222 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [October, 



As usual in such cases the newspapers made the most of the sensa- 

 tion. Both Vail and his wife were well known in the city, and were 

 well, even highly, connected. Upon the face of the evidence adduced 

 at the preliminary examination, as manipulated by the reporters, Vail 

 was presented to the public as a fiend incarnate. He ^vas tried, con- 

 demned, and executed by the newspapers, all of which in the city vied 

 with each other in concocting or unearthing some piece of circumstan- 

 tial evidence that went to prove that Vail had carefully planned the 

 murder months beforehand. The insurance companies employed the 

 best legal talent in the city to aid the public prosecutor, and, as usual 

 in cases where large sums are at stake, detectives, as well as men ready 

 to perjure themselves for a fee, were not wanting. So numerous and 

 apparently well-authenticated were the published reports of former 

 attempts of Vail to murder his young wife that there was scarcely a 

 man, woman, or child in the community that did not look on the pris- 

 oner as the most diabolical of villains. Even I was so firmly convinced 

 of his guilt that I told his attorney when he called upon me for my ser- 

 vices as expert, that I believed his client a monster for whom hanging 

 was too good. Even the eye-witnesses, who at first declared the shoot- 

 ing accidental, had turned against the unfortunate, and now denounced 

 him as a murderer. 



Only his mother and sister, father and brother, and his faithful friend 

 and attorney, Mr. Marshall McDonald, believed in his innocence. 

 Every other human hand was against him. Every other human being 

 clamored for his blood. 



Vail repeatedly told in interviews and otherwise his version of how 

 the tragedy occurred. His pistol, said he, was lying on the bureau in 

 the room which he and his wife had occupied. His overcoat pocket 

 had been ripped in some manner, and his wife had just finished mend- 

 ing it when the wagon for the station was announced. He hastily put 

 the garment on, and picking up the pistol dropped it loosely in the 

 right hand outside pocket, hammer down, and handle upward, intend- 

 ing to change it after they were under way. Unfortunately for him and 

 his wife, however, he did not have the opportunity of doing so. " It 

 struck against the wheel," said he, " and went ofl:'; how, I hardly knew 

 myself. It was very muddy at the time, and the wheels were full of 

 the peculiar clayey soil of the place. If I could get my overcoat, it 

 v\^ould surely show what I say to be true." 



Unfortunately for the prisoner the overcoat had been taken from his 

 possession at the preliminary examination, and was held by the prose- 

 cution, who resolutely refused to allow the defence even to see it, much 

 less to have it in their possession. 



As the time for the trial di'ew near, the attorneys for the defence saw 

 clearly how vital for their cause became the possession of that coat. No 

 one but the prosecuting attorney knevv^ where it was, and he would not 

 tell. ' Finally, Mr. McDonald, theleading counselforthedefence, learned 

 that it was locked up in a certain place in the property I'oom of the 

 Criminal Court, and after he had exhausted all legal forms of getting 

 hold of it, he determined on a desperate course, to wit, to break into 

 that property room and take the coat. It might be burglary, and he 

 might be disbarred and sent to the penitentiary for it, but his client's 

 life hung in the balance, and believing that the end justified the means, 

 he successfully carried out his plan. 



