Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1917-11-02
Talks to Jury Personally

clean that no previously IOfmeu OplH-
ion could or should be in the minds
of the men sitting there. He said that
upon the state rested the burden of
proof. The defense had to prove moth
ing. He said the state had spent hours
to prove the badness of the defendant.
But while he admitted Mccormick was
no saint, he submitted that compared
with that of anyone before the public
80 years of age, it wasn't such bad
record.
IF every man who had made sex
ual mistakes were prosecuted where
would most of us be?" he asked the
Jury. He showed that the evidence
proved that Mccormick met Mrs Math-
eson in 1911. He spoke of the letters
produced by the defense.
The Letters OF Mccormick
ooh" he exclaimed, ''the state doesn't
like those letters"
He said that there was week of I'M
accounted time between Oct. 10 and
Oct. 80, and in the period Mrs. Math-
eSOn had ample time to go to Seattle
Mr.. McGill said those letters had been
sent to the accused in August this
year while he was in Jail.
AS to the belt he said it was the
custom in the west to carry money in
that way. He said he had no language
contemptious enough with which to
characterize the witness, Arthur Shaw
Al n ottn ybn nctI
fed for the state when he had been at
the same time taking money from the
defendant He is disgrace to the
uniform lie wears" shouted Mr.. McGill.
He characterized the carbon copies of
the letters from Shaw to Mr.. Kirvan
as yellow dogs
He referred to the tribe of the house
of Kimball and Hewitt" as barking at
the defendants heels and Helen Glass
as zone of the pack that snarled and
snapped
Mr.. McGill reviewed the case, the
suicide theory, the death scene, the
notes left, the happy domestic life be-
fore the fatal illness. OF the note he
said in explaining the impression made,
1T was no strange message for one in
One-gripping her pencil in her trem-
bling fingers
He sair there was no evidence to
show that Mccormick ever had poison
in his possession, ever purchased poi
son or killed his wife. There was
every evidence to show she had in
tended to commit suicide and whether
she took it in the toilet or brought the
poison into the house and took it at
the dinner table, no one but God AL
mighty know.
Why She Killed Herself
If Mccormick wanted to kill his wife
why did he come to Ladysmith among a
pack of wolves; why did he not take
her out to some community where they
were unknown and butcher her? He
would not have brought her in nurse.
Speaking of McCormick's acts just
prior to his wife's death, he cried:
Are those the actions of man about
TO murder his wife?''
w llO III SOtt Cdll Sdy ludI hCOOI lIlIh
gave her the fatal medicine? In sup
port of the theory of suicide there are
seven Witnesses
AS to the dream" note, he ex-
planned in detail how the dead wo-
man could have written it, how it's
finding was the result of dream. eve
all have dreams and the man harrassed
and grief-stricken had this one. What
Mrs. Mccormick did with the original
writing no one will ever know. You
may have your opinion but where it
went you will never know.
Stebbins Takes the Floor.
1t was after three o'clock when MI.
McGill finished, and Albert X. Steb-
bins, big. red headed, and heavy of
voice, took the floor to make the final
plea, to speak the last words for the
defendant, sitting with hand on his
cheek, apparently the most uncOncerned
but deeply interested spectator in the
now packed court room.
Dramatic scenes characterized Mr.
Stebbins' effort. He fought with ora
tory. with sarcasm and invective, bru-
tai adjectives and effective metaphor for
more than three hours. There were
sobs and tears from the defendant and,
under the terrible arrangement, when
for time the audience must have al
most felt that she instead of the ac-
cused was being tried, Mrs. Hewitt
broke into hysterical weeping. 1t was
: tense moment, and only the jury,
weared with much waiting gave no
evidence of change from that i'm
mobility of countenance, which it has
worn like a mask, to conceal its emo
tons, from the first.
Mr.. Stebbins said the jury had a
great responsibility, for a time taking
the place of God in determining the flu
ture of a human being. He said the
state had tried the defendant for every
crime but that of poisoning his wife.