HYPNOTISING THE JURY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 80, 25 August 1914, Page 7

HYPNOTISING THE JURY.

LATEST AMERICAN "N01I0X." CROWD IN COURT SETTLUS l-MSOX-ER'S FAT]':. At 1/akcport, C:ilifornia, on July 1, Arthur Fitzgerald was tried for complicity in the killing of Ila.mli.i .Uerrul;, a pioneer resident of Lake County and' Wolls-Fargo Express agent at Midd'.eton, on May C. A trio of mounted men rode up to llwrirk'H store one evenir.t', covered him and his brothers wil.V revolvers, and proceeded to rob tin. place. Hamlin iicrrick made a of resistance. and was shot, dead. Tin.' bandits then lied to the hills. Tlio.v were pursued by posses of depnty-sherill's, and for day's the story of t'lite man limit absorbed tilie attention of the whole state. Finally young Fitzgerald was taken captive, but the o)l<ber 'two men escaped. Feeling ran high in Lake Ooiiiilv against the jwiaoner. The slain mail \ias known to almost every resident of the county. His death had been a great sulfation,' and flcrcals had been openly made of lynching the slayers if they were caught, An'angry crowd surrounded the gaol when voting Fitzgerald was brought in. Stones were 'hurled and windows in the bastille were broken. An 'extra force of deputy-sheriffs was put on guard to prevent violence. 'And vet, in this liioatile community, a verdict of life imprisonment was returned, instead of tiho usual death penalty. When Fitzgerald's mother beard of her son's predicament, she went to see Attorney 'Prink Murphy, and pleaded with li'.'lp her. "Milit- sentf- . ong against liim," he =ai't. "I am aiihey will vole to h-ing ■him. Nevertheless, he proceeded as best as lie could with plans for the, defi nee. and Pa,trick Jourdain, tia attorney at Lakeport. volunteered bis services to help Melvin E. Yan Dine, an attorney aviated with Murnhy, who agreed to take c'liiarge of Hie <mm ;or nothing. After familiarising ihtaself with the situation, he admitted 'to nn frien.l that he had scant hope of saving his new client.

Jourdain is a Christian Scientist. , When Van Dine reported to .Murphy 'that Jourdain had volunteered to he I;. Murphy was ela.ted. "Hy all means let him assist you in the'ease," he told Van l>ine. "Ami have him take aH his Christian Science friend,, into llu> 'ourt * will* Win, and let them put out ■the thought, Don't kill this ho v. Ihm't take his life.' Jourdain readily consented ': 0 do this. The ea.se wa.< tried and pleaded, ami finally submitted to 'the jurv. Ail the while the Oil lis tin n {-'dentists sat in 11)8 courtroom, with their minds 'ixed upon. the plea, "Don't kill him.' And When the jury, made, up of men who had known tin- murdered 1 man from cliikUu od, and who were 'Used to the rude justice of the eai'iy Califoriwiil days, returned its verdict, it recommended life imprisonment instead of death. An extraordinary alte-aipi to influence tl.e jury by meatus of mental telepathy is now .he in" iti'.uU; in Chicago by the Suffragist inu'tv. An Italian named Albert Pet res now being tried by a Chicago jury for the alleged murder of Theresa IlolandtT, his sweetheart, and it is in this trial that the Suffragists are seeking to interfere by silmfc ; i-r----suasion. The murder of Theresa llolandcr was rather a brutal one, and as she was a hard-working laundry girl, the woman Suffragists 'tool; up ier case, and were largely instrumental I»i 'having Petros, against whom there was oirt l.m.stantial evidence of the crime, arrested. With business-like application the women proposed to see the matter through, and as there is a fear that Petros may not he convicted, a;, the evidence is slight, thirty cr forty of the women daily attend the court, a.id "mentally concentrate their thoughts," with a view to iniluimcting the jury to convict Hie man. The Chicago .'Miffragiists have also issued a request to all the women Suffragists throughout the nation to- join tiiem at stated hours, and by means of mental telepathy to "help to convict this monster who lias murdered our sister.'-'