The delay afforded an opportunity of compiling some interesting statistics in connection with the famous trial. Its practical commencement was on August 30th, when the examination of veniremen for the selection of a jury was inaugurated. The first panel of four jurors was accepted on September 18th, after nearly one hundred men had been examined and had confessed that they were prejudiced against the accused, or had formed an opinion based upon the published reports of the case which could not be removed by evidence. The second panel of four was secured on October 8th, and the third and final panel on October 22d. The presentation of the case for the State occupied from October 24th to November 16th, the type-written transcript of the testimony against the defendants covering nearly 4,000 pages. The defense opened on November 16th and closed on November 30th, having in the meantime examined nearly seventy witnesses.
The speeches occupied fourteen and one-half days of which State's Attorney Longenecker consumed one and a half days in his opening address, Judge Wing one and one-half, Mr. Ingham one, Mr. Donahoe one and one-half, Mr. Hynes one and one-half, Mr. Foster one and one-half, Mr. Forrest three, and Mr. Longenecker, in his closing analysis of the case, one and one-half. Taken from its inception to the close, the trial was the most lengthy in the history of American jurisprudence, being only equalled by that of the celebrated Tichborne case in England, which occupied in the aggregate nearly five months. The trial of Daniel Coughlin and his associates commenced on August 26th and ended with the rendering of the verdict on December 16th. In the effort to secure a jury 1,115 special veniremen were examined, of which number 928 were excused for cause, 97 were peremptorily challenged for the defense, 78 by the State and twelve finally chosen.
The expenses of the case were enormous. The fees of the special veniremen and the jury aggregated $8,000. The salaries of the bailiffs, special officers, and court officials reached $20,000, not including the cost of maintaining the courts. The fees of the witnesses summoned in behalf of the State reached a total of over $5,000, while the expenditures on account, of legal assistance to the State's Attorney were fully $20,000. The accounts of the stenographers and type-writers, ran into another $10,000, and on the sum total, taken in connection with the fact that the entire business of the courts was delayed during the progress of the trial, a final estimate of $100,000 as the total cost of the trial to the tax-payers, is not an exorbitant one. The outlay on the part of the defense, as far as could be ascertained, did not probably exceed $20,000.
A VERDICT AT LAST.
It was not until half past two of the afternoon of Monday, Dec. 16th, that the members of the jury, after being locked up over seventy hours, were prepared to render a verdict. Court was opened at ten o'clock in the morning, but there being no sign of any communication from the jury-room, a recess was taken until two o'clock. Shortly before that hour it was learned that a verdict had at last been reached. Extraordinary precautions were at once taken in and about the court room.
The general public was excluded, and only counsel engaged in the case, representatives of the press, and about two score of police officers in plain clothes were admitted. Judge McConnell took his seat on the bench at 2:25, and a moment later the five prisoners were ushered in over the iron bridge leading from the jail.
John F. Beggs, a deathly pallor on his face, and his blue eyes glaring as though protruding from the bleached bones of a skeleton, headed the line. Next to him came Daniel Coughlin, with a nervous, cynical smile upon his face. Then followed O'Sullivan, his jaws set firm, and the fingers of his right hand tugging nervously at his mustache. Close behind him came Martin Burke, with the same look of stolid indifference that he had worn throughout the trial. Kunze, who brought up the line, was apparently the least concerned of the five, smiling and bowing as he passed in to the reporters and court officials.
Just as soon as the prisoners had taken their seats and the fifteen deputy sheriffs, three to each man, had filled the space behind their chairs, the jury was brought in. Breathless silence prevailed. Everyone present seemed impressed with the solemnity of the moment. Even Judge McConnell, who had maintained a calm and reserved air throughout the trial, nervously mopped his brow, from which the perspiration threatened to pour in torrents. In response to a question of the clerk Foreman Clarke responded that the jury had agreed upon a verdict, at the same time handing up a sealed paper to the bench. The painful and oppressive stillness which prevailed was only broken when the voice of the clerk, who had in the meantime unfolded the paper, rang out clear and distinct in tones that penetrated through the iron doors to the corridors beyond. This is what he read:
We, the jury, find the defendant, John F. Beggs, not guilty.