New Britain herald., 1924-10-09
HACKED WITH AXE
 WHILE YET ALIVE PathOlOgiSt ReConstructs Xii.
 ingWOrth Staying DISCHARGE IS REFUSED
Middlesex Court Refuses to Release Mrs. Tell--Dr. Fisher Explains Woman Must Have Shot and Struck Man Before He Died.

Middletown, Oct. 9.--Discharge of Mrs. Johanna Tell, who confessed to District Attorney Albert Cohn of the Bronx last April that she had killed her employer, Charles F. Blair, farmer Of Killingworth and house painter in the Bronx borough. on the ground that she had shot in self defense requested by Public Defender Donahoe, this noon, was refused by Judge Arthur F. Els in the Middle sex county superior court. Mrs. Tell is on trial on a mansaughter charge. Two grand juries had de- clined to indict her on a charge of murder.
 Struck While Alive
 The motion of MT. Donahoe for discharge of the accused came after the jury had been temporarily, ex- cused following the cross-examina- tion of Dr. Jessie w. Fisher, patholo- gist at the Middlesex county hospital who had sworn that blood tests had indicated that after Blair had been shot and while yet alive his body had been hacked seven times with an axe. Dr. Fisher also claimed that 1t was possible for the bullet which went through Blair's head to rave been fired by Mrs. Tell while she stood four feet away from him on the other side of 8 table as two off, cers had testified Mrs. Tell had said she had done.
 With rejection of MT. Donahoe's motion to discharge the court re- cessed,
 Dr. Fisfer gestifics
 Di'. Fisher said that it was impos- sible that the wound on the right side of Blair's neck could have been inflicted by a bullet fired by Mrs. Tell at Blair while they stood on op- posite sides of the kitchen table, four feet apart, as che had stated to off, cers to whom she had confessed the homicide. Dr, Fisher said that if the bullet had been fired as Mrs. Tell told the officers she had fired it, it would have gone straight through Blair's neck and would not have gone upward through the brain, in her opinion. Dr. Fisher said she ex- amined each of the 1S wounds on Blair's body. Of the wounds seven were inflicted y an axe, in her opin- ion. The most serious of the wounds was that inflicted by the bullet she had referred to in her evidence, and about which Mrs. Tell is said to have confessed.
 Hacked While Alive
 Dr. Fisher was of the opinion that after Blair was hit by the bullet he ceased all voluntary movement al- though she thought possibly he may have made some involuntary move ment afterwards. The axe wounds she believed were made after Blair had received the bullet, She had de- termiped this by tests of blood taken from each wound. The wound in the left side was enough to have caused Blalr's death, she said, and she was of the opinion that eall the axe wounds were inflicted while Blair was alive.
 In reference again to the bullet wound she said that if Mrs. Tell had fired 1t from a position across the table it would have been impossible for the course of the bullet 10 have been as found. The bullet entered be- low the right ear and ranged up- wards coming out at the top of the head.
 Closely Questioned
 States Attorney Inglis questioned Dr. Fisher at length on the wounds she had examined at the autopsy and especially as to the bullet wound because two officers had testified that Mrs. Tell had said that when she fired the gun she stood on the op- posite side of the table.
 pr. Fisher was taken over for ross-examination by Public Defs1d- or Donahoe. She had been preceded on the stand by Dr. Fox who made the autopsy with Dr. Fisher as his a assistant. He gave a carefully pre- pared description of Blair's body and the marks and wounds on it,
 He had been preceded on the wit- ness stand by Sergeant Howard 2. Williams and Captain Frank N. Nichols of the state police who conl- pleted their testimony begun yes- terday as to search of the farm of Blair in KilIingworth, in April and the accumulation of evidence against