Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1904-03-22
Defense Promises to Spring a
Sensation In the Case OF
Martin Wescott
SAY THEY WILL PROVE ALl5I
State Was Supposed TO Have Strong
Case in View of Partial Confession
by the Prisoner and Attempt to Prove
an Abb Will Come as Great Sur
prise.
Special TO Times Republican,

Special 20 IlmeS-NeHupACdM
Northwood, March 22.-The trial of
the state against Martin Wescott for
the murder of Ed Logue, the Hamon-
town barber, is attracting unusual at
tention and what promised to be an
of the defendant will prove one of the
most mysterious of murders IL the de.
Tense can establish what they propose
to prove.
Martin Wescott dives near Fertile on
a farm and has wife and two chill
dren. Ordinarily he is peaceable
citizen, but about once year he mas
been in the habit of irnhihing freely OF
cheap whisky and when intoxicated is
ugly and quarrelsome Last January
he took his usual annual and went TO
Hanlontown. He went into the barber
shop of Ed Logue where man by the
name of Lewis happened to be and the
three men are said to have adj drank
from the same .canteen." row fol-
lowed and Lewis ana Wescott came to
blows, Lewis getting the better of Wes-
colt and leaving HIS compliments In
the shape of two very discoolored OPP
tics. Logue came between the men
and separated them and Lewis Went
home.
The quarrel happened in the after
noon and in the fight the lower pane
of the window. IS inches square, was
shattered and fell into the street. This
window is about thirty inches from the
floor and will figure, very materially In
the case.
Logue and Wesc1ftt We're seen again
on the evening OF the same day and
both had been drinking. Late at night,
nearly midnight, Ldsgue was found un-
conscious on the sidewalk under the
broken window and never regained
consciousness, altho medical add was
Immediately summoned. 1t was the
opinion of the physicians that he fell
or was thrown backwards from the
window and the fall fractured his
skull and produced conclusion of the
brain, resulting in his death. An ex-
animation OF the BARRIERS room which
was on the second floor disclosed the
shattered remnants OF whisky bot
tie and as Wescott was known to have
been in an ugly mood the inference
was Immediately drawn that he and
Logue became embroiled in a drunken
fight and that Weseott had struck him
with the bottle, causing Logue to fall
out of the window and TO his death.
Wescott was arrested next day and
taken before the ccroner's jury and un-
der pressure of the sweat box system
confessed that he and Logue had been
fighting and that he had struck him
and the victim had fallen out of the
window. 1t is this confession which
will land Wescott In the penitentialy
ii he is convicted, and the general
opinion is that he is certainly to be
convicted of manslaughter, if not muir
Ger in the first degree. But the de-
tense has not been mapping since the
tragedy. The firm of Blythe. Marley
g. Rule. OF Mason City. was employed
and Markley is one of the greatest
criminal lawyers in northern Iowa or
in the state for that matter. They
went to work on the case and allege
that Wescott did not know what hap
pened after $3.50. as he was SO greatly
Intoxicated. They declare that they
will prove that Wescott's confession
was not true and that 1t was secured
by threats, and TO substantiate these
claims they say they will prove that
Logue and Wescott were seen together
for the last time about $50; that they
separated and Logue went to the meat
market and Wescott to the pool rooms;
that Wescott Went from that place to
Iii irI orfv nd ut
$50 drove to Fertile, where they
stopped for short time at the dance
there, and that Wescott was then
driven home They claim also to be
able to prove by competent witness
that he was in Logue's barber shop at
10 o'clock that evening; that there was
no broken whisky bottle or broken
glass on the floor, and that the broken
glass found about midnight must have
been placed there after that time. Not
finding Logue and thinking he was in
another room this witness went on
home. AS Wescott was at Fertile at
this time the defense will claim that
ne could not possibly have been the
man, If there was one who had fight
later and broke the whisky bottle. They
claim that the confession was extorted
by threat and that it should not be
allowed to be introduced in the testi-
n1ony. This phase of the case assures
enc of the most strenuously contested
cases ever tried In northern Iowa.
Markley is assisted by Arthur l..
Rule nephew of Duncan Rule, and the
county attorney is assisted by Hon. j.
j. Clark of Mason City, one of the
best prosecuting attorneys in the
Fourth congressional district.