New-York tribune., 1906-12-04
SENSATION AT TRIAL.
DECEPTION Is CHARGED.
GilIette's Counsel Says Physicians
.Szcore to Falsehood.

day RepIete as the trial has been with sur
prises and sensations none were prepared for
the sharp exchange with which the day closed.
Justice Devendorf had expected 10 give the case
TO the jury to-day, but after District Attorney
Ward had spoken for fifteen minutes court was
adjourned until tomorrow morning. The prose-
cutor will close and the judges charge be made
! tomorrow, IT is expected.
Ex-senator A. NJ Mills, close personal and
political friend Of the prosecutor. made the last
appeal TO the jury to acquit Chester T. Gillette
| OF the murder Of Grace Brown his sweetheart,
at Big Moose Lake July II. He had occu-
pied nearly the whole of the session, and it was
late in the day when he dramatically declared
that the FIVE physicians who had sworn that
there was a blood c!ot on Grace Browns brain
had sworn TO a falsehood; that they had come
together and agreed on common story for the
witness stand. and deliberately withheld testi-
rnony favorable TO his client. Intimating that
the physicians improperly influenced, he
| added:
! IF there is investigation Of graft some of
/ these five doctors may figure in It. They were
| paid large fees TO give evidence which it was
! thought was so prepared that it would convict
| this boy I charge here and now-and I know
! personally each of the physicIans-that they did
/ not bring in all the facts they did not report
! these doctors knew that fraud being per
| petrated You can't pick out five reputable
| would a
! thing as these doctors did
| As Mr.. Mills closed, District ATTORNEY Ward
jumped TO his feet and. interrupting the judge.
who had decided on an adjournment launched
| into a scathing denuncation OF Mr.. Mills and
| the methods he had taken to sway the jury over
| to the defence. As he spoke the outstretched
and trembling hand of the prosecutor shook in
the face of the counsel for the defence Mr.
| Ward said:
| When Mr.. Mills stands here and tells you. as
| he Just has, that those five doctors. reputable
men of Herkimer County, and your friends who
| enter your homes perhaps every day. liars
! and burglars, he says that which is not true He
/ doesn't expect by that address to reach the in
| telligent men on this jury. He thinks that there
| may be a rogue among you. You know,
| times men get on juries who have debts of graf
! ltude TO pay from away back years ago, and they
/ pay them by violating the rules and rendering
| a verdict not in accordance with the evidence.
| That is what is called a rogue a jury and
| ne hoped there might be a rogue among YOU.
Then they also seek TO get q weak and unintelIi-
| gent man on the Jury who won't be able to nut
an act in one town with an act in another town
/ and so connect the evidence. They hoped there
might ne of this kind in this jury and
/ they would try TO reach him and thus effect
| miscarriage Of justice.
BIG AUDIENCE FAIRLY GAsPED.
! In this strain. so excited at times that the big
| audience fairly gasped. Mr.. Ward brought to
spectacular close a day of steady speechmaking,
with here and there a dramatic period.
| Mr.. Mills contended that Grace Brown had
! committed suicide, that his client had been un-
! fairly dealt with. Gillette had he said. been
! pitted against the united powers Of a persistent
| District Attorneys Department and unscrupu-
! lous Sherifrs department and biassed and IN
fair public press. The District Attorney had
! failed TO show any plausible motive for the
/ terrible murder laid at Gillette's door; he had
I failed TO produce the eyewitness he was ex-
/ pected TO produce on the strength Of his open
: ing address. and he had failed to prove that
Gillette had any sweetheart other than Grace
/ Brown, as ne promised to do.
Mr. Mills declared that every bit Of evidence
: introduced by the District Attorney was over
I drawn and that nothing authentic had been pre-
sented TO the jury that inconsistent with
! the course boy and girl in similar trouble
! would have taken in seeking relief and secrecy
70 shield heir regulations. He said the District
! Attorney might as we'll have said that Grace
! Brown was struck by a bushel basket as with
| frah tennis racket, and that the girls head
had struck the keel Of the overturning boat as
J she went overheard. If there were such injuries
/ as the physicians had sworn to- Mr. Mills
averred that Grace Brown followed the wish
written by her in one of the letters to Gillette
! that she drowned herself. hoping 10 be buried
with her secret unknown by the mother whose
| love and respect she valued more than her own
| life. He closed with the attack on the physicians
who. he claimed. distorted the report Of their
| autopsy. that brought the District Attorney to
| his feet.
After declaring that counsel for the defence
had sought to find a rogue in the jury Mr.. Ward
continued;
/ They say this young man should have heen
| represented at that autopsy. How could he be
| represented when the officers in the Ad-
! irondacks looking FOR him al the time the autoi-
| sy was performed? The District Attorney him
| self was not there. And then, because he was
not represented. Mr.. Mills attempts u discredit
| the word Of the fve reputable doctors brought
/ here, and he attempts TO make a doctor of him
self. He makes himself out doctor. and tries
| to tell you what constitutes drowning. He this
I doctor" says he has studied nights and learned
/ medicine in the last few Weeks-Why, gentle
! men he couldn't learn as much about ANATOMY
/ this who never saw lung in his life-by
/ reading nights. as those doctors could learn OF
| law by reading mis- hooks nights
! BLOW on THE HEAD CAUSED DEATH"
Why weren't they represented Why gentle
/ men. nobody knew hut what the girl had been
! drowned until they found that wound under the
| hair and followed il the brain. And when
| they found that blood clot they knew in a min
| ute what caused her death-it was q blow the
| head.
There was nothing in this post mOrtem to mis-
! lead or deceive ANYBODY. and they revealed the
! girl had not died from drowning; that water
| entered into the mouth, that no water entered
/ into the lungs; the lungs were normal and nat
| uraI-
Who does the counsel want TO reach when he
! speaks of the doctors testimony? He had q
! learned doctor who sat by him there; il would
have been competent for him TO have put that
/ doctor the stand and sworn to things MI
| Mills testified TO in summing up. He wasn't
under oath. Mr. Mills told you what constitutes
| drowning. He would bear evidence to that but
hA er1A l-v.1