The South Seattle Cabin Murder Goes to Trial

A full jury was secured in the case of the state vs. William A. Wilcox yesterday afternoon, and the statement of facts was commenced by Mr. Wilshire at 4 p.m., when Judge Humes ordered an adjournment until 9:30 o'clock this morning. Before the jury was secured, thirty men had been examined, exhausting the regular panel and requiring three special venires. At 2:45 yesterday afternoon a special venire of twelve men was issued, at 3:15 another was issued for five more, and at the last, calling for two men. Of these the first one was James Bogart, and he was retained on the jury.

From the outset Messrs. Winstock and Pillsbury, for the defense, manifested a disposition to fight up and down the line as hard as they knew how. They made three distinct motions for continuance, on the grounds respectively of the absence of material testimony and of surprise in the court allowing the state to indorse additional names on the information. They then successively moved to quash the panel of jurors, filed a demurrer to the information, entered the plea of former jeopardy, and, on the state filing an answer, demurred to the answer. The motion to quash the panel was based on the fact that the jurors had been selected under the old law after the new law had gone into effect, and the defense now claims confidently that it has error charged up to the state.

The jury finally selected, after numerous challenges, is made up as follows: E. A. Shipley, J. F. Byrne, F. P. Wentworth, J. W. Rosen, C. H. Knapp, H. M. Wright, A. S. Miller, T. J. Hartley, Charles Pike, Charles E. Love, D. M. Simonson.

Mr. Wilshire, in stating the case to the jury, rapidly reviewed the circumstances of the Kings as they lived in their little cabin on the South Seattle hillside prior to September 4, 1895, the day of the murder. He spoke of the visit of James King and Wilcox to this city on the fateful Labor Day; detailed the movements of King and his companion; and, after a recital of the plans of Wilcox and King formulated in the Hunter's Home at Tacoma to go into the shingle business on money they hoped to borrow from the aged woman and her son, spoke of the bottle of chloroform, and finally the terrible revelation to the son when he reached home in the early morning and found his mother lying dead with two handkerchiefs thrust down her throat and a stocking tied tightly over her mouth and about her neck.

Wilcox was quite at ease all day long, and looked extremely hopeful. He sat between his attorneys, and oft-times took part in their consultations. Behind him was his sister, Emma Wilcox, who arrived the night before last from Montague, Mich.—a tall, pleasant-faced young woman, who watches every move with most intense interest, and shows in her manner the anxiety she feels for her brother's welfare. It is related that a few days ago she and her mother telegraphed to the accused man, asking if he would rather have her come, or would take the money to apply to his defense, and that he asked her by all means to come.

At the close of the day's proceedings, the defense required that the jury be kept together. The witnesses, of whom there is a small army, then filed out. Prosecuting Attorney Hastie thinks the trial will be finished easily the present week.