Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1917-10-19
Battle for Freedom Begins With
Sensational Features Growing
With Each Days Hearing
State and Defense Represent
ed by Array of Lawyers.


State and Defense Represent.
ed by Array of Lawyers.
In the high-ceilinged, apparently
cheerful court house, of Rusk county
the preface and first chapters Of the
last volume in the tragedy and mys-
terry surrounding the death Of Ida J
Mccormick is being read into the
eternal record.
John III. Mccormick, as he is known
in court better known as A. H. Nc
Cormick, will know in few days more
whether he is to walk from that court
house a man free to come and go, or
shall spend the rest of the years
allotted to him. behind the grim walls
Of the Wisconsin state prison at Wau-
pun.
The woman is dead How and
when, aud where she died-all these
circlmstances-ar known. Whose
hand it was that gave her the poison
may never be known but forever re-
main in the realm of conjecture and
mystery even after the close of the
trial.
The story of the lives of the two
people, Mccormick and his wife, are
gradually being unfolded. Evidence
shows that she was married before she
became Mrs. MathesOn and had a son
by this first marriage and that he was
killed. Then too the story of McCor-
mick's marital history. with wife
from whom he was divorced, another
who has been termed his common-law
wife and then the last Mrs. McCor-
mick is now part of the record.
On Friday morning came the evil
dence of Mrs. Duma, who is respon-
sible, according to her testimony, for
starting the chain of circumstances
eliminating in the Rusk county court
house now. She it was who told Nc
Cormick about Ida ]. Matheson, when
he said, according to the witness,
That's the old girl l am looking for );
I'll go after her for her money!
Mccormick, Bearded and Thin
The stage was set last Monday. The
chief actor in the drama came into the
court room and pleaded not guilty to
the crime charged against him. Then
he came again Tuesday and watched
eagerly the. work of sitting out the
men who had been called to form a
jury. That was a tedious process and
when the regular panel and two
venires of so men each had been ex-
hausted, and the twelve men who
were to decide his future sat in the
box, he appeared relieved.
The jury is young in years as jur-
les go. Only three men are over fifty.
The older men were excused. 1t is a
tedious task at best and hard muscles
are help.
Mccormick dressed in mixed suit,
looking less debonnair than when he
was in business, sits at the long table
in front of Clerk Kermott's desk. He
has been usually calm, but at times
has shown nervousness. 1t is then
constantly. No longer does he wear a
wig. His head is bald and surround
ed with fringe of iron-gray hair The
smoOth-shaven face that was his be-
fore the arrest and Incarceration in
Jail, is gone On his chin is a short
gray beard. His cheeks are unshaven
since he came into court. His eyes
are half-concealed with gold trimmed
spectacles. A few times, not many,
he has risen and spoken to his counsel,
generally to Glenn Williams. Twice
he has wept. Once when MI. McGill
was telling the jury of the devotion of
himself and wife and again when sim
ply but graphically, Miss Hotter, the
nurse told of the last hours of the
dead wife. He was keenly alive in the
testimony of the professor of toxicol-
ogy from the university, and earnestly
attentive to his former sister-in-law,
Mrs. Kinchella. His face showed
flush when the testimony of George
Luton was given. But hour after
hour he sits watching and waiting.
In The Court Picture
There is more to the court picture
The judge is not known here to but
few. Hon. William Burke Quinlan is
just closing his first term as judge of
the Goth circuit and will soon enter
upon his second. Smooth of face, gray
haired, large body, genial, Watchful,
of every move in the court, he carries
dignity along with celerity. This is
his first visit to Ladysmith. He sits
in place of Judge Wickham, self-dis-
qualified in the last Mccormick will
case.
But the judge, nor the chief actor
nor the jury has been the center of
deepest interest. This is a battle Of
the law and of lawyers. Commanding
the forces for the state is a man with
iron-gray hair and plenty of it with a
voice that seldom gets above mid
dle-pftch, who examined the jurors
and has SO far examined the states
witnesses, former attorney general