Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1917-10-26


AS he appeared when arrested
of 1911 or 1912 had been introduced
to Mrs Ida Mathes0n in McCOrmick's
office He remembered her because
he was baseball fan and asked her
if she was any relation to Christy
Mathewson, the baseball pitcher. Mr..
Richards described Mrs. MatheSOn as
of a medium height, rather heavy,
fleshy woman, not a pronounced bru-
nette but tending that way She also
had some fuzz on her lower chin. On
cross examination he said she would
be about A or 10 and weighed 175,
$50 or 100 pounds He could not tell
the color of her eyes. On cross exam
nation Mr.. Richards got into the reg
ular qualification as a witness at this
trial by having some marital trouble
and was separated from his wife.
us it not fact that you never met
this woman in McCOrmick's office in
your life?" asked the cross examining
attorney.
mo, / am positive l met her."
Defense offered picture of Mrs. Nc
Cormick identified by Mr.. Richards as
the woman he had met in McCormick's
Seattle office.
Ben. j. French, First Expert
The defense began its expert evil
dence early in the forenoon. Ben. j.
French was the first witness. Sc stat
ed he had examined the notes in evil
dence and had made comparisons with
the handwriting of the deceased. At
ter explaining how he made his COM
PARSONS and calling attention to sim
ilarities he answered the question put
to him by saying both the impression
note and the carpet note were writ
ten by Mrs. Ida j. Mccormick. He
found the erasures and changes in the
carpet note mentioned in Mr.. Tyr
rell's testimony to have been made by
Mrs Mccormick.
Gen. Sturdevant cross examined
Mr. French at length. He went into
each detail carefully and painstaking-
ly. When he was through Mr.. Stebbins
asked Mr.. French if he was still of the
opinion that Mrs. Mccormick wrote
the notes and he said he was.
Mr.. French's testimony was not
complete at noon and court adjourned
a few minutes early.
Expert Mulliken For Defense
After dinner there was an increased
attendance. When Mr. French con-
GUIDED w. X. Mulliken, of ST. Paul,
was called He said he had been a
handwriting expert in many cases and
gave names of a score of towns in which
he had testified. From 1876 to 1912
he conducted the st. Paul Business Col
lege
Mr.. Mulliken took the exhibit charts
of the expert for the state, Mr. Tyr
rers, and started to pull the Milwau-
kee mans deductions to pieces. He
found many closed "o's'', he found the
second "I'' in many words will to
have the final ~ largely Topped. He
found the large Topped ID. Mrs. Nc
Cormick made an 30" and an sc" much
alike He found it in white Cleud'
and in "yeu" She made 90 some
times for ''e' and both often alike
He disposed of the word IVORY by say
ing it might be very" He found that
she had used good by" spelling by"
as in the note He also found she had
| used the same kind of a u" in her
| name frequently. AS to margins, Mr..
Mulliken presented examples of let
ters which the state had submitted as
exhibits with great margins on the
right side as in the dream" note.
Finally he said it was not a tracing
because no human being could trace a
letter without detection 1t was the
easiest kind of forgery to detect. Mr..
Mulliken's final conclusion was that
the impression note was made by Mrs.
Mccormick.
Both Notes By Mrs. Mccormick
| The note found under the carpet
was written by Mrs. Mccormick de-
clared Mr.. Mulliken. II can't tell who
erased but l do know that the writing
there is by Mrs. Mccormick" He
showed how he arrived at the opinion
that the changes were made by Mrs.
| Mccormick herself and proceeded with
! other examples of the deceaseds hand