The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1922-02-24
GUNNER SOON TO
LEARN HIS FATE
Closing Pleas In Murder
Trial Being Made
SOON GOES T0THE JURY
Circumstances Under Which
Miss Wick Was Slain Are
Described
ASSOCIATED Press Dispatch.J

Valley City, N. D., February %
Arguments to the jury in the William
GUNNER murder case were begun
this morning. States Attorney W. c.
Green of Case county opening the
plea for the conviction of the accused
man.
The argument of Mr.. Green was
expected to require four or five hours
and he will be followed by w. H.
Barnett, counsel for The defendant.
The final plea of the state may be
made late today with the probability
that the jury will be charged late
tonight or early tomorrow.
In his argument, Mr.. Green recited
the circumstances under which Miss
Marie Wick of Grygla, Mimi, was
killed in room in the Prescott hotel
in Fargo on the night of June z, OF
which hotel William Gammer was at
that time night clerk
Two Distinct Assaults.
Mr.. Green asserted that the evil
dence was conclusive on the propo-
sition that there were two distinct
assaults on the giri-the first about
one a. M, when she was gagged and
tied to the bed and the second at
about four a. m, when she was beat
en- to death with a nose nozzle by
the man who had determined upon
murder, as the means of closing the
eyes Of his victim, who would accuse
hfm the next morning il she was still
living.
Mr.. Green maintained that the mo-
lished and that the admissions of
Gunner himself to the effect, partic-
harly, that he had called Miss Wick
by telephone from the hotsr desk at
1870 p. m, June 6, and from the fact
that other uneScorted women, who
had come to the hotel had been. SINH
larry approached, must be accepted
by the jury as identifying the man
with the motive.
Was Familiar With Hotel.
Mr.. Green argued that no person
har with the hotel and one who felt
him self absolutely secure as against
interference or detection, would have
committed the crime in the manner
In which it was done. He cited the
fact that the body Of the girl mad
ben handled long enough after the
murder, so that the coating Of blood
on one hand was thoroughly dried,
so dry that it did not mark a ban
oo<5O LuC "UI u0ISf pt6CSO ON the
wrist in relying her TO the bedpost.
No person from outside the hotel.
argued the attorney would remain in
the room moment after the accom-
plishment Of the original motive and
no man If driven to murder would
remain to clean up the room and t..
to remove traces Of the manner in
which she was killed.
The James Farrell Feature.
AS to the James Farrell feature,
Mr.. Green said that even accepting
the proposition that there is a person
by the name of James Farrell. who
was a guest In the hotel that night.
this Farrell could not have commit
ted the crime because he did not reg
lister until after 2 a. m, while the
evidence is undfsputed that the first
assault occurred at least an hour
earlier, furthermore, said the attor-
ney, Farrell. if srch person exists in
fact, came into the hotel stranger,
not familiar with the habits or Gus
toms of the clerk, having no know
ledge, whatsoever, of who the girl in
room thirty might be, unless told by
the night clerk. Mr.. Green centended
that James Farrell was a name put
down on the register by the night
clerk and his roommate, Andy Brown,
for the purpose of creating ficticious
guest who would be missing when the
officials began their inquiries upox
the discovery of the murder.