The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-08
ARGUMENT BEGINS.
Attorney for State Opens in the Cooper
= Murder Trial.

Nashville, Tenn. March 8.-A large
audience, half of which was composed
the closing arguments in the Cooper
onarp murder trial Judge Hart
warned the audience against any dem
onstrat1ons. Il have been told" he
salu, that some people have been
prought here to express approval or
dlsapproval. I can scarcely believe it.
But want to say that any one who
applauds or Kisses or comments upon
the argument will wish he or she had
never done it,
Mrs. Carmack was in her usual seat
huge leather arm chair; with her son
Ned on its arm. With the defendants
were Mrs. Burch, Mrs. Wilson, Mrs.
Bradford and Mrs. Sharp, besides
score or more women friends of the
ladies mentioned.
Captain Fitzhugh began the opening
argument to the jury for the state.
Il appear before you with mingled
Ieelngs of regret and pleasure-regret
that l should have to aid in the in
quiry into the cause of the death of my
dearest friend" Continuing he said:
"On the afternoon of November 9,
there was enacted upon the streets of
this city a tragedy which robbed a
woman of the tenderest and most de-
voted husband; a boy of loving faith
statesman whose achievements have
added 1uster and glory to the state.
To you has been charged the duty of
fixing the responsibility.
1T is murder when a man takes a
life upon a sudden impulse. How much
more it is murder when a mans head
is so full of malice and revenge that
he spends all day Sunday and most of
Monday devising the ways and means
of taking the life of the man he hates
SO bitterly
Cooper's Threats.
Next Fitzhugh explained how on
Sunday night, November 8, Col. D. B.
Cooper was at the Tulane hotel to
meet E. b. Craig and how Cooper made
threats about Carmack to Craig and
how these threats were transmitted to
the dead senator.
"Col. Cooper met Craig on personal
business, but pressed the business to
one side and revealed what was in his
black heart. He owed his friend Craig
money-he owed all his friends money,
and he never bothered about money
owed. This did not bother him. E|lt
he broke out and said: If my name
appears in the Tennesseean again
Carmack or I must die
This man who is a self confessed
lobbyist for a railroad, this man who
is charged by reputable men with hav-
ing embezzled money intrusted to his
care; this man whose name had been
banded about the state; this man
now been uncovered, dared to send to
an honest and upright journalist the
threat that if his name appeared in the
Tennesseean again, one of them must
die.
"And when the tragedy was over,
the defendants began to look for
cause. for an excuse. And what did
they find? That Carmack had referred
to that little baldheaded angel, Dune
Cooper had asked did the angel
come from above or below?' and was
there the smell of sulphur on his
wings?'"
rs that reason enough to kill man?
''Why, gentlemen, Hartman, Rookie
feIler and Morgan are private citizens.
They never held an office, but we
know they exercise a powerful control
of public affairs. Their names appear
daily in the public press. Yet whoever
heard of one of these men demanding
that his name be omitted? whoever
heard of one of these men hunting
down an editor and assassinating him
on the street? Why, gentlemen, they
have never even challenged the right
of the press to use their names, for
they know better. Colonel Cooper
when he went into politics made it the
duty of the press to watch him.
Fitzhugh said other papers had print
ed the same things to which Colonel
Cooper objected in Carmack's paper,
but that he never grew angry at an
other editor. During this bitter ar
raignment of Colonel Cooper he sat
quietly with his eyes shut and his
hands folded as though asleep. Not
so his daughters. Stately Mrs. Burch,
with tear filled eyes cast down, sat
with clasped hands close to her broth
err Mrs. Wilson, petite and active,
watched the prosecuting attorney IN
tently, her black eyes flashing angr1ly.