Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-07-22
DEFENDS ACTION
CORONER'S JURY
States Attorney +. +. Thompson
Shows No Evidence To Hold Next
cans in Castro Case.
OPEN VERDICT Is RETURNED
Denies That Victim Was InfOrmcr or
Had Anything to DO With Ira
craft Murder.

~ Shh
States Attorney F. e. Thompson to-
dav made the following statement fela-
tive to the investigation into the death
of Domingo Castro in defense OF the
cOroner's jury in bringing in an open
verdict:
without any criticism OF the report
err who wrote the story, but in justice
to the men who composed the cOron-
er's jury in the investigation or the
death of Domingo Castro, | think a lew
facts would not be out of place.
The article appearing in yesterday S
paper did not in any way present the
facts and was a great injustice TO the
six men who rendered an open Vefdlct,
said men being conscientious men OF
the highest type of citizenship. II Is
true the forces of the coroner, the
sheriff and the East Moline police de-
partment have worked unurInSiy on
this case and they are deserving OF d
great deal of credit for their energy
There has been no $500 spent in the IN
vestigation, however, but there mas
been possibly SO or SIS spent, ana
that was spent out of my office to pay a
special Investigator whom we CHI
plOyed.
was just about as truthful as the first
article appearing in the case, which
went into great detail about Castro
being one of the infOTmers in the era
craft case, and about having lot OF
holes in his head when his body was
found. Domingo Castro had absolute
~ nothing to do with the Cracratt case
so far as we know and gave no intor-
nation whatever against any other
Mexicans After the street car ran
over him, which cut his body in two
at the waist, there were no other
marks on him, excepting slight con
fusion about an inch long over his
right eve and one about one and half
inches long in the back of his head.
What made these marks no one was
able 10 say. The doctor who exam
ined him said that they might have
been made by any one of dozen
things. There was a piece OF two by
four three feet long lying in the road
way about eighteen feet from the body,
and bloody razor lying near this two
by four There were no marks Of a
razor on the dead mans body, and, in
fact the razor was the property OF the
dead man, according to the best in
formation we can get. No Mexican
was found who had been cut by this
razor so where the blood on the razor
came from is unknown and there was
no testimony throwing any light on
the subject.
No Identification.
There was absolutely no one who
could identify any person connected
with this case excepting a saloon
keeper who said that Castro and two
other Mexicans were in his saloon just
before II o'clock; that they came in
about 10 minutes to II and had one
drink and went out about II. He
could only identify one Of the men who
was with Castro at that time. Mrs.
Eliza COnseririe, who lives on Eigh-
teenth avenue in East Moline, almost
across the street from the saloon
where the men were drinking, testi-
fed that she saw three men running on
the north side Of Eighteenth avenue
about II O'Clock; that one man was
ahead and seemed to be pursued by the
other two; she could not identify the
men and did not see the pursuers catch
the man whom they were pursuing.
Two men riding in jitney bus saw
the same thing and they say that one
of the men had a club in his hand, but
they could not identify any OF the men
and did not see any blow struck. This
is all the testimony that there was.
There is no use trying to change it,
because it is matter of permanent
and public record in the cOrOner's Of
fee and can be seen by any one who
wants to look at il.
no one was arrested for three hours
after the body was found, at which
time three MeXicans were arrested.
These MeXicans were coming from the
east and walked across the street near
the scene Of the crime and walked
right up to the police auto and wanted
to go to Rock Island: they say that
they thought it was a jitney bus. One
Of these men was identified as being
the man who had a drink with Castro
just before II O'Clock. While we all
felt that there was strong probability
that this man either knocked Castro
down or knew who did knock him in
front OF the street car. yet there was
no evidence sufficient, in the minds of
the cOrOner's jury. to justify them in
holding him responsible for the muir
der.
Explains About Verdict.
In their first form of verdict they
found that the deceased came to his
death by being run over by a street
car and found that he was lying I'M
conscious on the track when the street