Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-12-15
EVIDENCE CLOSED.
Arguments in BIondin Case to
Be Made, Monday.
Wrong Jurisdiction Is Chung to by
Counsel for Defence.
Jury viii Soon Settle siondin's Guilt
or innocence.

Boston. Dec. 1.-THE testimony in
the Blondin case has been submitted.
What the government relies upon to
prove that Margaret Emma Blondin
was killed at 43 Green street on April
q. 1901, and her body removed during
the night of April 80 to Chelmsford,
where the head was severed, all by her
husband. Josephs WiIfrid Blondin, has
been explained detail.
What the defence has to controyert
the theory of the killing advanced by
the commonwealth was concluded, yes
terday afternoon, and the little in re-
buttal by the prosecution was intro
duced. The superior court adjourned
at 5.25 p. M. until Monday at 3 A. NJ.
when the arguments of counsel and
the charge, of the judge will be given
to the jury. Each attorney will have
three hours to argue to the jury.
The trial. which opened with prom
ises of sensational evidence from both
sides, developed into a most interest
ing medical question. which will doubt
less be the principal record of the case
whether it is possible, six weeks after
death. to tell the cause of the death
of a dismembered body This is the
great material point upon which the
prosecution and the defence take issue,
and it involves the question of the
place the crime was committed.
Experts for the government declared
that the condition OF the head and
body enabled them to state positively
that Mrs. BlOndin was strangled, and
that her head was cut off by short
bladed knife some hours after death.
Medical men of reputation testifying
for the defence stated that the condi-
ton of the body of Mrs. Blondin made
it impossible to determine accurately
what had killed her. They said it
could not lie decided that she was
strangled. Other than the fact that
the body had been decapitated the de-
fence experts said it was impossible to
judge of the method of the killing.
The government took 10 days to put
in it's testimony. The defence rested,
yesterday afternoon, after having de-
voted a day and a half to it's answer.
With the evidence all in. and knowing
the attitude of james f. Owens, senior
counsel for the defence, it is obvious
that the principal contention of the
counsel for Blondin is to be one of
jurisdiction. There is no doubt that
counsel is preparing to argue that Mar
garet Emma Blondin was not killed at
AZ Green street, on April p. 1901.
The defence asserts that Mrs Blondin
could not have been killed there and
the body remain undetected until April
20, carried downstairs in a trunk and
shipped to Lexington without some one
of those handling it being suspicious
of the nature of the contents of the
trunk.
The theory of the defence. palpable
from the line of its evidence and sub
stantiated by the statements Of count
sci, is that Mrs. Blondin must have
been killed at Chelmsford, where the
body was found, and consequently be-
vond the jurisdiction of the Suffolk
county court. in which Rlondin is being
tried for murder.
Mr.. Owens has informed the court
that he will ask for some instructions
to this eject, and will submit them to
the two justices, Monday morning. The
court informed counsel that it would
consider any instructions to be slig-
gested by him.
fence was calculated to cOntrovert the
conclusion of death by asphyxiation
advanced by the government. and also
10 question the testimony of Mrs. Mary
Hanniean that a trunk. like that sup
posed to have contained Mrs. Blondin's
body, was removed from 43 Green
street.
Developing the theory of the defence
of the absolute impossibility to de ter
mine the cause of death from the data
furnished by the report of the autopsy.
Prof james Ewing of the Medical
School Of Cornell University testified.
He said he could not tell what had
killed Mrs. Plondin, and the declared
that the condition of the wounds on the
head did not warrant an opinion as to
i'm the decapitation. He believed that
time and exposure would eradicate the
indications Of the character of the
blows.
Prof Ewing said that if head was
| Immersed in water he should not eX-
pect to find black and blue marks.
Questioned as to the possibility of a
strong man sei2ing healthy woman
ard choking her to death without per-
! hitting an cutlery, as the government
| alleges was done in the Blondin case,
! Prof Ewing said
IF a healthy woman was strangled in
small room / should expect outcries
| and l should expect to find evidence OF
| a struggle and furniture disturbed. II
would take considerable agility and
strength fo- a man to spring upon Z
woman and strange her and suppress
all outcry. In strangulation. more thar
any other case. the human body is i'm
PEELED to greater muscular resistance
Prof Ewing admitted that a head
could be removed by a jackknife sucf
| as that produced as the property d
Blondin.
| On cross-examination. Prof Ewing
said that advanced external decomposi
| ton of the tissues of the neck would
indicate that they had been bruise,
before death. the purrort of the ques