Illinois Trial

There was a strange trial at Benton, Ill., last week. Three men-- Charles Birger, Art Newman and Ray Hyland, gangsters all--were on trial for murder. The state claimed that they had paid Harry Thomasson, 19, and Elmo Thomasson, 17, $50 apiece to kill Mayor Joe Adams of West City, Ill., last winter (TIME, Feb. 21). The jury was chosen, the prosecution made its case, it was time for the defense to offer its testimony. But, one after the other, attorneys for Messrs. Birger, Newman and Hyland announced that their clients would not testify. Neither did they offer any other witnesses. It was a trial without any defense.* Then the jury filed out, returned, announced its decisions: the gallows for Charles Birger; life imprisonment for Art Newman, Ray Hyland. Failure of the defendants to testify resulted from the fact that Messrs. Birger and Newman had so little confidence in each other that they expected Birger testimony to convict Newman and Newman testimony to convict Birger. Mr. Hyland, a subordinate to the other defendants, accepted their policy of silence. Thus out fell thieves and honest men prospered. The State's case rested chiefly upon the evidence of Harry Thomasson, who confessed that he and his brother had killed Mayor Adams, but had acted in the employ of Messrs. Birger and Newland. On the night of Dec. 12, 1926, Mr. Thomasson said, he and his brother drove up to the home of Mayor Adams in a car driven by Mr. Hyland. They rang Mr. Adams doorbell, shot and killed him when he opened the door. Another witness testified that the bullets were poisoned so that any wound would prove fatal.

If, as appeared almost certain, Mr. Birger hangs for the Adams murder, his death will be the 21st fatality resulting since April, 1926 from warfare in and around Williamson County, Ill.

* Except cross examination of state witnesses and the lawyers' summing up.