The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-01-25
BY LYTLEroN HAvERELL.

T one William Shakespeare, mas
ter purveyor of human emotions,
A. had devised it, and Belasco, wiz
ard of modern stagecraft, had super
vised its setting, that scene in the
Grand Jury room at Los Angeles two
days before the bottom suddenly
dropped out of the Mcnamara defense,
could not have been more dramatic or
tense in its gripping interest.
Had il been a theatrical perform
ance instead of a stirring incident in
the most momentous criminal trial of
generation, one might easily have i'm
agined the audience clutching tightly to
their seats, with bated breaths and
heavy hearts, as they are wont to do
when the drama gathers motion and
the swelling sobs and throbs of the
music presage the approach of the grand
climax.
In the witness chair sat a man past
e:ty, with blanched face and nervous
lien. Every now and then he cast fur
1--WE glances at the twenty-five men in
The jury box for some sign of sympathy,
out the cold steel eyes set in the grim
faces of the veniremen showed no pity.
He was Ortie AIcManigal's uncle.
In the half hour he was in that room
something happened that never Oc-
CURED in any such room before. Cues
tions were asked him that made his
sair fgurat lively turn gray and the cold
sweat to literally run down his cheeks
questions concerning matters relat-
ing to the case discussed only by Nc
Manigal, and he in the supposed pri-
vacy of the dynamiter's cell. He an
swered them tremblingly, filed with
strange sense of awe. To the rough
hewn engine driver his conversation
with his nephew, as the prosecutor re-
peated it to him with a metallic, rasp-
ing infection of the voice, seemed to
mock him, and he shook with terror
like a man palsied-
Emerging from the Grand Jury room,
dazed by the singular phenomena, he
said They asked me in there about
things I said to Ortie that I never
spoke to anyone else in my life. I said
them in that ROOM" he continued,
pointing to his nephew's cell, "and no.
where else
Defence Thown Into Dismay.
His strange experience was repeated
to counsel for the defence Muscles,
distended in action but a second before,
now twitched convulsively and suddenly
relaxed. If the roof had fallen in or
the floor beneath them had suddenly
buckled and swept Clarence barrow
and his associates into a whirling
maelstrom of broken timbers out into
the street, you could not have stunned
them more.
A messenger was hurried to the jail,
looked curiousIy around and moved to
a vantage point in a building outside.
From the window of AcManigafs cell
he observed dangling in the sunshine
a tiny wire that extended to a cell on
the floor below. Another visit was
made to the Jail to find out who occu-
pied this cell. Tt was empty, save for
4 chair and a table On the table was
the receiver of a photograph ready for
use To the critical, knowing eye OF
the messenger its purpose was obvious,
How long had the photograph been
there? No one could say, but the gen
era1 impression was that it had been
used from the beginning of McMani-
gals imprisonment IF this was true
then the prosecutor knew everything
For there was a time when it was
thought that McNIanigal was wavering
and much of the plans of the defence
! were outlined to him to emphasize the
futility of his running counter to them
Nothing Left But Confess.
The action of the drama now begar
20 move quicker. The music became
more melancholy, and ominous rum
blings added to the disquiet of the set
ting. Then one of the detectives of thu
defence was arrested for bribing pros
pective juror
The Jig was up. Every prop sup