits Hlm-Was Impossible to
Save the Presidents Life.

Buffalo, N. Y. (Special) &c Guilty Of
murder in the first degree was the judg-
ment which Leon F. Czolgosz, the an
archist murderer Of President Mckinley
heard pronounced upon him by Henry
w. Wendt foreman of the Buffalo Sill
preme Court criminal jury at 42o
o'clock, bringing to an end one OF the
most notable murder trials in the annals
Of the country.
Not so much as by the movement OF
an eyelid did Czolgosz indicate the shock
with which the words of the jurys
foreman must have come home to him.
His imperturbability was so dense that
many said it showed it was nothing but
a mask When the verdict had been an
nounced he was assisted to his feet and
led out of the courtroom to the jail.
The attorneys for the defense had been
unable to secure experts who would tes-
tify that Czolgosz was insane and this
destroyed their last vestige Of defense.
The fact that they would put no wit
| nesses on the stand was communicated
to District Attorney Penney and he
agreed to call as few witnesses as pos
sible in order that the day might mark
the end of the trial.
The chief Importance of the days tes-
timony was the bringing out of an ac-
curate account of the shooting of Presi-
dent Mckinley as told by sworn wit
nesses. Light was also thrown on the
assassin's motives
Not once did a single witness mention
the name Of James Parker, the negro
waiter who had been given credit in
some quarters for preventing the assas-
! sin from firing a third shot at Mr.. Nc
| Kinley. According to the testimony,
Private Francis P. O'Brien, an artil-
leryman of Captain Wisser's squad, who
stood near the President, is entitled to
the credit which has been given Parker.
| Others besides O'Bren, including several
secret service men, threw themselves on
! the assassin, but none mentioned Par
| ker. The negro was in the crowd near
| by, but according to the witnesses, did
absolutely nothing that was noteworthy.
The case was given to the jury at 3.5I
o'clock. Tweny-eight minutes later the
Jury sent in word that it had reached a
verdict AT 4.26, as previously stated,
| the verdict was formally announced.
Judge White was informed that it was
the desire that the assassin's right of re-
serving two days to himself before SEN
tence was pronounced be not waived.
The court which tried the assassin was
in session a total of hours and I3 min
utes. The jury was secured after hours
and as minutes. The actual time given
to the examination of witnesses was less
than FIVE hours. During the trial not a
/! single objection was made by the attor-
news for either side.
81 am sincerely glad it is over" said
x-Judge Lewis, one OF Czolgosz's coun-
sell I'VE did the best we could for the
condemned man from a sense of duty
10 the country. We were supporting the
laws Of the country, which decree that
every prisoner must have a fair trial.
When we said we thought him to be in
sane we spoke the truth, No man could
act toward us, his counsel and helpers,
as he has done unless his senses were
hampered in some way"
Ex-Judge Titus, another of the as
sassin's lawyers, said: "The experts
who we called are the best in the coun-
try, and yet they failed to find suffi-
cient arrangement in Czolgosz's mental
faculties for them to go OH the witness
stand and say so. We are convinced he
is insane"