On the day before this Wood received the following strange letter which was produced in court and which we already published on [page 77].
The witness stated that the above letter never reached him—that it fell into the hands of Chief Deitsch. The letter was most damaging to Jackson's case.
The next and last witness for the prosecution was Chief of Police, Colonel Deitsch, of Cincinnati. He said:
"On February 5th, about 10 o'clock at night I met Jackson in charge of a detective officer named Bulmer on the corner of Ninth and Plum Streets, in Cincinnati. I went up to Scott Jackson and said then, "We want you at the Mayor's office." We walked into the Mayor's office—Mayor Caldwell, of Cincinnati—and there was no one present at the time except myself, His Honor, the Mayor, and Scott Jackson. Detective Bulmer came into the office but walked out. I told Scott Jackson I had a dispatch for his arrest. He sat on the settee, and I asked, "Where is Pearl Bryan?" He said, "I have not seen her since the 2nd day of January, 1896, at Greencastle, Ind." The Mayor partly read the dispatch and gave it to me, and I had handed it to Jackson, and said: "Jackson read the contents of that dispatch." He read it carefully, and then said: "Oh my God, what will my poor mother say?" I asked the question, "Do you know where Pearl Bryan is?" He said he did not. He got up off the settee and made the remark over again. "Oh, my God, what will my poor mother say?" He walked backward and forward. He made the remark. "Must I tell about this?" His Honor, the Mayor, said, "Not unless you want too." The Mayor repeated that twice. He said, "Jackson, you need not tell unless you want too." I then again asked him if he knew anything about Pearl Bryan. He said that he did not. Shortly after that conversation the reporters from the daily press were admitted and my interview with Jackson at that time ended."
The Colonel stated that on the following day Jackson requested an interview. Following are the Colonels words:
I asked Jackson. "Did you have anything to do with the woman down at Greencastle?" He said: "Yes, I did." "Did you write a letter to Wood advising him to give her —— of ——?" He said he did, and shortly afterward got a letter again from Will Wood, saying that it had no effect. And in the meantime he had a conversation with Walling about the subject. Walling advised him to give —— of ——; then in a conversation again with Walling about the matter Walling made the remark: "Bring her up here and we will...." I repeated to Jackson: "Is that statement correct?" He said that it was. "And did you send for Pearl Bryan then?" He said that he did. When that conversation was ended a satchel was brought into the office—a red satchel. Opening the satchel I asked him to look into it; says I, "Jackson, what is in this satchel; look." He says, "There is nothing." Says I, "Did you observe anything unusual?" and I called his attention to some blood that was on the inside of the satchel. He says, "I did not notice that before." I asked him whether he had opened it; he says, "Yes; I took part of Pearl Bryan's clothing on Saturday evening on the Suspension Bridge and threw it overboard into the Ohio River."
He furthermore described a meeting between Jackson and Walling in his presence in the course of which Walling and Jackson accused each other of having murdered Pearl Bryan. The witness also repeated a conversation between the two that took place in a peculiarly constructed cell, called "The Sensitive Cell." A telephone attachment connected this cell with other apartments in the building, hence its name. This part of the testimony was ruled out by the court.
The defense began its testimony by placing Scott Jackson on the stand. All the man's natural shrewdness came to his aid while on the stand. His words were clear, frankly spoken and there was no hesitation in his manner. He acted the innocent man to perfection.
There is little about his testimony that is very remarkable or startling as he disclaims all the manner of knowledge of Pearl Bryan's death. Neither does he accuse anyone of the murder. He merely adheres to his theory that Walling is guilty—that is all. He maintains that Walling was confused and panic stricken when he saw the articles in the newspapers describing the finding of the body at Fort Thomas. Then it was, says Jackson, that they hastened to get rid of all the effects belonging to Pearl Bryan which were in their possession. He also maintained that Wood sent the girl to Cincinnati and that finding her here he tried to hit upon means of best taking care of her.
He concluded to allow her to remain at the Indiana House temporarily until he could secure her private accommodations. As these could easily be had he took her valise and started away to hunt for convenient quarters. That is how he happened to have Pearl Bryan's effects in his keeping.