A Master Hand: The Story of a Crime

by Richard Dallas

Littell had scored, and that on the first occasion on which he had taken any serious part in the proceedings, and it must be, I thought, that the jury would now await his words with even increased interest. He continued sparing of them, however, permitting witness after witness—Van Bult and Davis among them—to leave the stand without cross-examination or with only a few casual questions.

Nothing new was developed until Belle Stanton was cross-examined. Her direct testimony had been a mere repetition of that which she had given before the Coroner's jury, but Littell,—regardless of the strict limitations of cross-examination—directed his questions to the matter of White's supposed trouble, of which it seemed possible she might have some knowledge, and his course was justified by the results.

She corroborated Benton's testimony as to White's disturbed mental condition and went so far as to testify that he cherished some bitter feeling towards some one. She said that this much she had learned from his own lips and was sure of, and also that his feeling in the matter was becoming daily more acute, but she denied having any knowledge of its cause, or of the identity of the person. She, too, when shown the letter, was unable to say for whom it was intended, but she expressed the opinion that its contents were suggestive of some of the things White had said when talking of his trouble. Nothing more definite than this could be obtained from her, as she disclaimed recollection of any exact words used by him, and said it was all only an impression she had gathered almost unconsciously from disconnected remarks which he had dropped at different times. "He had been drinking a good deal before his death," she added in explanation, "and was not always quite himself"; and Littell, having attained his object of enforcing upon the attention of the jury these apparent secrets in White's life, did not pursue the cross-examination further.

I had looked for him to question her regarding the presence of the ulster at her house but he did not do so, and I concluded he was satisfied that it would be to no purpose.

I was amused when Mrs. Bunce testified by the promptness with which she acted upon the advice given her by Miles; in her anxiety to do so even volunteering the information that she had found three fifty-dollar bills in the pocket of the ulster; otherwise her testimony did not differ from that formerly given. Littell, however, insisted upon knowing in what condition she found the money, upon which she said that it was carelessly stuffed in an outside pocket, and agreed to his further suggestion that part of it might readily have fallen out.

Of the night-officer, when he had given his damaging testimony against the prisoner, Littell asked first if Winters had the ulster, or any bundle that could have contained it, when he saw him come out of the vestibule; to which the witness gave a positive negative.

He then cross-examined him as to the reliability of his identification of the man he saw clad in the ulster as Arthur White.

In reply to successive questions, it developed that the officer's observation of the man had been made from the opposite side of a dimly lighted street upon a dark night; that he wore the collar of the coat turned up and the vizor of the cap pulled down, that he was in the act of raising an umbrella, and that he walked rapidly, showing no signs of intoxication.

The witness insisted, however, in spite of these facts and with every sign of sincerity, that he was confident of his identification, and it seemed very uncertain if much doubt as to it had been created with the jury.

Detective Miles was the last witness to be called by the State. He was allowed to give his testimony in his own way, which he did conscientiously and in detail, neither omitting or coloring anything that could have bearing upon the case.