Norwich bulletin., 1912-02-26
SECOND MOTION FOR
 ANOTHER SPENCER TRIAL
Attorneys of Former Lebanon Man Claim That State Witnesses Gave False Testimony.

A second motion for a new trial for Bertram c. Spencer was filed by his lawyers in the superior court at Pitts field, Mass late Friday, following a conference with Judge John c. Crosby, who presided at the trial and who de- nled similar motion some time ago. The reason now urged for granting a new trial to the slayer of Miss Martha B. Blackstone. who was convicted of murder in the first degree in November last is that his lawyers have discov- cred new evidence which they claim would have influenced the jury to bring in another verdict This evidence is contained in four aff1davits. three of them subscribed to by state prison conyicts, who testify that Horace St John, alias Edwin R. Bell, who was brought from the state prison to testi- fly against Spencer, admitted to them that the story he told at the trial was untrue and that he told the story to the court because he had a personal grudge against Spencer and expected to be paroled or pardoned for doing so, and the fourth by former inmate of the BridgeWater state asylum who asserts that Spencer was abused at the asylum and that he behaved in an irrational manner there.
 There will be a hearing held before Judge Crosby at later date. This will probably be before the supreme court has passed upon Spencer's bill of exceptions. The motion with the affidavits was hended to Mir. Calhoun at Ptttsfield and he entered it then and there, although the papers were not actually filed at the courthouse until Saturday morning, says the Springfield Republican.
 St. John a Picturesque Witness.
 The convict St. John, whose testi- mony is impeached by three of the aftidavits, was the most picturesque witness at the trial. He was brought in toward the close of the governments s case and he told the court that Spen- cer had admitted to him at Bridge water that he was feigning insanity. The testimony of St. John, or Bell, as he is more often called, wal highly diverting to the spectators The law yers for the cOnWcted man believe that 1.-the jury had known what St. John fellow convicts had to say they would not have found Spencer guilty of mur- der in the first degree. St. John tes- tified that he was serving time in the state prison for assaulting a man and that he was taken to the BridgewateI asylum after feigning insanity. There he said he met Spencer and became intimate with him, and that Spencer told him one day that he was sham 1 ming.
 The affidavits of the three convicts were taken before Mir Stapleton in Boston on Jan. 26, as was the affidavit of the former inmate of the insane asylum, who is now confined at Deer c 1 ~lV1 nCfA d1, -&s l that the testimony given in his affi- davit is given by his own free will The state conYicts. are P. Il Culhane 1 Felix Golding and Timothy Goulding and the former inmate of the Bridge l water asylum is Thomas Graham, alias 1 Edgar Houldcroft All three conVicts assert that they heard St. John. ol l Bell, admit that he testified against Spencer because of Q personal grudgt 1 and because he, hoped to better his stt- l uation by doing so, while Golding as 1 serts that Sell admitted to him thar | he was not telling the truth abou 1 Spencer. Golding and Goulding botI l say that Bell told them that he would l send his own mother to the electric 1 chair if he could escape from the state prison by doing so. and Goulding say! 1 that Bell was not sane before he wen to Bridgewater, and that he acted ever 1 more insane after his return to tho
 state prison a short time before the | trial Graham asserts that the storie.
 told by Spencer of abuse at the asy.
 lum were all true and that Spencer had frequent violent outbreaks whil,
 confined in the asylum
 A Summary of the kffidavits.
 The following is d summary of tn,
 affldavits:
 Culhane afirms that Bell told him il conversation on Nov 1, 1911. tha | while singing in the asylum choir witt
 Spencer the latter had expressed flea l lest he should be poisoned by tn prison physician. He further assert
 that after Bell returned from Spring
 field he heard him tell another prisone ! that he had come here to testif,
 against Spencer in revenge becaus l Spencer had caught him in crimina
 act. Culhane also says that Bell in formed him the following day, in an
 swer to a question as to where he hal 1 been, that he had been in, court ant
 that he had there been sentenced t. from seven to nine years imprison
 ment for breaking into the Athol post
 office On another occasion CuIhan
 says that he overheard Bell inform
 another prisoner that he had testife,
 against Spencer in order to better hi
 condition. because he had a chance 0 getting a parole or pardon, and tha
 the doctors would fix 1t up for him. 1 What GoIdine Says.
 Golding in his affidavit ayers tha