The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-25
CLOUDS OF
 WITNESSES Sanity or Insanity of Jack Thompson. COURT ROOM IS CROWDED Extraordinary Interest in the Trial
 at Evergreen. Arguments VIII Be Reached Today, and . verdict Is Expected Tonight.
 No Reference to Murder of the Wife.
COURT ROOM IS CROWDED
By VIII T. sheeban.

By VIII 1T. SheebHn. Evergreen, Jan. 24.--(Staff Corre- spondence.)-The hopes of Jack Thomp- hopes and fears, rose and fell today as witness after witness took the stand in the Circuit Court of Conecuh County. said few words as to the sanity or insanity of Jack Thompson. and passed on. For today no witness swore except as as tc the sanity or insanity of Jack Thompson. Some of them had other tes- timony. other facts of interest and bear Ing upon the motive which may have spurred Jack Thompson on to the mur- der of his wife and her father, John B. Cooper Defense and prosecution alike made the fight on the sanity Of Jack Thompson. The trial today was, there fore, more a court of lunacy than 2 murder trial.
 The pitiful tragedy was afar off . Only now and then did the memory of the kindly, we'll beloved old man, dead and murdered at his own door, rise out of the monotonous whirr of the legal machinery It came like a shadow only now and then, reminder that what was going on in the court room was not only an investigation into the S6uiLy lUl JdCh lHpInpSDIl, put IL WAS justice at work to punish the murderer of John Cooper. Not once has there come before judge, court and jury the memory of the young wife and mother slain by her husband In the presence of children. Her memory, indeed is apart from the law and in this trial for Jack Thompson is only charged with the murder of John Cooper.
 Thompson's lawyers say that he is and was insane when a murderous, de- structive demon, he went to his home, gun in hand, and did the terrible, double crime, His lawyers say that he is a paronaiac. They say he is such person who suffers from chronic in sanity, characterized by absurd but systematic and dominant delusions
 Insanity of the Family.
 Showing after showing, deposition after deposition, was read to show that Thompson's family in Kentucky had been stficken with insanity as perhaps no other family in the South had been stricken. Then, to drive home this defense of insanity. the attorneys put up several well-knowh citizens of Ev- ergreen and Greenville, who swore to their opinion that Thompson was of uhsound mind.
 Solicitor Bricken and his assistants spent practically all day in the break ing down this defense. They sent
 
 stand. each testifying that he had known Thompson for years and that he had never seen anything in the con- duct of Thompson to shake the opinion that he was of sound mind and sane. This cloud of witnesses seemed innu- merable. It began early in the morn ing and lasted far into the night. Each witness for the prosecution on the stand had to say that he knew Thompson well and believed him sane.
 Out of this testimony there came an ominous cloud for the prisoner. For of those who testified to his being of sound mind there were at least half a dozen who told of threats made by Jack Thompson against John Cooper. These threats represented Jack Thomp- son as impatiently waiting fer the death of Cooper to get the property that was in the family: He had been say ing "Pll sell that lot when the old man dies. It looks like he will never die. If he don't die, I'm going to take something and kill him."
 There were several of these ominous threats brought out on the stand. The weight of these witnesses for the State was attacked by the attorneys when, on cross examination, they/ sought to show that these witnesses had com tributed to the fund raised to prosecute Thompson, and each of the witnesses
 
 referred to in Evergreen as that fool, Jack Thompson"
 The arguments in the case will be made tomorrow. 4 great crowd will undoubtedly hear them. remarkable interest is being manifested in the case. Each day the court room IS pack ed and one-third of the crowd is made up by ladies. verdict is expected to- morrow night.
 Readings of ShOwinEs Continued,
 When court met this morning at S:30 o'clock the defendants attorneys con tinued the reading of showings from the Kentucky witnesses. As before, these showings dealt with the insan- ity of various members of Jack Thompson's family back in Lebanon, Ky. The showings read were those of W. F. Fowler. T. c. Beauchamp. j. A Benton. J. R. Thomas, O. c. Kelly, Tom B. Spalding. B. A. Tudder. S. A. Rus sell, E. E. Gaddis, F. NJ. Towels.
 In general all these showings were to the same effect: that those makinr them had known the prisoner all his life until he left Kentucky six wears ago: that the prisoners gradfather and grandmother died insane; that R. W Towels, brother of prisoners mo- ther is insane; that Mrs Emma Burkett a sister of the prisoners mother died Insane: that Mrs. Henry Huskey. sis ter of the prisoner is insane: that Mrs. w. F. Fowler, sister of the prisoners mother died insane January IT, 1906; that prisoners father Jery Thompson is insane and that Nettie Thompson. a sister of the defendant died insane: and that all persons so mentioned are hopelessly incurable Severay depositions were introduced substantiating the showings which had been read. These dispositions were from Sam T. Spaldlng Miss Kate Thompson. sister of the prisoner, Jas. Brussels, W. P Cravin and Mrs. J. J. Thompson. mother of the prisoner.
 Col G. R. Farnham. an attorney of Evergreen, testified that he had known Jack Thompson quite well in the past six years. and that Thomson had done a good deal of carpenter work for the witness The witness had always had more or less trouble to get the work finished In the opinion of the wit mess Thompson was of unsound mind.
 Objects to Colonel Fnrnhum.
 The Solicitor objected to the testi- mony of Colonel Farnham. alleging