Year: 1875

GUMENT-TELLrNo POINTS AGAINST HM-HIs


CONVICTION HIGHLY PROBABLE


PHILADELPHIA Sept IT. 1875.


District Attorney Sheppard to-day concluded his
ming up in the OF William H. westervelt on trial
for completely in the kidnapping Of Charley Ross The
courtroom was crowded to its utmost capacity during
the entire session. and the speech was listened
TO with the greatest interest The prisoners
wife and children beside him. usual
Westervelt himself was less calm and self
possessed than his wife He showed the greatest
anxiety. His eyes swollen and red from weeping
and he watched Mr. Sheppard with painful interest
AS the District Attorney proceeded with his convincing
argument the accused became re and more affected
and the painful expression Of his face became intens
fed


Abiding to the evidence Of Westervelt himself Mr.
Sheppard said


The prisoners own statement must be received with
the closest scrutiny, He the defendant; his trial
was his struggle with the Commonwealth and the law
for his liberty and what would not man give and do
for his liberty? And hence the probability
that, perhaps unconsciously, he controlled
by the great personal interest he had at stake.
He had been well prepared, had heard the
entire case, felt more keenly ugly fact than
any other person possibly could have felt it,
and he was an intelligent COOL deliberate witness But
his statement at the Central station the accuracy Of
which had not been denied, and his testimony in court
cashed all through. Yet even in his testimony here
there were admissions that showed that he lending
himself to deception and fraud There the fraudu-
lent letter concocted between him and Bill Mosher to
Gil Mosher He wrote it at the dctaton of Bill Mosher
as II 1t were written in Philadelphia, and stating to
Gil that he had neither money nor time to spare to
go TO the city Of New York. and he took that letter
from Strombergs saloon TO Gil Moshers wife, told
her he had taken letter from Gil 70 Bill and had re-
ceived an answer and then handed her the letter Why
did he not let Bill Mosher write that etterf Because,
he said, Bill was too nervous Too nervousl What
could make that man nervous who almost kyanized
crime2 No there real for his becoming
the amanuenss of the abductor-Bill Moshers hand
writing was wanted Walling had told him about it, and
inquiries FOR IT had been made OF Gs wife and OF Nine
Morrow and, therefore, when he said he would write
note to Gil Westervelt stayed his hand and
himself wrote the note thus attempting to keep from
the authorities that which they seriously sought Then
he admitted that he withheld from the authorities the
act that on the day after his sisters return from New
York Mosher and Douglass were at his house For
weeks he failed to tell Walling where these men had


lived in Philadelphia The personal of "Saul OF Tarsusn
was peculiar point There was nothing in it that
would have drawn the mind of ordinary citizen
to the Ross case but there point word in
it, that would Immediately the attention of one
familiar with negotiations between the Ross family and
the abductors. The latter had been contending for
payment Of the ransom rst and then after interval
the child should be delivered up while the family medl
tated upon the two things being concurrently done.
Therefore, when the personal saul of Tarsus" said
"Action must be simultaneous" that at once caught
the eye OF one cognizant of the negotiation and he
copied it in his memorandum book He said he had not
read the personals, but this one he read and copied
and said he thought it referred to the Ross The
date OF that personal was November 13 Westervelt
said he had last before that seen Mosher and
Douglass in the first week of November. By the
correspondence 1t appears that the 5h of November
the abductors wrote that the "John" in the per-
sonas was becoming too common, and directed it TO be
changed to 'saul of Tarsus." During the time he said
he was with them saul of Tarsus' was introduced.
Another reason why he should know that personal
referred to the Ross and why he should copy it,
He said he did not until after the killing, inform
Waling of the letter to the woman at Rondout
which Mosher wrote in this city but dated in New
York, enclosing envelope addressed him at
Westervelts house and telling her that would be
his future address, and which Westervelt carried by
hand 10 New York-not until after the abductors
snatched into eternity did he mention this though he
knew the authorities searching high and low for
Moshers handwriting Then what relations of perfect
confidence subssted between this and the abduc-
torsl They took him to the horse and wagon with
which they were TO commit the crime. He in
trusted with the of Moshers family, because
Mosher knew his visits to them would be covered up.
With perfect ankness and candor about the crime and
his plan for an exchange he would not have talked
with a man except he knew that would not give
him away Constantly they furnished him with money,
trusted him, conferred with him and put them
selves completely within his power There such
with any other theory than that Of common purpose
and common interest among them His part in the
business to control the police while the other two
kept up their batteries upon the distressed family and
he gives Walling just enough information to give him
something to do. He deceves Waling and decoys him
of on false trails while his colleagues unllmber their
guns and shower their voeys of brutal threats upon
the childs family This was the heart of this mystery
the true nature of the prisoners connection with it,


At the conclusion of the District Attorneys argument
the Court adjourned.