Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1917-10-19
TRIAL OF JOHN H. MCCORMICK FOR MURDER

testimony had been heard in part at
least at the hearing before the coroner
or by Commissioner Michaelson. But
here was injected something new and
that by witness absolutely sure OF
himself, tried in the fire of courts be-
fore, and who had something worth
while to say There was no failure on
the part of jury and court to give
close attention even when the techni-
cal language employed by the witness
must have shot way over the average
spectators vocabulary There had
been nothing to get excited about when
the state chemist had testified.
But later on Thursday afternoon
and carried over to Friday was an
other new witness for the state. 1t
was the man who had settled the es-
tate of Daniel Matheson, former hus-
band of the deceased, Geo. Luton, of
Newaygo, in the same county as
White Cloud where Ida Mccormick, as
Ida Kimbell, and later as Ida Mathe-
son had spent the greater part of her
early life. Then too here was the
man who had drawn the will which
has stalked all through the case like
a ghost, telling its devisements.
Friday at noon the state was still
calling witnesses and there were pre-
dictions that the case would last
through next week
In the audience each day has sat
Mrs Hewitt and her sister Mrs. Kin
chella and part of the time Mr. and
Mrs. Kimball parents of the de-
ceased.
At Last Jury
1t was eleven o'clock when the jury
was finally selected and court took
recess. Thirty-fve men had been Sc
cured. The defense struck the follow
ing names, the full dozen allowed:
w. s. Sergeant, T. D. Goodrich, c.. S.
Arnold, Tom Tonstaad, Ed Stoker, d.
Getchell, Gus. Thompson, A. E. Kuhl-
man, Max Dietz, r. J. Galley, Jas. r.
Tupper, Martin Backen.
The state struck but eleven men. They
were:
John DAILY, J. A. Warren S. NJ. Al
yey, w. S. Vreeland, e. e. Ewald, A.
E. Hawley, A. Barstad, Martin Grover,
J. P. Diederich, Art Kramer, and G.
E. Bean.
In securing the jury the regular panel
of 36 had been exhausted early. Judge
Quinlan ordered "a special venire of 80
on Monday. Sheriff Dodson served all
possible up to the afternoon and jur-
ors kept struggling in all day Tuesday.
Tuesday evening with "a men in the
box a second venire of so was selected
from names in the box, and the sher-
iff and four deputies secured the coun-
ty all Tuesday night subpoenaing the
men. By II O'clock out of the 1876
jurors 35 had been allowed to remain
in the box. The names of those strick-
en- by the state and defense were read
Twelve were left and the jury was
complete and the first step had been
completed in starting the wheels of
justice.
District Attorneys Statement
District Attorney Falge made the
statement of the states case to the jury
after recess which follow
ed the selection of the jury. He said
the state would show the story of the
defendant John HI. Mccormick from
the time he met Mrs. Ida Kimball Mat
heson in Seattle in 1911 to the time
of her death. They would show cor
between them that she met
the defendant in st. Paul, that they
went from there to White Cloud, Mich,
the home of her parents, that she in
troduced him to her relatives, that he
staid few weeks and that they went
to Grand Rapids, Mich, her former
home and then to Detroit, where on
June 4, 1914, they were married.
The state would show that the wife
of the defendant was possessed of
means left her by her first husband
and that Mccormick was seeking to
obtain this property. That after the
marriage they proceeded to White Cloud
and afterward to Grand Rapids where
Mccormick went into the chattel loan
business.
"We will show you the life Of the
couple there, the quarrels, and that
within few months Mccormick ran
away That she followed him to Seat
tie but did not see him as he had re-
turned to Grand Rapids That they
met i'll an attorneys office and pre-
slmably made up differences. After a
visit to White Cloud, Mccormick went
to Charleston and Lexington and Mrs.
Mccormick joined him. Then they
came to Ladysmith in the fall of 1914.
Mccormick, Mr.. Falge said, bought
here and opened up a store.
But things did not go on as they ought.
Mccormick, we will show, was always
insisting on money. In "a little time
Mrs. Mccormick was losing her capital.
She was ailing She was taken sick
and had to leave her duties and was
confined to her bed. For long time
her husband waited on her exclusively
and no one else was allowed to adj
minister medicine. A nurse was pro-
cured when the doctor insisted upon it