Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-12-19
DEFENSE
BASES HOPES ON
AUTO TESTIMONY
Lawyers, in Opening, Seek to
Prove Car Carried Mrs.
Turner's Body.
FAMILY SAW INERT FORM
LIFTED FROM REAR SEAT
Woman Was Killed and Brought
to Pine Needle Lane,
They Declare.
Especial to the Newark star.I

IOMS XIV Err, Dec. 19.-Mrs. Carna
line Turner, for whose murder Joseph
Moriarity. alias William j. Leehan.
stenographer, is on trial here was
either killed in an automobile acei-
uent or murdered by persons in an
automobile, according to the theory
! of the defense, outlined at the trial
this afternoon.
ii. H. Wainwright, of the prisoners
| battery of lawyers retained by Mrs.
Jasper Lynch, a society woman Of
Lakewood, so Indicated in his open-
ing address to the jury this afternooll-
The defense would prove, he said,
that the victim had been seen in an
automobile at a time after the mur-
der was supposed to have been CONF
mitted. The car, he added had run
INTO tree. He did not make clear
/ whether the defense would seek To
show that this crash resulted in Mrs.
! Turner's death or whether she was
murdered and the body taken to the
clump of pine trees, where it WA,
subsequently found
! After the prosecution had rested.
! Counsellor Wainwright moved thai
the court order the jury to find an
Immediate acquital for the defendant
| ON the grounds that no confection
/ between Leehan and the crime had
been shown nor motive established.
JuuSt OFQeTeQ the QeIGn8H
| to proceed, but gave Wainwright the
privilege of reserving his motion at
| the conclusion of the defense. It Is
therefore possible that when Leehan'a
/ lawyers have closed their case JUS
tice Minturn may favor an immediate
acquital without the delay of the
charge and the tedious summing up
! In his address to the jury MIR.
4 Wainwright said that the defense
would prove that Mrs. Turner's body
was not on the spot it was found two
hours after she was thought to have
4 been murdered there, but that on that
night she was heard to call in agony
! from an automobile which had
stopped in front of the house of q
friend. He said the defense would
show that on the night of the day
! she disappeared an auto drove up in
front of a house on the outskirts OF
Lakewood and that the occupants he-
gan to remove a body from the rear
seat. Occupants of the house, fright
ened at what they saw, fred a res
yolver In alarm, and that one of ths
persons in-the,aar said to another
II thought you said this house was
empty?"
Il thought it was" was the reply.
Mrs. Buckingham, according to Mrs.
Wainwright. will testify that sha
heard womans voice calling In
agony, "Oh, oh, Mrs. Buckinghamss
She recognized the voice as Mrs. Tur-
ner's. He said it would be proven
that after the machine left the house
it ran into tree, and that a tire rim
and broken pieces of lamp, togeth-
er with a blood-stained handkerchief.
bearing the initial &c" were picked
up on the scene of the mishap.
1t will be further shown, he said
that the car proceeded to place It'll
Pine Needle lane almost opposite the
spot where the woman's body was
found. The defense will present evil
dence to prove that her body did not
lie at 43 o'clock on the Afternoon or
her disappearance where 1t was found
two days later.
Leehan may be called in his own
defense tonight.
The State closed this afternoon
with its strongest witness on the
stand He was George Jamison, one
of the detectives from the SCHNEIDER
agency and he told of conversations
between Mr.. and Mrs. Leehan in their
home at White Plains, N. Y, be-
tween March and April 8 of this
year He told of having secured a
room directly adjoining the defends
ants rooms.
His testimony was introduced for
the evident purpose of showing that
the defendant was in a continual
state of worriment over some troubla
which he had been in with woman
Jamison said he struck up an ac%
| quaintance with Leehan and the lat-
| ter seemed to want to discuss mure
| ders with him and spoke of the ftimsy
circumstances by which men are sus~
pected and even charged with MUIR
| der. He said that in a fit of anger
| with his wife he had abused her and
called her names. The trouble arose,
he said, after he had been sent by
Mrs. Leehan for a pound of steak and
had spent the remainder of the
money for drink. ~
On this occasion Leehan, the w.t.
ness said, told his wife that she was
q devil and criticised her for going to
church the night before. Then Mrs.
| Leehan became desperate and tcld
Leehan that she was tired of living
| in two rooms, and wanted fiat
When he refused to engage fiat she
! told him that she was going back to
Lakewood to show him up She called
him a beast and a degenerate, Jami-
| son testified, and when Leehan told
her he would follow her and get her.
she told him he wouldn't dare go to
Lakewood telling him she wasnst
afraid he would kill her, even though
he had killed one woman
Threatened TO XIII wife.
"Leehan replied. Don't tell everY-
body you know our private busi-
ness, >" Jamison said. He told OF
another fight during which Leehan
told her he would kill her if she tried
to leave him to return to Lakewood.
On this occasion her screams at-
tracted the landlady.
'Leehan later explained this to ma
by saying his wife was nysterical
through sickness said the detect
i've. During their walks together
Leehan told Jamison that he was ter
ribly worried all the time, the latter
testified.
Jamison asked him what worried
him, but he merely replied: "Qhs
never mind that now" He said that
every time he thought of his trouble
he went on drunk" and for that
reason he couldn't keep Job He
was constantly talking of man who
followed him to and from his work
and frequently said he thought the
man q detective.
a The defense in cross-examinatipn
exhibited a man, one Mr., Goldefl-
burg, and asked the witness If he
had not told Goldenburg that he had
nabbed Leehan on a frame-up, which
was necessary in order to maintain
the standard of the SCHNEIDER agency
'I believe Leehan Is an fnnocent