The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-09

Judge DugaS amounted to almost al much as telling the jury the verdic
 would be guilty"
 O'Brien, who had been perfectly com. posed at the beginning of the trial ant
 for the full length of more than veal
 he had been in confinement, kept his
 composure through all up to the very
 last. The trial lasted thirteen days
 During the last few days he began tc
 show signs of the strain, but he held
 up well.
 When asked why sentence should not
 be passed on him O'Bren said there
 were five reasons, and made a short
 talk, but was illogical, and he did not
 enumerate the reasons As he talked
 his moustache twitched visibly. The
 court was crowded with spectators.
 The prosecution had summoned
 eighty witnesses, one coming 5000
 miles, another from San Francisco and
 many others from the coast. Only
 thirty were placed on the stand. This
 was because O'Brien was tried for the
 murder of Lynn Relic alone. At the
 beginning he was also charged with the
 murder of Clayson and Olson, who re
 killed at the same time and at the same
 place, but the court ruled that the &C.,
 cused should be tried on separate charges and the crown elected to have
 the first trial which proved the only one necessary, on Relic.
 The great circumstantial web of evil dence spun by the prosecution, how ever, necessarily involved much bear ing on the disappearance of Olson and Clayson also, because they were togeth- CT at the last. In this connection evil dence was taken as to the starting out of the party on the eventful trip; what the victims had with them when they started, the numerous articles of value and trif1es in their pockets or upon their backs, the descriptions of the men and later the Identification of their bodies and articles as found after death.
 Some were found in possession of the accused or in his camp on the trail and some at the scene of the murder. The detectives also had to give additional evidence of how the bodies were found; how they discovered the scene of the tragedy; what they found there; how O'Brien was arrested and numerous other points.
 Witnesses were put on the stand who described nearly everything Relic had and wore when he left Dawson on the fatal trip, and others came later who had identified his body and those of his companions, and then came the of the articles he had worn.
 The story of how O'Brien was seen about Minto several days before the without money and begging; how his tent was found after the mur- der, with stolen articles in it, and how he was seen after the murder travelling up the trail to Tagish with money and was corroborated by chain of witnesses.
 Friends who were with Relic the day he left Dawson identified the diary he Sept which was found on his body, and what he had written in it, and the amount and kind of money he took One of the strongest connecting links was in the testimony of certain wit lesses there that Relic was given a peculiar nugget to take to Seattle, one n which there was strange loose piece which fell part way out on being held n a certain position and then could be pushed back, yet would not come en- irely out,s and testimony of the night of the steamer Nora, winter ng on Tagish, where O'Brien stopped, o the effect that the accused had there hown him the nugget while spending pic 10 in in OBrien's tent near Minto of | |. rifle similar to that which made the | wounds in the dead man, and firing | ullets of the same size as those found , t the scene of the murder, in bat cred condition, strengthened the l hain.
 A crown of tooth shot from Relic yas found by the detectives on the | cene, and at the inquest fitted exactly } the remaining stub in the mouth of | he body of the dead man. It also eveloped in the autopsies that pieces f the bones found at the scene of the lurder fitted in the skull of Clayson. " the matching of such pieces found n certain spots at the scene, and by 1entifying certain trifling articles be- ,nging to each man, which were 1rown from their pockets, it was de- ,rmined to the satisfaction of the off, ars exactly on what spot each man H.
 Pools of blood at certain spots also elped in the conclusions drawn by the ficers as to where the men fell the its made in trees by bullets indicated le direction the bullets were fired, and
 this way they drew the conclusions , to just where each man fell. Where lson went down the snow was greatly rn up, and he evidently made great ght for life.
 Bullets were put through the heads
 each of the men, all about in the me manner, and are thought by the hcers to be after shots, fired to make Ire the victims were dead. The men Il from nineteen to seventy-five feet om the river bank.
 Detective Mcclure gives it as his the . y that after the men were shot the dies were robbed, then drawn back to the woods farther on and covered tn trees and left to freeze until even- g, then taken to the river and thrown
 under the ice on a trail running off
 a different direction from the one on lich they fell. Relies watch stopped at about nine , dock, as shown when found on his t pfficarc cav if bai,,r- ahaa, l |