Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1912-01-22
TYLER TRIAL BEGINS
SObbing Cries of Accused Mans
Favorite Daughter Interrupt
the Proceedings This
Morning.
MANY CHALLENGES USED.
Defense Rejects Ten Men While Court
Declares One IneligibIe-Likely
to be Several DAYS on Trial

When Albert Tyler, of Eastport.
was put on trial in the Circuit Court
here this morning for the murder of
his son-in.law, Robert w. ]. Robin
son, at Eastport, on December a, and
after the jury had been drawn and
the twelve good men and true" were
being given summary of the States
case by Prosecuting Attorney Nicho-
las II. Green, the proceedings were
interrupted by what promised to be
but the first of many dramatic accom-
paniments to the proceedins.
States Attorney N. H. Green was
setting forth in cold narrative the
story of Tyler's crime and had lust
said: Gentlemen of the jury this
case deals with an unfortunate family
disturbance leading to horror and
bloodshed," when Mrs. Margaret Muir
ply, favorite daughter of the accused,
screamed LET me go to my poor
father, and had to be led sobbing and
crying from the courtroom and into
the retiring room of the judges, where
her sobs and means continued TO be
heard during the remainder of the
proceedings.
Tyler, on December 4, in a blind
rage, killed his wife, Catherine TYLER.
with hatchet and then driving over
half mile through the little village
settlement of Eastport, shot his SON
in-law. Robinson and his daughter,
Vivian Tyler-Robinson. Robinson and
Mrs. Tyler died within twenty-four
hours, but the daughter recovered and
will be the chief witness for the pros
ecution.
In direct difference to the stand
taken by her sister, Mrs. Murphy,
Mrs. Robinson, the accused mans
other daughter, who was made a
widow by his attack on herself and
her husband, sat throughout the pro-
cceedings of the morning staring
stolidly at her father and only occa-
sionally burying her face in her hand
kerchief
When the case was called the court
room was packed to suffocation, be-
tween five and six hundred persons fill
ing every available space and over
flowing into the Railways. Chief
Judge Thomas had several times to
call on the bailiffs to force those in
the rear of the room to stop climbing
on the chairs in their morbid efforts
to catch a glimpse of the accused
man and the members of his faction
rent family who formed the center of
the scene.
When his daughter, who had sided
with him in all the family quarrels
that led up to the killing, was led cry
irg to be allowed to go to him, Ty-
Ter for the first time since his arrest,
showed real feeling and bowling his
head sobbed aloud. Since his arrest.
Immediately after which he promised
to make a damn good job of build
ing his own scaffold if the authori-
ties would give him the contract, >"
Tyler has been absolutely cold-blooded
and has expressed no regret for the
killing.
The whole of the morning session in
the case was given over to drawing
a jury, Attorney Robert Moss for the
defense, using ten challenges and the
court rejecting one talisman before
the jury box was filed with the fol-
loving: George T. Murray, Thomas
A. Brown, Alfred A. Stinchcomb,
Joseph w. Trautwein, William E.
Jones, Charles o. Dulin, b. Frank
Welch, Byron Phelps, Charles Ashby
Owens. Walter F. Phelps, James E..
Williams and Frank H. Duckett.
Immediately after the jury had
been completed, Prosecuting Attorney
Green made his statement to the
jury, which was interrupted by the
cries of Mrs. Murphy and following
this the Court too a recess until l
| o clock. during which time the jury,
under guard, was taken out to the
| Hotel Maryland to dinner.
With over one hundred witnesses
summoned and four of these special
lists in mental diseases, the case prom
ises to consume three or four days.
The alienists were summoned mostly
by the defense, which will try to prove
| that Tyler had been badgered and
harassed by family quarrels until he
was unbalanced when he went on a
rampage that he had promised when
it started would leave a trail of blood
from Fishing creek to He'll"
The jury in the case was picked
from the members of the petit jury
or the October term of Court, who had
been recalled by the Court to serve
because of the long wait that would
result if the case were allowed to &c
over until the April jury term.
/ There were twenty-four of these in
Court when the session opened, but
one was excused for sickness in his
family and ten were challenged, while
one, DR.. Gordon H. Claude, of Annap.
oils, was rejected by the Court be.
cause of previously formed opinion or
the case which he said he would have
to have evidence to convince him he
was wrong.
The ten men challenged by the de-
fence were John X. Waters, Samue
| v. Clark, Virgil M. Phipps, John Aul
Charles B. Abbott, John G. Friedhof
| fer, w. Benton Shipley. Lemon Beall,
John w. Downs and George H. Pla
I r;Io