TRIAL OF ARBUOKLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18444, 4 January 1922, Page 8

TRIAL OF ARBUOKLE

THE CLOSING SCENES. DELIBERATIONS OF JURY. ONE WOMAN STANDS OUT. Further details of the closing scenes in the trial of Eoseoe Arhuekle, the film comedian, on, a charge of the manslaughter of Miss Virginia Rappo, are to hand. A San Francisco correspondent, ■writing under date December 4, says:— After 40 hours’ deliberation, the Arhuekle jury filed into Judge Harold Louderback’s 'court at 10 minutes after 12 this afternoon, announced it could not agree upon a verdict, and was discharged. August Fritzo, foreman of the panel, announced that “many, many ballots” had been taken, and that the last ballot showed ten to two. The jurors, questioned after their discharge, declared that had it not been fer Mrs Helen Hubbard they would have returned in 10 minutes with a verdict of not guilty. Mrs Hubbard voted for conviction on every ballot, they declare. Nothing they could say or do would sway her. She would listen to no argument, would discuss no part of the evidence. “ She simply said she would vote ‘guilty’ for ever,” said one erf the jurors. Thomas Kilkenny also voted for conviction on numerous ballots, but it is said he voted so in the hope of gaining Mrs Hubbard’s confidence and then bringing her over to the other side. The disagreement was a blow to Arbuckle and to his wife, his mother-in-law, and other relatives, who have been present all through the trial. But it was expected. It came with no thrills whatsoever. The foreman of the _ jury made the announcement, and each juror was questioned by the judge. Each gave it as his opinion that it was “morally and physically impossible for them to reach an agreement.” The judge thanked them and discharged them. Arbuckle rolled a brown paper cigarette, waited until the judge had said that it would be impossible to try him again before January 9, and the opposition had agreed to the date, then lit his cigarette and got up. “MY CONSCIENCE IS CLEAR.” .-Deputy District Attorney Milton Uhren yvalked over to 'Attorney Gavin M‘Nab, jArbu Okie's chief counsel, and held out his hand. “I just want to congratulate your client on his gameness,” he said. Arbuckle, who was standing beside his counsel, said: “I’m game because my conscience isclear, ’ much cleaver than yours, Mr Uhren.”' Out in the corridor Brennan was near to tears. Ho talked, too, about the tactics of the opposition, for the benefit of Mr Uhren’s ears. Friends rushed him down the corridor before ho had said too much. Outside the hall of justice, Mrs Arbuckle stood with her mother. Mrs Flora Durfce, and with some other friends. “The poor boy,” she said. “He’ll have to go through it all again.” Arbuckle, in the office of his attorneys, made the following statement:— “ While this is not a legal _ acquittal, through a technicality, I feel it is a mpral one. But for one woman on the jury 6f 13, who refused to fellow-jurors to discuss the evidence or to reason with her, and who would give no explanation for her attitude, my trial would have resulted in an immediate acquittal.” By the “ jury of 13 ” Arbuckle meant that 12 out of 13 had been for him. Tile thirteenth juror, who heard all the evidence, but was not allowed to vote, declared that he would have, acquitted Arbuckle if he could. “ After the organised propaganda designed to make the securing of an impartial jury an impossibility and to prevent my obtaining a fair trial,” the statement continues. “I feel gratefld for this message from the jury.” , EARLIER DECISION ANTICIPATED. That an earlier decision by the iury was anticipated is shown by the fact that after it had been out only a little over four hours the court was crowded with thoso anxious to ascertain the result of this remarkable trial. It was reported at 11 o’clock on the first evening that the jury had taken its seventh ballot, that one woman was standing out for conviction, and Deputy Sheriff Harry M'Govern announced that the jurors would bo taken to their hotel. It was a groat (disappointment to the crowds of hundreds of men and women who packed- the court room and the corridor outside. It was a blow to the defendant, and to his wife, Minta Durfee Arbuckle. All that afternoon, from the time the jury filed out until it went to lunch at 6 o’clock, Mrs Durfee sat motionless, waiting,' one hand held to her forehead, the other held in that of a friend. Her head was bent,,her eyes were closed. When the jury came back, after 8 o’clock, Mrs Arbuckle was feeling better. She laughed and chatted with friends, and told stories of “ Fatty,” watching him as he talker! with various knots of people. “ Fatty ” was confident during the early hours of the vigil, that the jury would come filing in presently, bearing a verdict of acquittal. He talked and laughed, smoked brown paper cigarettes of his own rolling, sat in the/jury box sat in the witness chair, sat in the judge’s chair, asserted over and over again that he wasn’t getting “any kick” out of this, that all thrills were exhausted after he had told his story. But as the night Wore on and the jury continued to stay in • the jury room, l the comedian grow sombre, ceased to Inijgh, ceased to talk much, smoked incessantly, went out often squeezing his girth through the dense crowds in the doorway.