The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1906-12-05

nOcencc. II should not dlnlufb or DOM
or YOU Vt any time through life wheth
er, on the one hand. II sends tho de
PENDANT 10 answer tile death penalty ~
whether II gives him the liberty aLl
freedom which he seeks,
u caution you 10 put aside any feel
ings OF favor or sympathy and In the
closing hour OF your labor 20 do your
duty ms you see IL. The fact that the
Indictment was found against the de-
PENDANT raises no presumption against
HMM other words. the trial OF this
ease starts along In this court with
the presumption OF Innocence In favor
OF the defendant.
"Now. none OF ms was present on the
nth of July where II is said this crime
occurred. The evidence that Grace
brown lost her llfe at Big Moose lake
admits ~ no doubt. but there Is no tes-
lImony on the part OF the people m 10
an eyewitness Ms 10 what occurred at
the fatal moment other than the de-
fendnnt 10 detail the last scene In the
altered tragedy.
But all evidence Il. however. In
strict sense more or less clrcumstnntial,
whether consisting 81 facts which per
NIT the Inference Of the guilt or wheth-
cr given by an eyewitness. The tesii-
mony Of an eyewitness Is OF course
based upon circumstances.
III any Of the material facts OF a
case were az variance with the proba.
blllty OF guilt Il would be the duty OF
the Jury 60 give the defendant the
benefit Of the doubt raised"
Al Mr. Mills request the court told
the jury TO disregard what Mr.. Ward
said about Gillette having ravaged
Grace Brown. about his being n man
Il the type that reaches out for young
girls aud ruins them. the district at
torney's quotation from Shakespeare
about "the dagger and the district nt.
torneys claim that Gillette's lawyers
concocted the story he told on the
stand.
When District Attorney Ward resum.
ed his summing up he pictured Gillette
rs a base decciver and heartless muir
ierer. rldlculIng the theories advanced
10y Mr.. Mills for the defense.
The prosecutor ridiculed the theories
advanced by Mr. Mills that II Gillette
had been planning 10 commit murder
he wouldn't have Travelled on a rail
road train and he wouldn't have pur-
chased a mileage book. "Of course, no
one who commits murder ever rides on
a railroad or ever buys mileage
book" he sneered. Then he rldlculed
the idea that Gillette was mere boy.
"why. this poor. fragile boy. who
carried a rowboat for three-quarters Of
a nile on his shoulder; ". a poor, frag-
lie boy,'w couldn't pull 100 pound
girl out Of the water. A poor, inexpe-
rienced boy-he. who had Travelled all
over the west and who had lived In
Chicago among its rottenness and wick
-edness: he, who had Travelled on the
tops OF the freight cars--he is the poor,
inexperienced boy.
"He got next to the minister, he got
next TO the college professor so that he
could say, Gentlemen, am your equal
and your peer That was the robe by
which he fooled the public II wasn't
the jury he was trying TO fool; II was
the world Did that minister friend OF
his in all that time make one attempt
to rescue that girl from this villains
sraspf
Gentlemen, this man denied that he
kept company with this girl. When his
uncle asked him IL he was going with
the girl he said he had called on her
once by accident. If 1t had become
Known how he was running that girl
under her sisters roof, his cousin and
his workmates would have wrung his
worthless neck
District Attorney Ward said that Mr..
Mills was wholly unJustiiied in excus-
ing Gillette's immoral conduct, saying
every self respecting person would
have summed him and closed their
doors to him had they known.
"He wanted to stay in Cortland, in
society" said Mr.. Ward. '.He never
intended, never for a moment, to take
Grace Brown anywhere except to her
death. He concocted plan to rid him
self of her, one far less evil than his
first to rob her of virtue. That girl
received her deathblow, l am sure.
with n grateful heart, out there in the
woods"
Mr.. Ward asked why Grace Brown
should not wish for death-expecting
to become a mother with no husband,
going about the factory alone, and he
saying, Go home" He did not go to
her as lover and take her to minis
ter, but said, "Tll take vacation later,
and then I'll take care of YOU" And
he did.
"The nand of God guides the tongue
Of the murderer to his own undoing,
and Providence acted here. Gillette
asked Grace at the hotel when he saw
her talking to another girl, Did you
ell her | was hereY
"Grace Brown tried to reach Gill
lette's stony heart--a heart as cruel rs
that of the wolf that met Little Red
Riding Hood. Heart? Sympathy? He
knows nothing of them"
OF the letter where Grace Brown
said Il said No so many times, but
the world will never know It," Mr..
Ward said, "rhe world does know 1t,
little girl, even IL you had to sacrifice
your life beneath the fangs of this
monster to let the world find 1t out.
sGThara was never n lewd thought in