Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1922-04-26
EVIDENCE IN
KNEESKERN CASE
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Charley and Elmer walk down tn
road together as far as Cooks gate
Then Charley went to the house an,
Elmer walked off with Robbi
Schoonmaker
Ole Russell was recalled TO furthe
testify about the coroneris inquest a
his home on the night of the murder
! S. j. Moore, clerk of courts, wa
next called to testify that the ex
hibitS, such as shells, etc. were in the
same condition now as when he re
ceived them from the grand jury. HI
also turned over some shells 20 bt
marked as exhibits that had not pre-
viously been presented.
Miss Ruby Ness, who acted as
clerk of the grand jury testified as
to exhibits thai were in her possession
at that time as being in the same
condition.
! On Monday afternoon Sheriff FL
lingSon was recalled to testify abou.
exhibits in his possession being the
same and he stated they were.
The two next witnesses called were
Peter j. Ness of the firm of Willis
g. Ness and Mrs. c. n. Houck. Mr..
Ness had acted as reporter at the
coroner's inquest, and at the pre-
liminary hearing of KneeSkern Mrs.
Houck had been employed as a re-
porter to take down the testimony in
shorthand. They were both question
ed as 10 discrepancies in Elmer Van
Brocklin's testimony and also Geo.
Moore's at this hearing.
Other exhibits, such as shotgun
shells, from loaded and used shells
taken from KneeSkern'S gun, also
shells found in the vicinity of the
Van Brocklin cabin were shown the
jury.
Tuesday morning Mrs. Houck was
again called TO verify statements of
VIM. Cook. the state showed that
Cook had testified in the preliminary
hearing that the two men had said
nothing, and in the present trial
stated that Elmer had said he would
settle the matter when they were
alone.
The next witnesses were F. n.
Mechlenberg, James Sullivan, VIM.
Sullivan, James T. Keller, Knute
Iverson and Ed. Johnson, farmers all
living near Clermont and the Geo.
Moore farm, all testified that Geo.
Moore's character was good as far as
they knew.
With the testimony of these wit
nesses concluded the state closed the
rebuttal, and the attorneys made
preparations for their pleas to the
jury.
Atty. Frank Sayre opened the ar
guments for the state at 9:55 Tues
day morning, and made a strong
plea. On his opening he told a story
about Plato and his friend who had
a debate, illustrating TO the jury
their position in the case at bar.
He asked why, if the defendant
was within hearing distance of the
cabin and heard such threats as the
evidence stated were going on and
he had a good gun and ammunition,
why did he go to Cooks place, al
most twice as far as Russett's, to get
Cook to 90 to the cabin with him.
Atty. Sayre took considerable time
in explanations and proving Elmer
Van Brocklin innocence % the jury.
He said that the defense counsel
would probably bring out that Knees
kern could not do a terrible thing
like that because the VanBrocklins
were his friends.
Was he their friend Atty. Sayre
asked? It doesn't seem that any
one would say that there are a
couple of dead ones up there, if he
were speaking of his friends, Atty.
Sayre said, and asked if that was
the kind of description that would
come from a friend.
The attention of the jury was call
ed to the fact that Gale Swenson
had testified she had seen the Knees
kern car stop near the cabin most
every week during the summer. That
when Kneeskern got back to Castalia
the night of the murder he told Mr..
Fisher there had been an accident.
Atty. Sayre said Kneeskern had
tried to clear up the theory that
was hurrying home from
Swenson's because he was afraid of
Elmer. Because Kneeskern was there
at the cabin with a good gun and
could protect Irene.
Another point brought out by Mr..