The Art of Cross-Examination Part 20

_Counsel._ "Was he also married to this sixteen-year-old girl?"

_Witness_ (no answer).

_Counsel_ (pointedly at witness). "Was he married to this girl also?"

_Witness._ "Why, no."

_Counsel._ "You say you were married to her. Give me the date of your marriage."

_Witness_ (hesitating). "I don't remember the date."

_Counsel._ "How many years ago was it?"

_Witness._ "I don't remember."

_Counsel._ "How many years ago was it?"

_Witness._ "I couldn't say."

_Counsel._ "What is your best memory as to how many years ago it was?"

_Witness._ "I can't recollect."

_Counsel._ "Try to recollect about when you were married."

_Witness._ "I was married twice, civil marriage and church marriage."

_Counsel._ "I am talking about Miss Sadie Cook. When were you married to Sadie Cook, and where is the marriage recorded?"

_Witness._ "I tell you I don't remember."

_Counsel._ "Try."

_Witness._ "It might be five or six or seven or ten years ago."

_Counsel._ "Then you cannot tell within five years of the time when you were married, and you are now only twenty-five years old?"

_Witness._ "I cannot."

_Counsel._ "Were you married at fifteen years of age?"

_Witness._ "I don't think I was."

_Counsel._ "You know, do you not, that your marriage was several years after this arrest in Bridgeport that I have been speaking to you about?"

_Witness._ "I know nothing of the kind."

_Counsel_ (resolutely). "Do you deny it?"

_Witness_ (hesitating). "Well, no, I do not deny it."

_Counsel._ "I hand you now what purports to be the certificate of your marriage, three years ago. Is the date correct?"

_Witness._ "I never saw it before."

_Counsel._ "Does the certificate correctly state the time and place and circ.u.mstances of your marriage?"

_Witness._ "I refuse to answer the question on the ground that it would incriminate my wife."

The theory on which the defence was being made was that the witness, Minnock, had manufactured the story which he had printed in the paper, and later swore to before the grand jury and at the trial. The effort in his cross-examination was to show that he was the kind of man who would manufacture such a story and sell it to the newspapers, and afterward, when compelled to do so, swear to it in court.

Counsel next called the witness's attention to many facts tending to show that he had been an eye-witness to adultery in divorce cases, and on both sides of them, first on one side, then on the other, in the same case, and that he had been at one time a private detective. Men whom he had robbed and blackmailed and cheated at cards were called from the audience, one after another, and he was confronted with questions referring to these charges, all of which he denied in the presence of his accusers. The presiding judge having stated to the counsel in the hearing of the witness that although he allowed the witness to be brought face to face with his alleged accusers, yet he would allow no contradictions of the witness on these collateral matters. Minnock's former defiant demeanor immediately returned.

The next interrogatories put to the witness developed the fact that, feigning insanity, he had allowed himself to be taken to Bellevue with the hope of being transferred to Ward's Island, with the intention of finally being discharged as cured, and then writing sensational newspaper articles regarding what he had seen while an inmate of the public insane asylums; that in Bellevue Hospital he had been detected as a malingerer by one of the attending physicians, Dr. Fitch, and had been taken before a police magistrate where he had stated in open court that he had found everything in Bellevue "far better than he had expected to find it," and that he had "no complaint to make and nothing to criticise."

The witness's mind was then taken from the main subject by questions concerning the various conversations had with the different nurses while in the asylum, all of which conversations he denied. The interrogatories were put in such a way as to admit of a "yes" or "no" answer only.

Gradually coming nearer to the point desired to be made, the following questions were asked:--

_Counsel._ "Did the nurse Gordon ask you why you were willing to submit to confinement as an insane patient, and did you reply that you were a newspaper man and under contract with a Sunday paper to write up the methods of the asylum, but that the paper had repudiated the contract?"

_Witness._ "No."

_Counsel._ "Or words to that effect?"

_Witness._ "No."

Counsel. "I am referring to a time subsequent to your discharge from the asylum, and after you had returned to take away your belongings. Did you, at that time, tell the nurse Gordon that you had expected to be able to write an article for which you could get $140?"

_Witness._ "I did not."

_Counsel._ "Did the nurse say to you, 'You got fooled this time, didn't you?' And did you reply, 'Yes, but I will try to write up something and see if I can't get square with them!'"

_Witness._ "I have no memory of it."

_Counsel._ "Or words to that effect?"

_Witness._ "I did not."

All that preceded had served only as a veiled introduction to the next important question.

_Counsel_ (quietly). "At that time, as a matter of fact, did you know anything you could write about when you got back to the _Herald_ office?"

_Witness._ "_I knew there was nothing to write._"

_Counsel._ "Did you know at that time, or have any idea, what you would write when you got out?"

_Witness._ "Did I at that time know? _Why, I knew there was nothing to write._"

_Counsel_ (walking forward and pointing excitedly at the witness).