Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-11-28


ed that some two years before the
murder the defendant referred to Mat
tie Hackett in an angry manner, and
said, IF Matte Hackett ever crosses
my path / will kill her. This was be-
fore defendants marriage to Bert Ray
mond. Later in Readfield, as the de-
PENDANT saw Matte Hackett passing
she remarked with some feeling, Mat
tie Hackett doesn't like me: she used
to go around with Bert
1t also appears that while working
at the hotel, the defendants husband
carried Matte Hackett and her elder
sister from the hotel to the Hackett
house, where Matte remained and
Bert returned with the older sister
BY arrangement, the defendant walked
up to meet them and rode back to the
I hotel with them. On one other. OCCASION
! by direction of the proprietor of the
( hotel the defendants husband carried
Matte Hackett to her home. But it is
not eontended that Matte Hackett had
alienated the affections of the defend
ants husband, or that there was any
improper intimacy between them. The
date of the murder was only II days
! before the birth of the defendants
child. and it is contended on behalf of
the State that she was morbidly jeal-
Gus of her husband without sufficient
cause, suggesting also that il is an I'M
disputed medical fact that such jeal-
ousy sometimes reaches the point of
| insanity.
1t is contended that the defendant
was absent from her home in Readfield
Corner on the evening in question a
sufficient length of time to enable her
to walk to the Hackett house, little
more than two miles distant; that a
woman dressed in dark clothing was
seen by several witnesses walking with
a rapid stride up Nickerson HILL that
footprints made by woman's shoes,
. corresponding in size with the defend
I ants shoes were discovered on the edge
| of the Niekerson cornfield further up
on the road on Niokerson Hill and for
a short distance on the road To the
| Hacl<ett house; that similar foot prints
were also discovered returning across
the field to the highway; that some
one was heard passing rapidly through
the driveway of Charles Bean in the
direction of meadow where similar
foot prints We're found; that the de-
PENDANT was found later at about II
! O'clock i'm the rear of shed near the
tplace of her residence and was assist
ed INTO their apartments by her hus-
: band and his brother; there is evidence
1 tending to show that she was weeping
and in A nervous and tired condition.
And it is further contended that when
suspicion had been directed TO her.
she made incorrect statements in rela-
ton to her whereabouts that evening
i'm regard to the color of her clothing,
and the boots that she wore: that the
Saturday morniong after the death of
Matte Haekett, she burned a pair of
tan -colored shoes III The kitchen stove.
/ 1t is eontended that the defendant
was the woman in black who was seen
going up Nickerson Hill, who made
the foot prints in the corntield and on
the highway, and the woman whose
voice WAS heard by Mr.. Haekett to ex-
claim. gYou dirty, nasty thingH at
the time of the murder: that she was
the one who made the foot prints re-
turning across the field to the high
/ way and the one who was seen has
/, tening over the road leading to the