The Defense Closes

Chicp.gov Feb. 1.- After nine long ■Weeks of monotonous testimony and wrangling of attorneys, Lawyer Harmon, Luetgert'a chief counsel, brushed away the papers on the table in front oí him with the remark: "That closes our case." There'was a suppressed rustle in the courtroom; Luetgert settled back in his chair; the jury moved around in its box. The second famous Luetgert trial was practically over. Books and papera were gathered up from the tables, Judge Gary ordered the tables turned lentghwise in front of the jury, and the attorneys for state and defense prepared to battle against one another for the life or death of the sausage-maker. No time was lost in these prelimrnaries, and after the jury had recovered its breath from the sudden termination of the case Assistant States' Attorney McEwen brought in an armful of law books and was ready to open the state's argument to the jury. Kverybody Surprised. It was hardly expected that all the surrebutting testimony of the defense would be in so soori, and when Harmon announced, fifteen minutes after court convened, that the defense had nothing further to offer, the state and everybody concerned was surprised, but agreeably so. When court opened Harmon called Adolph L. Luetgert to the stand and asked just two questions. "Were there any goods in the basement of your factory when the sale took place?" asked Harmon. The state objected to the question and it remained unanswered. Harmon then asked the big defendant how tall he was, and Luetgert said he did not know; that he was never measured. "Tou're a bout six f eet, are you not?" said Harmon. "ï don'f know." answered Luetgert. The Defense Closes. "That's all," said Harmon. "We are through with the case." The tables were rearranged so that the attorneya for both sides stood on the farther side of them, facing the jury, and Luetgert fixed his chair so that he could see every juror in the box. McEwen started right in with his opening statement to the jury. He said the case, now in its tenth week, was drawing to a close. "Because a crime has been committed in a peculiar and scientific way is no reason why it should go unpunished," he said. The assistant state's attorney quoted precedents of famous and obscure murders analogous to the alleged Luetgert murder. The old Webster-Perkman case was gone over in detail, and Luetgert was likened to the murderer, Webster. "The evidence in this case turns around the story of the defendant," continued McEwen. Memor? Has Reen Faultv. "He has sought to deny the testimony of twenty other witnesses. His memory has been faulty. If his story is true, he is an innocent man; if false, he is guilty." McEwen said that the potent theory in murder was not a new one in the books. although it was not iamiliar to the average man. "What object did he have in cleaning that faetory? It was clean; we have proved that. and what was the necessity for further cleaning something that was about to be sold out on a mortgage?" said McEwen. "That soap was boiled or made to conceal the evidence of a crime. Luetgert and his wife were seen to enter the faetory the night of May 1, and Louise Iuetgert has not been seen by mortal man since that" time."