Evening star., 1936-05-06
INSTALLMENT "a.

freSn ana SLrOng Is ne dQ-
dressed the jury. He repeated what
he had said In the very beginning:
That in a country like England such
trial as this would take but 20 hours
instead of 20 days, and the mercilesS
and bloodthirsty brute who had COM
mitted the crime would long before
this have been sent to his account.
He dwelt with trembling voice upon
the trusting beauty and confidence OF
the dead woman-a wealthy woman.
a woman who had returned to her
murderer after divorcing him because
Of the love hunger, the home hunger
N her heart.
That he could actually be speaking
of living fellow creature, whose heart
was cruelty alternating between hope
and fear, seemed incredible to Tamara.
The whole scene was incredible; it was
all a dream. Mayne, Mary's father,
sitting there silent and helpless as the
machine-gun words struck full at him;
herself the wife of his attorney and
that attorneys mother the Aunt
Mary" of her strange refuge years ago!
It was all unbelievable!
When Mullins sat down, breathleSs,
with his forehead running water, there
was a pause. The entire room was
held in a sort of hush, through which
the district attorneys impaSsioned SEN
tences were still echoing.
This man has placed himself vol
unfairly outside the category of those
of us who are still old-fashioned
enough to appreciate our women, who
feel only reverence and gratitude for
the sacred gift CT womans love and
companionship Florice Fanette
was young and lovely -. in the radl-
ant flower of her extraordinary beauty
-. other men desired her, longed for
her her heart was true to the man
she first had loved net as success
full as she :. not rich -.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, if
this monster leaves this court room a
free man, then justice is indeed dead
In San Francisco, and no one of our
women may lay herself down to sleep
tonight beside her little children in
safety -"
"Bosh," Tamara had said fiercely
in her heart as she listened. "Bosh,
boSh, bosh!' But was the jury think
ing it was boSh?
There was a pause, then George
stood up and began to talk quietly,
and the blood came back to her heart.
The room was completely still. No
one moved as the words went on,
clear and natural, without effort or
affectation. George SKINNED the gen.
eral history of the crime and the trial
smoothly; there was but one point he
wanted to make. He felt it was what
might be called small point, but if
1t happened to be one that his learned
colleague, Mr. Mullins, could not with
all his eloquence explain, then it was
as valuable to his client as the most
perfect alibi ever presented in this
or any other court.
The jury had seen the actual bath
room walls that had been the silent
witnesses of either a brutal and
stupid murder or strange, dramatic
accident. They we're familiar with
these walls; the walls had been photo
graphed, and he. had placed in evi-
dence enlargements of every foot Of
that bath room from these enlarge
ments right before their eyes; he was
prepared to show they had been spat-
tered lightly, evenly, with spray Of
fine blood drops. Across the farther
door, across the walls on both sides
this evidence had flown in a fine
spray. Where had the murderer been
standing when that first wild shower
of blood drops had flashed evenly
from F1orice Fanette's head to those
walls?
He must have been standing some
where, ladies and gentlemen. You
have heard reports, scientists, profess
sional men tell you that that blood
spurted instantaneously at the touch
of whatever surface or weapon touched
that womans head. There was but
one violent blow, and Immediately
after it the fine spraying of blood.
IF man killed her, some of that
blood struck him. And where he stood
the wall must be clean. Where is that
clear space of wall? Where is that
fine spray interrupted by the space OF
even one hands breadth, much less
the breadth Of mans body? The
body of the man who killed Florice
Fanette must have interposed itself
somewhere between that bloody flight
Of drops, and been sprayed by them.
THAT, very simply, is my point. And
7 say that until it can be settled we
NAV run the danger of condemning
an innocent man. Within an hour or
two you will all file out of that jury
box to consider a mans life. I ask
you not to scatter your thoughts over
the evidence you have heard here in
the last three weeks. We don't deny
this man and his wife quarreled. We
don't deny that the defendant had
accused his wife of having had too
much to drink, and that she had cried
In her anger at his reproach. That
Is admitted.
1--WE do assert that after the quarrel
the friends who were spending the
night in the room next to the NAL
lorys' room, Mr. and Mrs. Augustine
Burnett, old friends from Hollywood,
left the Mallorys. That before they
went to their own room, an adjoin-
ing room, Florice said to Helen Bur-
nett, When you two have finished
with the bath room, let me know. I
feel wooZy. I've been OVERRIDING it,
and I think I'll take hot bath and
see what that does for me-
Then you heard Helen Burnett
testify that while she was brushing
her teeth she heard heavy breathing
from the adjoining room and called
in to her husband. Gould Mayne be
off asleep already? 1t sounds as if
some one was saving wood in thereP
Helen Burnett finishes her ablu-
ton and calls in to Florice-you re-
member that the two families were
sharing one bath room-'An clear,
Florry! and she goes out Of the bath
room at the door we have called the
farther door, and presently, reading