SMUTTYNOSE MURDER TRIAL (continued)

Question: While he was there, was that lounge occupied as a sleeping place?
Answer: No sir, there was not anybody slept on the lounge.

Question: Do you know whether Karen had a piece of silver money?
Answer: Yes, she had that. I saw that, I cannot tell, October or or November, somewheres between there. The silver was a halfdollar piece. She got that from boarders at Hog Island. She said that to me. Objected

Question: Where did she keep that half-dollar?
Answer: In her purse.

Question: When did you see that purse last, before she was killed?
Answer: I saw that purse that afternoon.

Question: What else, if anything, was there in that purse that afternoon? (Objected)

Court: What else did you see?

Question: That is what I asked her. What did you see in that purse that afternoon?
Answer: She had money in there.

Question: What kind?
Answer: She had lots of copper money, and I gave her ten cents to buy me braid. She was going into Portsmouth, and Anethe gave her three-quarters of dollars, and she said. (Objected)

Question: Beside the money, did you see her put anything else in her pocket-book that afternoon?
Answer: Yes.

Question: What was it?
Answer: A button, white button-like.

Question: Have you any articles of clothing, with similar buttons upon it?
Answer: Yes, have got some.

Question: Where was the button taken from, if you know?
Answer: From my sewing basket.

Question: State what was done with the button, how did it come there?
Answer: She wanted a button. I was sitting down to sew at the table, and she wanted a button and asked me. (Obj.)

Question: Not that, what you did.
Answer: She took the sewing basket and looked for a button, and took a button there and handed it to Karen.

Question: Who took it from the basket?
Answer: Anethe, and handed it to Karen, and Karen put it in her purse.

Question: Have you any buttons similar to that?
Answer: Yes, have them with me. (At the request of County Attorney, witness produces buttons).

Question: Where did you get these buttons?
Answer: Got them in my sewing basket, found one in the basket and two in my box that I have always kept in my sewing basket. I have a night dress with similar buttons upon it. (Witness produces night dress.) On this night dress are six buttons of this white kind and one odd one. Karen had some small pieces of silver, cannot tell what they were, she had them in her hand, they were about the size of a five cent piece. I have in my hands Karen's travelling bag. That night it was left on table along beside the lounge. Karen took her purse down and fixed some things and put them into the bag to carry with her when she was to go to Portsmouth. I never have been onto the island since. I first saw the bag about a forthnight or three weeks after this occurrence; the lock was broken then.

Yeaton for State: We offer both the night dress and the buttons produced here; (Obj.)

Court. I do not perceive at present, how they are connected with the matter sufficiently to admit them.

Yeaton: We will connect them hereafter and offer them again.

Question by Court. What relation are you to Anethe and Karen?

Answer: Anethen married my brother, and Karen was my own sister. Anethe's whole name was Anethe Christensen: she had no middle name.

Cross-examination by Mr. Tapley.

Question: Where in that room was this man standing when you first saw him?
Answer: Right by the window, next outside the door; cannot tell the dress he had on, had short clothes on, can give no other description of the dress he had on; saw him in that room once; did not see the man when he struck me. I had my back towards him. I saw he grabbed a chair. When I saw the man out of doors, cannot tell the color of the short cloths he had on. He had a hat on his head, some kind of dark hat, short hat with a wide rim; did not see his face.

Question: How long was he in your sight, when you were looking out of the window?
Answer: He was stopping a moment outside of the window. And then went away.

Question: You spoke nothing to the man?
Answer: No , sir.

Transcript courtesy of Portsmouth Athenaeum. Transcribed for digital use on SeacoastNH.com by Phyllis Robinson. Introductory content copyright © 2001 SeacoastNH.com. All rights reserved.