The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-01-06
And That the Key Was on
the Inside of Door Of
Small Cottage
DEFENSE STRIVES
TO CLEAR SMALL
BY Testimony That the c !,
tage Was Locked fro !
the Inside

Ossipee, N. H., Jan. 6.--The defense OF
Frederick L. Small, who is on trial for
the murder of his wife, developed further
today. Counsel for the defense en-
ideayored to emphasize the fact that the
lock with the bolt shot and the key on
the inside was found in the ruins OF the
small cottage, another witness, Arthur
w. Brunt, being called to corroborate the
tothers who SO testified yesterday.
The visit of Small to Boston and his
actions when he was notified of the
burning OF his cottage were described by
Leonard Blizzard, bell boy in Young's
hotel, who said that Small was in tears
while waiting for the automobile to take
him home,
The lock in question was picked up
by John +. Casey, reporter, in the ruins
of the Small bungalow at what is con-
tended was the approximate location of
the side door, on the side toward the
Emerson college.
Attorney General Tuttle went after
Casey briskly. If the defense assump-
tion about their lock was true-that
Mrs Small had locked the door after the
departure OF her husband on that Sep
tember Thursday afternoon--then would
further run the assumption, Mrs. Small
had not been murdered by her husband.
The time of the murder, as contended
by the prosecution, is roughly, between
II 40 a. m. and 2:30 p. m. SmalPs law
yers would place the murder at some
thing after 2:30 in the afternoon.
Tasker identified the defense's lock.
exhibit j, and supported Casey's state
ments. The key, he said, was near the
fiat part of the catch, and on the inside,
from what he was able to see. He tes-
titled he had frequently been to the
Small bungalow, that the Smalls had
been customers of his and that frequent
ly he had been offered liquors and ci-
gars by the crippled husband.
Roy Atkinson, another Boston report
er, told of Casey's having the lock and
that the latter had tried unsuceessfnlly
to work the key He could not tell, he
said, whether the KEY was on the inside
or not. The bolt had been shot; in 9th
er words, the door had been locked.
John r. Tasker, a Mountainview butch
er, had kicked the lock fathered by the
defense from the fire debris at the bung-
allow. Casey, in his testimony, said he
had picked it up. found it to be ''frozen,"
that it was impossible to turn the key.
BY the position of the catch, he said,
he was able to tell that the key was
on the inside of the lock. Casey passed
the lock to. Tasker and then to County
Prosecutor Hill. II then went into other
hands.
The lock found by Casey differs in
these particulars; It's an old-fashioned
ock, with no buttons or night latch at
achment and can be locked only when
he key is turned,
The lock described by Miss Curry may
,e the states exhibit, No 3. This lock
mas no knobs on it, and to nonexpert
ives is rusty and charaeterless junk.
Somewhat of the same testimony was
,iven by Charles A. Merrill, another re-
,orter from Boston. He could not tell
which side of the lock the key was in and
would not positively identify exhibit J
) the lock he had seen. Merrill was sure
he bolt was shot. George F. Higgins OF
freedom saw the lock picked up, but
e also was indefinite as into which
ide was thrust the key.