Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-17
Widows Testimony
Against Stackpole
Is ClinChed
Attorneys for Defendant
Admit Client Wrote
the Epistles
At Night Trial Barber Testifies He Cut
Stackpole's Face, Thus Explaining
Prisoners Bloody handkerchief.
Arguments Expected Monday

"Now don't care If don't get there
before the 18th of May, but Will get
there In time to take three strange
faces to hell with me. For 1 am going
to start for hell when leave here un-
less your next letter changes my
mind,
Such was the last paragraph of the
last letter ever written Mrs. Aurellia
Scheck by Ernest G. Stackpole before
he came to Los Angeles, just prior to
the murder of Joel Scheck, for which
Stackpole is now on trial, and although
trick of fate caused the accused man
to place it among his other papers.
Yesterday the prosecution in the
Stackpole case played it's last card,
and when the session of court had
closed the prosecution had passed into
history and the defense announced it.
self ready to take up the fight at a
night session.
AS stated in the earliest stages of
the trial the documentary evidence was
regarded as the trump card of the trial
In that it corroborated the story of the
murder as confessed by Mrs. Aurellia
Scheck, the self-confessed assistant at
the hideous deed.
Waves Two Letters
But the documentary evidence
proved even stronger than expected
and when late in the day Deputy Dis
trict Attorney Ed Fleming leaned for
; ward and waved two letters in his
Inn nd IaA HAHr4 &c. =. JzCa
turned toward Stackpole, for they were
confronted with evidence which even
Stackpole never dreamed existed.
The letters were in StackpoIe's hand
writing and addressed to Mrs. Scheck,
but they had never been mailed, for
they were found in the private papers
Of the accused after his arrest.
1t is conjectured by the attorneys
for the prosecution that Stackpole,
after having written the letter, decided
to come to Los Angeles and therefore
cast the piece of damning evidence
aside only to sweep it up with many
other letters received from Mrs. Scheck
and deposit it in the safe deposit box
in Los Angeles bank. For there it
was found and yesterday the accused
looked a trif1e pale and his face set
hard when the letters were handed his
attorney and he was called upon to
look them over.
Admits the Authorship
With bulging eyes he read them from
start to finish and then nodded and his
attorneys, with a nod of resignation,
Z admitted that Stackpole was the auth
or of the epistles. e.
In one, considered the chief scrap of
evidence in the trial, is a statement
from Stackpole to the effect that he
had written to Mrs. Scheck on certain
dates in the month of May, and the
statement corroborates the letters of
Mrs. Scheck to Stackpole written on
corresponding dates and produced as
evidence in the trial to show the plot
and establish the relation between the
man and woman
In turn these letters corroborate to
a great degree the statements of Mrs.
Scheck in her testimony given on the
witness stand, in which she accuses
Stackpole of having murdered her hus-
band, and in that way the prosecu-
tion, through the persistent and clever
work of Deputy District Attorney
Fleming, has established a chain of
evidence which they are confident will
secure a conviction of Stackpole on
the charge of murder in the first de-
gree.
What the defense will be is yet to
be learned, but the game will soon
be played and 1t is expected that the
defense will close its testimony either
this evening or tomorrow, and thus
bring the arguments up for hearing
Monday morning.
To Jury Next Week
In that case, for it is stated by at
torneys for both sides that the argu-
ments will be brief, the case will go
to the jury about the middle of next
week or even sooner, and Stackpole
will learn his fate.
Early yesterday the case was called
and the famous letters produced. Ev-
cry objection possible was registered
by the defense but all in vain.
During the morning Assistant Dis
trict Attorney McComas was called
into the case. Since the beginning Of
the trial he has been working on the
expert testimony regarding the hand
writing on the letters. and he ap-
reared i'm the case to assist Attorney
Fleming i'm prosecuting that point.
Finally the letters were called for
and produced. The hundreds of NOR
bid spectators were rendered rare
treat I'm the letters, as they are consld-
cred about the raciest and most dis
gushing ever read in local court room,
but there was sufficient evidence in the
remarks about the intended murder to
make the letters and their shady con-
tents entirely competent.
The letters were read, that is about
twenty-five of them out of hundred
written by Mrs. Scheck to Stackpole,
and following the reading of those LETT
ters came the chief bit of evidence in
the trial when the letter that was never
sent was produced and read.
StackpoIe to sheck
Here are the four letters written oy
Stackpoie. the first two to Joel Scheck,
IN which he proposes that Joel visit
him in Arizona, and the other two,
scoptlnued an Page rhree.l