Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-02-17

NoA olASCs LIS O40A So SeA-0 -'A-
Searle, made against Mr., Wilmer
ton is technically called defense of an
assault with a deadly weapon, and of
necessity the question that is before
you is what might be called or is some
times called a mixed question of law
and fact"
Mr.. Searle said that as the states
attorney had started on the 22d day of
February, 1909. the date of this oc-
currence he starts within a period Of
within a short time prior to the trans
action on this case and lit was very
unfair of the prosecuting attorney 70
not enlighten us all more as to the
actual occurrence and the facts and
circumstances leading up TO this sup
posed assault And l will attempt 20
briefly state the facts and circum-
stances as l recall them:
WiImerton on the Farm.
up to three or four years ago MI
Wilmerton. a man of 40 years of age,
had been a farmer in Mercer county,
not very far from the Rock Island
county line. at the lower end of the
county. and some years ago, l don't
know just exactly when, six or seven
years ago. perhaps, he first became
acquainted with this complaining wit
ness in this case. LOoney, and it so
happened that Looney was engaged at
that time in a political campaign in
which he was interested and in which
Mercer county was in the district with
Rock Island county from which some
sort of a legislative fight. as l under
stand it. was to be directed against
Mercer county man by the name of
Mr.. Cooke. At that time it happened
that Mr.. Wilmerton had been chosen
by his township friends a township
committeeman and in his township
he was approached by LOoney for the
purpose of getting his support as town
ship committeeman in this political
relation. That. as I understand il,
was the first acquaintance of these
men. and I think the acquaintance
through that campaign was rather Il
brief acquaintance and that it was
not renewed until the next campaign
came along At any rate. the next
campaign it was actively renewed and
it remained in that light for some
years until later In the meantime, t
appears that in this political endeavor
that this complaining witness had
started up what he called d newspaper
and called it the Rock Island Daily
News. manifestly to forward his pO-
liticaI efforts.
Wiimerton a Good Friend.
AT any rate. time went on. and
finally it came around to the station
so that the complaining witness from
time to time would go down there 10
Mercer county where this person lived
on the farm and borrowed money Of
him and did so more or less from
time 10 time, and sometimes made
payments back. and things ran along
in this way until this complaining wit
ness had gradually tried to get Mr..
Wilmerton interested in this news
paper enterprise. and the time finally
went on until Mr. WilmertOn was ia
duCed to take stock in this company
that had been organized as corpora
ton under the laws. and finally NJ.
WilmertOn was induced to take in pay
ment for some of the money he had
lent this Looney a share or two of
,
a house that he owned here in Rock
Island for something like $4,000 or
Sc COO here in this town, and that was
before WiImerton had come here. but
after that WilmertOn had gotten that
house and he finally concluded to
move TO Rock Island and he did move
here and moved into this house thai
he had bought The house is on
Twenty-second street here back from
the bluff. across from the reservoir. a
place that is a couple of blocks distant
from where Looney lived. Looney
lived on Twentieth street and from
that time on there was considerable
effort on the complaining witness TO
get Wilmerton to put money into this
enterprise and there was more or less
money borrowed of WilmertOn and put
into this enterprise to meet the pay
roll of the people working on this
newspaper.
JOrdan's Part.
There was a man by the name OF
Jordan and there was some other
hangers on whose names VIII be per-
haps disclosed TO you during the prog
TESS Oi lIlS IL la, Jul SNlpptHS llitlit
at the present time so as to get along,
there were negotiations started by
these men to have Wilmerton buy this
enterprise out. and they had com
menced to talk about the enterprise
and had told MI Wilmerton how much
money and such like was in the ad-
venture and the amount Of indebted
ness against the stereotype and limo
type machines and the other indebted
ness had been made up by LOOney as
a basis of his negotiations with VIII
merton for the purpose Of selling him
the stock in this concern. This was
the situation until one Sunday. he
with his associates. along in the month
of March came 70 the defendants
house and there undertook 10 persuade
him to go into the enterprise Of
course from time to time they showed
what amounts of money had been in
vested and that it was a paying in
vestment until at last Wilmerton did