November 28, 1916
Transcribed from: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/104717897/ & https://www.newspapers.com/clip/104779079/
SHORTLY AFTER 4 O’CLOCK ARGUMENTS WERE FINISHED
Defense Rested at 11 This Morning and Rest of Day Was Spent in Speechmaking-Witness Testified They Saw Girl Meet Negroes
At four o’clock this afternoon, Attorney Archie Neale was making the closing arguments for the state in the Cline case. The case went to the jury shortly after 4 o’clock.
At 11 o’clock today the defense in the Cline case rested after being busy with the examination of witnesses since Saturday afternoon at three o’clock. The state called Mrs. Glass, mother of the missing girl, back to the stand but did not offer any other testimony in rebuttal and the arguments to the jury were immediately started. County Attorney Chas. D. Ise led off for the state and was followed by M. D. L. Cox, special attorney for the state. Attorney Chas. Welch made the opening argument for the defense and was followed by his colleague, Chas. Bucher. Archie Neal, special attorney for the state, made the closing argument and the case went to the jury about four o’clock. Six or seven witnesses were called by the defense this morning, but nothing new developed, the testimony of the witnesses used being merely to confirm or emphasize some points the defense had already sought to make.
Just before the defense rested this morning a colored man was put on by the defense who said Mrs. Glass had accused him of being intimate with her daughter, but he denied any guilt. Mrs. Glass took the stand for the state and denied that she had charged the man who had testified with being responsible for her daughters condition. Two boys were placed on the stand who told something about finding a bundle of women’s clothes in the river near where the dead body was found, but the contents of the bundle did not prove to be similar to the bundle Mrs. Cline had said she gave Mary before leaving her house on the day of her disappearance.
When the time came for argument County Attorney Ise had very little to say. He evidently felt convinced that the state had been unable to present a case worthy of serious argument and thought it was a time when silence was golden.
The consensus of opinion about the court room was that the defense made a ten strike with the testimony of F. S. Wettack, cashier of the First National bank of this city, identifying a deposit slip of the Kellar Metal Works on which was listed a check of Geo. Moore for $30. This “blew up” the testimony of Moore that he saw the defendant and his car out at the old house on the Cline farm northeast of Coffeyville on the evening of March 24 and remembered the date by the time he paid Kellers for some tin work.
A. M. Etchen, Coffeyville attorney, was called to the stand late yesterday and qualified as a stenographer, giving a history of his experiences as court reporter. he said he took the evidence for the defense at the preliminary hearing of Dave Cline, and identified the notes handed him as the original notes he took at the trial. He read the testimony of George Moore, given at the preliminary hearing in which Moore said he remembered that the date he saw Dave Cline going toward the river farm was march 24, because it was the day he paid the Keller company for asphalting a roof. This was the payment referred to that the records of the First National bank shoed was paid by check dated April 10. Attorney Etchen also testified that on the night Mary Glass body was found, he was called on the phone by the county attorney and requested to go to the river and represent the county attorney at the autopsy. The light for the examination, he said, was furnished by a flash light and an electric lantern. Both bodies were badly decomposed. It was impossible to make a close examination of the clothes to determine the color, on account of the lack of light and the muddy condition of the clothes. Witness said from the examination of the bodies it was impossible to tell whether they were white or colored.
The testimony of Dr. Hudburg, the coroner, and of Dr. Whittaker, colored physician of Coffeyville, at the preliminary was read by Attorney Welch and was in effect that it was difficult to identify the clothing of the dead girl. Dr. Whittaker’s testimony at the inquest was that it was impossible to tell whether the mother met death by drowning or was killed before being thrown in the river. A mass of other testimony was read from the transcripts of the inquest and preliminary hearing, dealing with the witnesses Wayne Short, Dale McDonald and Harold Davis.
Louis Boehm, a worker at the Cudahy refinery testified to seeing what he took to be a body above the waterworks dam on the morning of the day the body of Mary Glass was found. He said he and his children were out on the river fishing and noticed an object floating rapidly down stream. Much of the bulk was above water. On cross examination he said he did not report the incident to the police nor was he positive it was a human body.
Archie Wilburn, a colored man, who lives on the opposite side of the block from the Glass family, was asked to describe the road from Mrs. Glass’ place to the Cline farm.
Frank Benefiel, collector for the water and light department of Coffeyville, was called and questioned regarding the condition of the body found in the river on May 6. He corroborated the testimony of the defense’s other witnesses as to the state of the body.
Mrs. Coy, who lived on the cinder road near the cemetery last spring, testified she knew Mary Glass and saw her pass frequently on the way to and from work. She said that she knew of at least two times that the Glass girl met a colored man at the barn on the premises occupied by the Coy family. She saw him and the girl at the barn twice. Two colored men, John Austin and Archie Wilburn, were called to the railing and Mrs. Coy was asked if either of the men resembled the negro who met Mary Glass. She said the man was a mulatto and was lighter colored than either of the men who stood before her. On cross examination the witness said she told Mrs. Cline about the incidents of Mary meeting the colored man. When asked to fix the date she said it was about two years ago that she noticed the meetings at the barn.
J. W. Dienst, who lives on the road that Mary Glass folowwed on her way to and from the Cline farm, said that he saw Mary Glass walking the belt line tracks with a colored man and saw them turn off down the M. K. & T. spur to a wilderness of bushes known as “the jungles” and in about half an hour they returned and they girl went on her way to the Cline farm while the man went the other way. Witness said this happened at least two or three times and always early in the morning. He was not sure as to the time of year, but thought it was in June or July, 1915. On cross examination, Mr. Dienst said the man was tall, but otherwise he could not describe him closely.
Douglas Lewis, a colored man who was quite hard of hearing, testified that he had seen Mary Glass and Archie Wilburn under the belt line trestle and that they were lying down. About a week after, witness said Archie Wilburn met him in Lancaster’s store and gave him a cigar. On cross examination, Attorney Neal got Lewis to admit that he was once arrested for perjury. On further questioning he admitted he was also arrested for embezzling $300 but paid the money back. On further examination the witness testified that he had lived for several years with a woman who was not his wife. Attorney Neal asked the witness if Welch and the others didn’t ask him to testify at the trial, and say they would pay him to say what they told him to say. Lewis, in his irresponsible way, said they did, but a moment later, denied it and said that no one talked to him directly. He said the people who came to see him about testifying at the trial talked with Lancaster and that Lancaster told him what they wanted him to say. When asked what his object was in coming to the witness stand he said he did it to help Mrs. Glass. he understood that he was to testify in behalf of the mother of the dead girl. He denied that he had been promised any money.
On redirect, Attorney Welch sudden confronted the witness and asked him to explain what he meant when he said Welch saw him about testifying. “Do you know Welch?” asked the attorney. Witness admitted he didn’t. “Do you know who I am?” asked Mr. Welch. Another negative. “Never saw you before,” the witness answered. He was again asked as to who saw him in connection with what he knew about the case, and he again said nobody, that the parties who wanted him to testify talked to Lancaster and Lancaster talked to him. The demeanor of the witness showed him to be very illiterate, weak mentally and quite deaf.
The witnesses, Mr. Dienst, Mrs. Coy and Lewis are the ones the defense promised to put on to show that Mary Glass’ delinquency was due to association with colored men.