36

A STARLING ARRAIGNMENT

(Continued From Fifth Page.)

Farland and nobody should ever know if it.

Great God, in all this universe, has not made a single nook or corner where can be ever safely hid the crime of murder. The human mind is so situated that murder in the mind and heart is repugnant to every other natural faculty or natural thought. It is at war with all your desires. It is at war with your very nature, and when a man thinks he can commit murder and because, forsooth, he does it in the night, when no man sees, when no man knows, that therefore it is locked from the world in his own brain and heart, he makes a mistake.

Why that secret was in Monday McFarland's mind. It had coursed through his blood. It had permeated ever fiber of his body. It beamed in his eye. It was in his countenance, so that he thought that every man, woman and child who saw him could see it; could read it in his face; could detect it in his eye. He knew he was suspected. He knew that 1,000 eyes were searching and looking upon every inspiration and every [net?]; till the secret took possession of him and lend him where it would. This was why Monday McFarland made the confession. That confession forced itself out of him. It broke down his manhood, it paralyzed his soul, until the only relief that Monday McFarland could see was to unburden his mind of that deadly inhabitant. And that is why he told it. He told it, not because he was afraid of Jim Malone nor the mob, but because he knew he was guilty. It was an unwelcome occupant of his mind. And I will venture the assertion that he never felt so good since this murder as when he had vomited forth his awful confession. When he had got rid of it, got it off his mind, got it off his heart. Then is the first time that Monday McFarland straightened up and felt that he was a man again and could breathe. He had been oppressed and could not sleep. Do you think you could sleep, gentlemen, were such a load as that on your mind, the first night after doing the deed? Do you think you could be composed or collected? That part of the programmeseems to have been left to Mrs. Sheedy. She is the only cool, calm, collected, indifferent, serene person in this prosecution. Why, from her conduct during this trial you would be led to think she was not one of the people on trial. So calm, collected and serene, so absolutely unconcerned relative to this prosecution is she, that you would think it was not her. She has played her part well. But remember while she was playing that part, she omitted to play the part of the heartbroken, grief-stricken wife. While that part of the programme has been well maintained, I ask you whether her conduct in this court room during this trial has been that of the loving, affectionate, broken-hearted, bowed-down woman, whose husband has been brutally murdered. It is a pretty difficult thing to play a double part. It is pretty difficult to be a woman of iron nerve and to be a loving, affectionate wife at the same time. To brace up, to be resolute, to be firm, to be undaunted. Why the defendants would have you believe that nobody could mention John Sheedy's name without tears would gush forth and this woman would weep and mourn, filled with emotion. Has she manifested any of that here? No, she was playing another part. Do you think the woman that lost her husband and was broken hearted on account of his murder, do you think a woman of that kind can sit here undaunated and unconcerned under what has been going on in this case.

Mr. Hall then said that he would spend no time in answering the argument that the confession was not voluntary and thought that the defense could much more appropriately have offered to prove that it was not true.

He took up the confession and showed how in countless instances it was corroborated by the testimony. Anna Bodenstein corroborated it in that Monday went often to dress Mrs. Sheedy's hair. Mrs. Hood and Mrs. Carpenter corroborated it in that they had seen Walstrom's picture in the photograph album. And Mr. Hall dwelt upon the fact that Monday knew this as proof that Mrs. Sheedy had taken him into her parlo, told him of her lover and showed him the picture.

Monday's confession was corroborated by the finding of the gold ring he said she had given him; by the testimony of Goldwater and son as to the purchase of the cane and by its identification, agreeing with him even as to the price: by testimony of Goldwater and son as to the purchase of the cane and by its identification, agreeing with him even as to the price; by the testimony of Mrs. Sheedy when she told of having gone out to get a pitcher ofwater on the night of the assault; by her own testimony as to the window curtain of the east window; also by Tyndall; by Stepney, Monday's cousin, and Mattie McNeal, as to the exchange of overcoats; by the same witness as to his going to George Botts' after the murder, getting his wife and going home; by William Chinn as to his subsequent whereabouts that night, and his lameness from his fall just after he struck the blow; by Courtnay and Anna Bodenstein that he went to the Sheedy house next day to see Mrs. Sheedy and get part of his reward; by Mrs. Coil to the effect that he had hund around the Sheedy residence [aw srang?] a chance to commit the crime; try Mr. and Mrs. Hosman to the effect that he fell down at the corner of the porch after he fired the shot early in December. These ate but a few of the many details which Mr. Hall showed that Monday's story was corroborated by the other testimony.

The speaker, before closing his address of over three hours, denied that a dollar of Dennis Sheedy's money had ever been illegitimately used to secure conviction, and contended that it was but natural for a man to seek to avenge the death of his brother.

Mr. Stearns for Mary Sheedy.

Mr. Stearns in opening at 3:55 congratulated himself and the court upon the fact that so many ladies were present, as it was undoubtedly sure to inure to the inforcement of justice tempered with mercy. He dwelt upon the fact that Malone, Doctor Childs and others had been around strengthening the suspicions of Mrs. Sheedy's guilt, so that the poor grief-stricken widow would get none of the estate of her dead husband. Dennis Sheedy is not here, it is true, but his money is here and serving every purpose that his presence could serve. The defendant was unable to please the prosecution. If she shed tears one of the counsel called them deceitful, crocodile tears. If she was calm the other attorney said she was unfeeling and a woman of iron nerve.

Mr. Stearns then offered to read from Judge Maxwell as to the duty of a public prosecutor, but the state objected and the court ruled it out, to which the defense excepted. He contended that the duty of a public prosecutor was as much to prevent the persecution of the innocent as it was to secure the punishment of the guilty, but in this instance the county attorney had sat there like a bound boy without an effort to direct the case and taken a secondary part in the proceedings.

