Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1925-06-14
LEGAL FIGHTS
GROW BITTER IN.
SHEPHERD TRIAL.
Defense Attorney Pleads
He is Not Always in
Wrong; Nine Wit
nesses Heard in Day

CHICAGO, ILL.,, June Illegal fights
and the testimony of nine witnesses fill
ed the two hour session Of the Shepherd
murder trial today,
The defense was overruled in its va
rious contentious until finally William
Scott Stewart, chief of counsel for
Shepherd, demanded plaintively Of Judge
Thomas J. Lynch:
"But. your honor, cannot always be
wrong"
He was pleading fot admission as an
evhihIt of what re SAID was the orr
ginal memorandum by William Nelson
McClintock, then student at Dart
mouth University, from which William
Darling ShepherdI Chicago lawyer and
his foster father. dictated the will which
made Shepherd the chief beneficiary OF
the vouth's estate, recently valued in
excess OF s1,O0U,OOO.
Prev ously the defense lost a hard
fight to have <expungei from record
yesterdays testimony by Miss Estelle
Gehling, Shepherds sunshine girl"
and quotation from letter Shepherd
sent the young nurse in breaking off
their relations.
McdicO Attacked
The third hard fight of the day re-
mained undecided at adjournment and
will be continued Monday morning when
Stewart will cite his authorities for
his method of cross examining DR..
Amante Rongetti.
The foctor testified for the prosecu-
tion that early in the fall of 1923 Shep-
herd came to the Ashland boulevard
hospital and inquired about a course in
bacteriology, displayed interest in tu-
berculosis and asked about how typhoid
fever got into the body.
Mr.. tSewart's questions sought to
bring out that Dr.. Rongetti was angry
with Charles c. Faiman, who was in
dicted with Shepherd after he testified
he supplied typhoid germs and taught
Shepherd how to slay Billy McClintock
with them, and that DR.. Rongetti had
gone first to newspaper with his story
rather than to authorities.
The final question asked by Stewart
was whether DR.. Rongetti had not been
indicted.
Defense Wins Once
The angry argument between counsel
precipitated by the Interrogation finally
was taken into the judicial chambers.
One success greeted the defense's
efforts TODAY, however, when it was
shown that a secret laboratory attrib-
uted to Shepherd by the prosecution ac-
tualiy was in his room which adjoined
that of Mrs. Emma Nelson McClintock
and to which Mrs. McChntock had ac-
cess at all times
Robert +. Grove, the states at
torney, indicated the secret laboratory
as an important link in the states chain
of circumstantial evidence against Shep-
herd when yesterday he won the right
to go about establishing the necessary
corpus deliciti" in his own way.
The laboratory testimony was ad-
duced through Anna Beckford, formerly
maid in the McClintock home, to which
the Shepherds went to live after Mrs
Shepherd had renewed school day
friendship with Mrs. McClintock.
Shepherd Broke Is Claim
| In the matter of the will-memoran
dunn the defense was partly successful
in that Judge Lynch ruled that it nigh,
| be introduced later as defense evidence
Additional testimony as to Shepherds
impoverished status, and his expecta
tion of some day coming into wealth
was brought out through testimony By
Jerome Matillo of Ind annapolis, Indiana
and Louis Sbarbaro
Matillo, a carpenter sent to Texa:
by Shepherd to build a summer home
for Mrs. McClintock, testified he one,
heard Shepherd say to his brother:
Never mind Willie; he will come ou
of this with his pockets full. ="
Sbarbaro, Chicago civil service >em
ploye, uncle of John Sbarbaro, an as
sistant states attorney, and formerl,
restauranteur, testified Shepherd in
| formed him eight or ten years ago tha
one dav he would have plenty, and tha
he said he then was getting $500 a
guardian of rich boy.