Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-01-06
ON STAND,
| RELATES HOW HE
SHOT MCDONALD
Former County Engineer Draws
Plan of the Scene of
Killing.
FOLLOWS 1T THROUGH
COURSE OF TESTIMONY
Says He Shot in elf-Defense
When Officer Had Him
Covered"

81 Just before the noon hour to-
day, George f. Drum, former county
2engineer. took the witness stand in
the Court of Oyer and Terminer,
81 and started to tell the story that he
hopes will save him from forfeiting
q his life in the electric chair for the
s murder of Policeman John I. Nc
Donald of the Second Precinct, at
Central avenue and Second street on
July IL, last.
q At the start of his testimony Drum
was called on to do something that
~ is doubtful If civil engineer or
person used to drawing plans was
asked to do before. That was to
draw a plan of the scene where the
+ killing in which he himself was in
= terested, took place.
& Drum carefully and with every eye
: of the trained man for detail and
proportion drew on blackboard
botA the exterior and interior floor
plans of the saloon of Thomas Craig
> at the corner of Central avenue and
Second street and then drew a plan
of the streets in the immediate vicin-
ity. Before the plan was entirely
finished Drum made many changes
{ In it, the changes In main being
liSes that he claimed he had original
ly drawn out of proportion.
Mr.. McDerTnit, counsel for the pris-
Oner sprung a surprise today when
ne produced no less than sixty-two
Witnesses fer the defense at he Court
1Iouse.
"a Drums testimony OF the quarrel
heading I'D to the shooting and of the
actual shooting itself was given in
as calm a manner as though he were
testifying against someone else and
not himself. With a mass of detail
he told of all his movements from
the night preceding the murder when
he had a quarrel with Mcdonald in
: Craig's saloon down to statements
made to the police following his ar
rest. He was right in the middle OF
. his direct testimony when court ad-
, 5ourned for the noon recess
<4xIis testimony was given in narra-
Ne form, and in his own manner, he
<Beeming to resent questions from
Frank M. McDermit, his counsel, or
from Judge Osborne. He told of be-
ing asked by Mcdonald and others to
act as scorekeeper in a card game in
the Craig saloon some time after mdl-
night OH Friday night, July II, last
At took seat between Craig ana
Mcdonald, where ! could look into
4 both their hands" said Drum, and
kept score for two games without any
trouble. In the third game Craig and
McDonald each got good pinochle
hands and started bidding against
each other. Craig had good hand
and | was interested in 1T and kept
looking at it. -
his chest and / did not see it. George
Conway. a policeman on duty, had
entered the saioorf and could also see
Craig's hand and when the latter
finally got the bid Conway remarked
TO Mcdonald, You might as well pay
for the game, Jack, you have not got
a ghost of a show
isMcDonald angrily threw his cards
to the table and said it is easy to WIN
when some one is telling Craig Wha'
/ hold
II told him had not seen his cards
and Mcdonald replied you are
liar told him not to make fool
/, OF himself; that I had not seen his
cards. He then called me several in
sulting names and jumped to his feei
with I'll hit you a punch IN the nose,
and he made an effort to hit me.
George Conway. the policeman, grab
bed him and took him outside"
AT this point Drum, who had been
following all his movements by IN
dicating places on the plan he had
drawn, turned to the jury and slowly
said: II am neither protecting sa-
lookeeper's license or a policeman
badge here. 1 am protecting my own
4, In reply to a question by Mr.. Nc
Dermit Drum replied that Conway
was in uniform and was on duty on
the post in that neighborhood.
Continuing Drum said: II re-
mained in the saloon talking about
the affair, and when some of the
others present said Mcdonald ought
to apologize 1 said, There is nothing
the matter with him; he Is only
drunk and ugly. He will be all right
in the morning and will apologize.
II waited around the saloon until
about 2 o'clock, when 1t was closed,
and walked over Second street with
Bob Strong, the bartender. Strong
said to me, Mcdonald is always
fussy. Some of the fellows will kill
! him some day. I knew Strong did
not mean actually that some of the
boys would kill Mcdonald. He meant
they would give him beating.
Il also said If I had wanted to
kill him 1 could have done so,' and
showed him the gun 1 had in M
pocket Strong wanted to know why
/ carried the gun and told him |
was moving from one room to an
other and just happened to have it in
my pocket"
Getting to the day of the shooting,
Drum said he got up about $3.50
o'clock, as he intended to go down
town early. He did go down town,
after making stop at Craig's saloon
about 1880 o'clock and remaining there
few minutes.
His business down town kept him
x<~ N n