He denounced the sort of brotherly affection spoken of by opposing counsel as having been exhibited by Dennis Sheedy. The $550 he had put in bank to her credit had been obtained by the transfer of some property he had no authority to transfer; he had taken away John Sheedy's gold watch, worth $300 or $400, and all of the dead man's clothing.

Mr. Stearns took up the confession and pointed out the fact that Monday claimed that Mrs. Sheedy met him on the back porch that fatal night, hugged and kissed him, gave him a goblet of whisky and did a number of other acts which it would have been impossible to perform in less than ten minutes and yet the testimony shows that in less than ten minutes and yet the testimony shows that in less than ten minutes before the assault Mr. and Mrs. Sheedy were sitting in the parlo together. He said further that the testimony of William Chinn would show that Monday's story was untrue and that his presence at Chinn's place as Chinn told of it could not be accounted for upon the theory that he had struck that blow which was struck between 7 and 8 o'clock.

He then took up Jim Malone and denounced his methods in general. In referring to Hymen Goldwater and his boy he denounced them in particular and the Jews in general saying that they descended from a pawnbroking race whom Christ had scourged from the temple/ He said that Malone and Goldwater had conspired to hang an innocent woman to secure the reward, and recited the testimony of L. C. Burr to show that Goldwater had admitted that Malone had offered to pay for the identification of the cane; that he had admitted to Burr that it made no difference whether or not he had ever had the fatal cane in his shop, he wanted his moeny all the same. He quoted the testimony of Carder and Barnes to show that the cane was one formerly owned by Charder instead of the one Monday had purchased from Goldwater. Goldwater had testified as he did because he wanted to stand in with the officers.

So with the ring. It was claimed that it was also found in the possession of a pawnbroker and this pawnbroker had joined in the conspiracy that he might stand in with the police.

He thought it no wonderful coincidence that Monday knew all of the facts necessary for him to make up his story, as they had all been made public by the press, and in connection with this argument Mr. Stearns strained his lungs somewhat in a bitter denunciation of the press as an enterprising disseminator of news. He claimed that every fact needed for Monday to make up that story and make it fit the surroundings could have been attained from reading the newspapers prior to Monday's arrest.

He took up the fact as shown by the evidence that that cane was not found on the Sheedy porch for some twenty minutes after the assault and that the officers had previously looked all over the porch with a lantern for traces of the blood of the assailant.

He referred to the discrepancy in the state's own testimony as to whether the curtain of the east window was up or down immediately after the shooting.

He reverted but briefly to the methods employed in securing Monday's various confessions and said he was content to leave the competency of them as evidence entirely with the jury. He believed the testimony was sufficient to convince them that it was incompetent, but even if it were not there were some things in it that stamped it as totally untrue. Some portions of that confession are so contrary to every principle of human nature, so opposed to anything that one ever encounters, that they are beyond the power of belief upon any evidence. The counsel had depicted Mrs. Sheedy as a woman devoid of refinement. The hand of the Holy Father was always legible. The pictures that he draws and the lines he writes upon the human countenance are always easily read, and he pretended to say that no one could look into the face of Mary Sheedy and say that she was not a cultured woman, endowed at least with the instincts of her sex. He went on to depict the revolting nature of the accusations against her and contedned that all nature refuted them. He contended that there was no record of anything so revolting as was here charged, probably in the whole United States.

He ridiculed the idea that Monday McFarland being overwhelmingly in love with Mrs. Sheedy, as is claimed, should be the one selected to whom Mrs. Sheedy should appeal for the murder of her husband telling him at the same time that she wished it to permit her to enjoy another lover. No such accommodating lover had ever existed, yet this was the theory upon which the great state of Nebraska depended for a motive in this case, and which the jury was expected to believe was enough to induce Monday to commit the crime.

He ridiculed the theory advanced by Mr. Hall as to Mrs. Sheedy's motive. It was claimed by him that Mrs. Sheedy desired John Sheedy murdered because she was afraid of him, and yet in another place Mr. Hall had said that she was a woman of such nerve that she could have murdered Sheedy herself had she only had the physical strength. He said that Sheedy was an all-around sport and had his little loves on the side, so that Mrs. Sheedy could have easuky secured a divorce, had she so wished. Divorces were not hard to get. They could be obtained on short notice and at small cost. They could be had second handed and were to be found in the pawnshops. They were about as common as anything we have, and it was all balderdasn to say that Mrs. Sheedy could not get rid of her husband without murdering him if she so wished.

He took the testimony of the three witnesses of the state who had told of the unhappy relations of Mr. and Mrs. Sheedy. Mrs. Hood, Mrs. Swift and Johnie Klausner, and tore it to pieces to show that it lacked positiveness.

This testimony was of entirely too flimsy a character upon which to rest a motive for the crime of murder.

He contended that the jury had no right to indulge in any presumptions as to the contents of those notes sent between Walstrom and Mrs. Sheedy. The state had grieved a great deal because those notes were not introduced in evidence to prove the innocence of their contents. Those notes had been destroyed and could not be produced in court. HE did not know what was in those notes and didn't want to. All he would care to know was whether or not there was nay incentive in them for the murder of John Sheedy. The state had made entirely too much of those notes, many a man had received notes unknown to his wife and vice versa, and it is probably that many post-office boxes are rented for that purpose in Lincoln, but there is no record of any murders having ever arisen out of it.

At 5:30 Mr. Stearns stopped and court adjourned until 9 a. m. to-day, when he will resume. He will be followed by Messrs. Philpott and Strode; so that Mr. Lambertson will probably not close until to-morrow.

Ice cream and strawberries at Trinity M. E. church to-night.

Children Cry for Pitcher's Castoria.