Midnight Assassin by Patricia L. Bryan

Author:Patricia L. Bryan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2005-04-16T04:00:00+00:00

12.

It must be admitted, however, that the prosecution has not thus far furnished any direct evidence and it is extremely doubtful if the chain of circumstantial evidence thus far offered will be sufficient to eliminate all doubt of the defendant’s guilt from the minds of the jurors. Unless more positive evidence of threats or desire on the part of the defendant to get rid of her husband are offered, it begins to look like the defense will be able to sustain its claim of easy acquittal.

On the other hand, however, it is known the state has not by any means exhausted its efforts and it is claimed by the prosecuting attorney that the best evidence is yet to come. The prosecution was never more confident of securing a conviction. —SUSAN GLASPELL, in the Des Moines Daily News, April 4, 1901

ON THURSDAY MORNING, Clammer turned to a topic that had generated intense speculation in the community ever since the murder: the blood and the hairs on the ax.

The public knew that reports from the men who’d found the alleged murder weapon differed. Had both the blade and the handle been covered with fresh blood and hairs, or were there only a few spots of old blood on the handle and a few hairs stuck to the blade? Of course, people understood that blood and hairs didn’t necessarily establish the ax as the murder weapon, especially given Will’s testimony that he used it to kill a turkey only days before. But experts had analyzed the blood and hairs to determine if they were human or animal, and their conclusions were eagerly anticipated.

Dr. John L. Tilton, professor of natural sciences at Simpson College, was a native New Englander with a distinctive accent. His manner of speech was unfamiliar to most Midwesterners. Tilton was, however, widely respected as a teacher with a great deal of scientific training. A former student described him as “precise to the finest point, sometimes bookishly theoretical.”

In answer to Clammer’s questions, Professor Tilton explained in long and tedious detail the difficulties of his analysis, stating finally that he had found no satisfactory evidence of human blood. Some of the blood had come from a fowl; Tilton was certain about that. That conclusion was, of course, consistent with Will’s testimony about killing the turkey for Thanksgiving, but established nothing whatsoever about the use of the tool for any other purpose.

Professor Tilton had also studied the hairs. In great detail, he described his analysis of the three hairs from the ax. The first two hairs had characteristics common to dog hair and human hair, while the third was “unlike that of any dog whose hairs I have been able to examine,” justifying his conclusion that “that hair was probably from a human being.” Given that all three hairs were said to come from one source, Tilton said, he thought that they all probably came from a human being.

Were the hairs taken from Hossack’s head from the same human being? In response to Clammer’s question, Tilton conceded that they “could” have come from the same head.

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