The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-10
Sensational Testimony
 is Adduced.
TIE KILLING OF WILL MCCAIN
State Endeavors to Prove Most
 DastardIy Assassination.
Fly Chnin of CircumstantiaI Eyidence Guilt is Endcavored te Rc Fixed on Four Mem-
 bers of Family.
nY WILL n. sHEEHAN.

BY WILL IT. sHEEHAN.
 wetumpixa, Nov. 9.--(Special Corre- spondence )--wfiiam Mccain. peace officer of Fillmore County. was brutally and cowardly assassInated in an Fillmore County public road, and now jury Of his peers is called upon to say whether the circumstances, which the State has had witness after witness detail from the witness stand, is strong enough to fasten the crime upon Nell Rigby.
 If the jury so decides. If 1t says that Neil Rigby did the deed, the crime is murder, deliberate and wilfui. There can be no extenuation or qualification of 1t.
 1t is murder in the first degree, and the punishment Is life Imprisonment or death on the gallows. But is the evidence brought out in the ancient court house of E1more County strong enough to build verdict of Guilty" upon?
 Tt is all eireumstantiaI. There were no eye witnesses. The deed was done to the court he Is as mysterious and unknown as the man who pulled the The evidence. of incidents and cir cumstances, would no doubt convict young Neil Rigby if he were charged
 
 As it is, the jury must decide if the chain of circumstantial evidence is strong enough to drag him to the gall lows,
 FamiIy's Fate In BaIanee. The case means life and death not only to Neil Rigby, but to four others His old father, Allen Rigby, Is in the Ell more jail charged with murder Two brothers of Nell Rigsby are with their father in the Jail charged with being responsible for the brutal assassina- tion of William Mccain.
 Jack Short. the husband of their sis- ter, Is the sfifth member of this family in Jail and under indictment for a cap itai offense.
 Only Neil Rigby will be tried at this term of court. The term will legally expire Saturday night. and the Judge and Solicitor are due in Autauga Coun- tx on Monday. The Jury had already been drawn to fry John Rigby, but today the Judge dismissed the jury as it was clear that there would be no time for the trial of the crime charged other members of the family
 Defense shows Hand.
 The defense today showed It's hand Its tuning came In the afternoon when 1t proceeded towards the establishment of an alibi. The members of the fam fly swore that Nell Rigby and his brother came home at o'clock on the night of the Killing and went directly to bed. His principal witness was his mother. old but keen witted, and in a quiet way, ready of tongue.
 She, like many other old women of the hills, shows her life of toll in her stooping shoulders. She wore a loose, ill-fitting dress and an old black straw hat She swore as other witnesses had sworn. that Neil Rigby could neither read nor write, and she swore that Neil Rigby and his brother came home that night at 9 o'clock to go to bed.
 When she was on the stand Solicitor Bowling asked; When Neil and John Rigby came home, didn't they say: we have killed Bill McCainr and didn't your husband clap his hands and say. Good. good! 1t ought to have been done long agof"
 To this Mrs. Righy answered with emphasis:
 'Eo, he didn't"
 Joker Card In Evidence.
 card. the joker" of a deck of playing cards. played a conspicuous part In today's proceedings. It was found near the scene. where the as- sassin went through a wire fence af- ter the killing The card had written on 1t the name of Neil Rigby. It was found by Earnest Mccain. brother of the dead man, and by him presented az To break it's force, witness after witness was brought forward by the defense to prove that Neil Rigby could neither read nor write.
 The State would have the jury be- lieye that Nell Rigby. John hiEby and Jack Short stallxed William Mccain, as wild animals would stalk their prey They would have the jury believe that through the new quarters of the Greil place they tracked and followed Me. Cain until the fateful hour. They would have the jury believe that tho three men, now together, now apart akulked along Nthe shadows of tn, fence. hid by out houses, searched foi the doomed man, until he passed into the trap that had been prepared fol him and stood within point blanl range of the hidden assassin, with hii gun showed through the prepared hol, in the fence.
 Evidence is CircumntantinI.
 But their hope Is upon circumstan tial evidence. The proof is not def mite. Negro after negro took the stan, to put forward a bit Of the circum stances which would point to the RuiI of Neil Rigby. They told of the oni nous night in the quarters. when me, were slipping noiselessHy from hidfns place to hiding place the night when fin the negro quarter, white man wa hunting white man. They described these nocturnal visitors to the 0uarta
 
 and now under the shadow of a house sometimes with gun and sometime, without a gun.
 Before Court Drank.
 Neil Rigby, a beardless youth of El. more County, came into court yester. day to plead to the awful charge oi murder; he came in staggering drunk SO drunk that his trial had to go over until the afternoon.
 He was not capable of saying mot guilty" to the charge that he helped murder Deputy Sherin William Mccain
 An lmpassioned plea for a continu- ance was made for the prisoner stand. ing. namely and foOlishly, at the bal of justice, under the most terrible charge that the law knows. Ills at torney, Lloyd Tate. spoke eloquently oi the wrong of placing on trial for his fife a man who was manifestly not iu possesslon of his faculties. Judge Samuel L. Brewer, from the seat of thC presiding judge. did not grant the con. tinuance, but after a hearing and In, westiRation to ascertain by what mean,