The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1903-10-15
ENosEA, WISCONSIN, ocToBER IS. 1908.

stated openly that certain statements
he mac made in the preliminary exam
inatioa were false. It Is held by both
the attorney for the state and for the
defendant that the admissions of false
hood made by Caster would make his
evidence worthless In any attempt to
convict the other men on the confess
Isions he made.
Caster gave little testimony Of in
terest. He frequently contradicted
himself and claimed that If he had
signed the confession admitted as evi-
dence he had done it without knowing
its contents. This statement was de-
MED W half a dozen witnesses for the
state and It is probable that Casters
testimony had but little weight with
the jul u. In one incident Caster adj
nitted that he had told Newberry that
he had received money but the defend
ant WAS not as clear on this matter as
he might have been. 1t had slipped
his memory but he declared In an inn
passloned manner that IF I told him
SO II was SOL
Casters testimony took up most of
/ the Wednesday afternoon session Of
the court, and he was recalled for cross
i examination Thursday morning. Then
followed long list Of character wit
nesses, including "A. J. Burg, George
McCarron, Gustav Jacob, John f.
Smltn and others, who were called to
testify to the fact that Caster had al
ways borne good reputation before
the time of his arrest. None of these
/ witnesses were cross examined by the
State.
The two Court Commissioners were
called to testify to the statements that
had been made by Caster and other
witnesses on the different preliminary
hearings, and the case closed with the
State swearing District Attorney
/ Buckmaster for rebuttal. Very little
Of the evidence of the attorney was
admitted, as his testimony was met
with shower of objections from At
torney Ingalls,.
I AT the close of the case the attorneys
had long wrangle over .the instruc-
tons to be given the jury, and both
the State and the defense presented in
structions,
! After this argument was over Mr..
ingalls, made two more motions for the
discharge of the defendant on the
ground that the corpus deficit had not
been proven, but both were denied by
the court.
i All of the Thursday afternoon SEES
sion was given up to the argument OF
the case and quite crowd gathered to
hear the speeches of the counsel for
the 8tate and the defendant. Consid-
cradle interest centersd in the speech
of Attorney Ingalls, as the people were
anxious to discover the line of defense
that he would take.
i The attorney summed up the evi-
dence in the case in very brief man
ner and then gave his attention wholly
to two points-the one that Caster
had been promised reward for telling
the story of the gang and that the
plaintiff had not shown all the details
Of the crime as alleged. The speech
touched little on the evidence but was
mostly passionate appeal to the jury
for the acqusttal of the prisoner.
l The argument was closed by District
Attorney Buckmaster, who spoke for
an hour closing up the case. In his
speech he went to the evidence and
showed that by Casters own testimony
he was guilty of the crime as charged.
It was half past FIVE O'Clock when the
arguments in the case we're completed
and Judge Williams left the matter of
the charging of the jury to themselves.
Aftersa long discussion the jury de-
cided that the charge would not be re-
ceived until Friday morning. BY the
order of the court the jurors we're kept
together during the night and they
were at ali times under the custody of
the sheriff and his deputies.
i The Cost of Justice.
The Caster trial will stand on the
court records as one Of the most ex-
pensive criminal actions ever tried in
Kenosha county. 1t will be almost as
4 expensive as the famous arson cases
and for this reason it should have some
effect in preventing similar charges in
the future.
The cost of the trial as shown by the
records Of the county clerk and the
clerk of the court has already reached
the large amount of two thousand dol
! lars and 1t is expected that another
thousand dollars will be added TO the
long list of expenses before the case
finds its end.
! More than eight hundred dollars had
been spent by the county on prelimin-
airy hearings before Caster was ever
arraigned in the circuit court and DUR
ing the past week the expenses in the
case have piled up in rapid way.
The expense of jurors for the trial
counting the two days in which the
jurors waited for the case to get start
ed has amounted to over 500 while
the costs for the services of the stem
ographer have been nearly 500. Wit
mess fees and expenses for jurors and
witnesses have brought the amount
up several hundred dollars more and