The Meller Murder Trial: A Widower’s Sobs and a Defendant’s Blank Stare

George Craemer, charged with the murder of Mrs. Meller on August 15 last year, was yesterday given over to the second day of interest and curiosity at the impaneling of the jury that will try him before Judge Humes. Among the crowd that gathered in the court room were many women. When Craemer was brought before the bar the first face upon which his eyes could rest was John Meller, husband of the murdered woman. He avoided Meller's glance; only once during the day did he look toward him. Craemer sat quietly in his seat, planted squarely on the spot, and his hands clasped in his lap. He looked fixedly before him, and almost the only movement noticeable was a slight twitching of the fingers. His face gave evidence of confinement.

Meller sat near the rail on the south of the center gate. Near him were his two little girls, Annie, aged 6, and Lizzie, aged 4, both dressed in black. Ludwig Kaudi, one of the lodgers at Meller's house, sat a short distance away, and the entire half circle inside the bar was lined with friends of the murdered woman. Meller sometimes clenched the handkerchief in one hand and at times seemed deeply affected by references to the tragedy. Mrs. Craemer sat beside her husband.

The jury was not completed till last night. The work of impaneling proceeded slowly. When the case was called, Nels Roderberg, for the defense, moved for a continuance on the ground that Jack Rainey, the man who Craemer says paid him the money in Tacoma the day the murders were committed, had gone into the mountains and had not yet been subpoenaed. The motion was overruled. W. Humphrey was appointed associate counsel for the defense by Judge Humes.

In examining jurymen the defense closely questioned them as to whether they had followed the murders as reported in the newspapers. John E. Risedorph, of Kent, lawyer, judge, Grand Army man and journalist, was put on the stand. 'If you were charged with murder as this defendant is,' Attorney Roderberg asked, 'and your life were intrusted to twelve men who think as you do, would you feel willing to have them try your case?' Mr. Risedorph quickly replied: 'If I could get twelve men who think as I do to sit on my case, I should think myself pretty lucky.' A titter went around the court room at this sally. Mr. Risedorph was excused by Prosecuting Attorney Miller.

After the jury had been completed, Prosecuting Attorney Miller, without going into the details of the crime, stated the case. When he told how the lifeless and mutilated body of the woman had been dragged into the center room and the finding of the baby Fritz by Jennie Clark, Mrs. Craemer for an instant looked fearfully at her husband, and at the same time Meller's frame shook convulsively, and he sobbed aloud. Then the attorney, pointing to the defendant, said: 'And we propose to show you, gentlemen of the jury, that suspicion connects the man sitting yonder with the crime.'

Craemer sat all this time apparently unmoved. He did not lift his eyes, nor shift his foot, nor change his position in the chair. He sat bolt upright, as if in a strait-jacket. Referring to the hammer with which the murder was committed, Mr. Miller said: 'We will prove that the hammer belonged to the defendant in this case. We will prove that the end sawed off was found in his house; that a saw was found there, and that the peculiarities of the saw teeth conform to the scratches on the handle of the hammer.' Continuing, the prosecuting attorney said the detectives had searched Craemer's lots and yard so thoroughly that hardly a blade remained unexplained, and then told of the discovery of $100 in a cigar box and the defendant's efforts to explain away his supposed connection with the crime by the story of being absent in Tacoma the day the murders were committed. Mr. Miller said: 'We will show that the defendant was in Seattle at 11 o'clock and at 3 o'clock and at other hours all day of the murder; further, that within a few minutes after Meller left his house for town Craemer left the house, and that not earlier he was seen shaking the brush or picking berries near the house. They recognized him and then he jumped up and ran away.'