No questions are allowed to be asked of talesmen as to their religion, politics, social relationships as Masons, Odd Fellows and the like, or the degree of proof which they would require. Consequently it takes not more than five to ten minutes to examine each talesman, and the jury is usually selected in from two to three hours. I come now to the important matter in regard to the trial, and that is the guilt of the prisoner. The allegation of the District At torney was, that Pitezel was killed on Sunday morning, September 2, 1894, by chloroform poisoning. His body was found on Tuesday morning, September 4, on the second floor of the house which he alone occupied, but the surrounding conditions showed that he died on the third floor, and was dragged down after death to the second floor. The belief of the District Attorney was that Pitezel was drunk when Holmes chloroformed him, but this was not proved until Holmes, by ques tions which he put to the coroner's physician, convinced every one that Pitezel was drunk at the time. When the body was found partial decomposition had taken place. The clothing and part of the skin was burned. Alongside the body was a broken quart bottle which emitted the odor of benzine. The broken pieces of the bottle were on the inside of it, instead of being scattered on the floor as they would have been if the bottle had been exploded instead of collapsed, and the ashes of burned paper were on the cork. There was a corncob pipe full of tobacco not used and a burned match stick alongside the body. All this was done to make it appear that Pitezel was accidentally killed by an ex plosion. The coroner's physician said the cause of death was chloroform poisoning, that he found a quantity of chloroform in the stomach of the deceased, and that it was put in after death, as the stomach was not irri tated and there was no inflammation or con
gestion of the oesophagus as there would have been if chloroform had been injected during life. How the chloroform was put into the stomach was shown by Holmes' examination of the coroner's physician. Holmes' questions were based on his knowl edge of the manner in which the chloroform was injected, and convinced every one who heard the questions, that he was proving those facts which Holmes knew and the District Attorney believed to be the facts, but which he could not prove. For instance, Holmes was inquiring of the physician the various ways of getting chloroform into the stomach, and put this question : "I am very particular for your answer on this point . . . Was there anything in the con dition of the stomach at the time you made your examination to preclude the possibility, at least, of the chloroform that you found there at that time having entered by dropping into the mouth and passing down through the throat or oesophagus into the stomach? "Answer. Such could have been the case before rigor mortis had taken place. "Cross-Question. Is it possible if the mouth had been filled at the time of death or within an hour or two, that it could have passed down into the stomach? "Answer. There is such a possibility." These questions and . answers convinced every one that Pitezel had not swallowed the chloroform and thus killed himself, but that it was put into his stomach after death. The next matter of inquiry was the condi tion of Pitezel immediately before his death. Was he drunk, and therefore in a condition to be stealthily killed by chloroform? This matter was settled by Holmes' questions to the coroner's physician. There was evidence that Pitezel had bought a pint of whiskey on the Saturday night before the Sunday on which he was supposed to have been killed,
