The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-10-23
MURDER TRIAL
BEGINS TODAY
JURY IN TANBARA CASE sECUR-
ED AND CASE PRoCEEDs-w. O.
ATWATER LAST JUROR.

After spending over two days in Sc
curing jury, during which the de-
fense exercised all of the twenty per-
emptory challenges allowed under the
federal statute, United States Judge
Estee this morning began the taking of
testimony n the murder trial of Tan
baSa Gisaburo, before the following
tYglve citizens: w. II. Wilkinson, 7.
II. Hughes c. H. Brown, NJ ]. Bissell,
10. y, Friel, ]. J. Macdonald, Jonathan
Shaw, w. f. Sabin, J. p. Whine, w. T.
Schmidt, w. o.. Atwater, L. E. g. Par
ish& The case progressed rapidly when
a jury WAS once sworn in and FIVE wit
nesges W. eA0mined during the morn
ng session.
When court opened there We're eleven
men on the jury, as yesterday morning,
and they had been kept under the SUI
pervision of Marshal Hendry, at the
Hawaiian Hotel. Attorney f. L.
Thompson, for the defense, had four
challenges left, and he exercised them
by excusing c. A. Hall, A. w. Meyer,
u. Towse and Richard Davenport. w.
o. Atwater was the last talesman call
ed and qualified, and as there were no
more challenges, the jurors were sworn
to try the case. Judge Estee declared
a recess of ten minutes, to give the at
torneys time to prepare, and at about
a quarter to ten, the trial, which prom
ises to be the longest and most hOtly
contested ever held in the federal court
here, was begun.
IN his opening statement to the jury,
United States Attorney Breckons relat-
ed the story of the crime as he expect
ed to prove it. He said that he would
prove that the Fred j. Wood was an
American schooner, that she left some
port in the Pacific in July last for Chi
ma, and that there were on the vessel
Captain Jacobsen and his wife and two
children First Mate H. Meyer, Second
Mate John Nelson, six seamen, the
japanese cook Oto and the defendant
Tanbara Gisaburo. up to the 30th Of
July, as far as we shall be able to
show" said Breckons, there was no
serious difference between the captain
and the cabin boy or any member of
the crew. l think that when the evil
dence is all in you will be convinced
that Captain Jacobsen was a good and
kind captain"
Breckons proceeded to describe the
murder, and then told the story of the
vessel and the scene OF the alleged
events that led up to the death of the
captain. He described the captains
struggle with the cabinboy, as seen and
heard by three French sailors and said
that they would relate how they were
awakened by the noise, and heard the
captain say, boy, boy give me that
knife" and how after that they saw
the struggle, and sailor More saw the
knife in the hands of Tanbara, saw it
disappear and reappear, still in his
hands; how the sailors saw the captain
with his face covered with blood, try
ng to hold off the Jap who had the
carving knife, and finally how when
they reached the scene, the captain lay
with his head on a block of wood, the
Jap lay under him still grasping the
knife so tightly that it had to be fore
ed from him, and the captain was al
ready dead.
H. e. Thayer was the first witness
called. He is the secretary of the San
Francisco Lumber Company owning
the schooner Wood, and was called for
the purpose of establishing the nation
atty of the vessel, and the jurisdiction
of the court. F. ]. Church was called
to identity some pictures he had taken
| of the scene of the alleged murder, and
! Captain U. S. G. White, u. S. N, gave
| testimony as to an examination he
made of the vessel. DR.. Holt was call
ed to tell of the wound that killed the
captain.
DR.. Holt said that the cause of Cap
tain Jacobsen's death was a knife
wound in the right groin 1t was a large
deep wound and severed an artery,
causing practically instant death. Such
wound would cause death, it was
stated, almost as suddenly as a stab
in the heart.
The story of the crime was first told
when Oto, the cook of the schooner
Wood, was called to the stand. OtO
was suspected of being an accomplce
or accessory of Tanbara, and has been
confined in Oahu Jail since the arrival
of the vessel here. At the prelimindiy y
hearing his story was favorable to Tan
bara, He is one of the most important
witnesses in the case.