Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 1

Chapter 13

A Corrupter of Thought

‘I

T’S not only the accumulation of facts that threatens my

client with ruin, gentlemen of the jury,’ he began, ‘what

is really damning for my client is one fact — the dead body

of his father. Had it been an ordinary case of murder you

would have rejected the charge in view of the triviality, the

incompleteness, and the fantastic character of the evidence,

if you examine each part of it separately; or, at least, you

would have hesitated to ruin a man’s life simply from the

prejudice against him which he has, alas! only too well de-

served. But it’s not an ordinary case of murder, it’s a case of

parricide. That impresses men’s minds, and to such a degree

that the very triviality and incompleteness of the evidence

becomes less trivial and less incomplete even to an unpreju-

diced mind. How can such a prisoner be acquitted? What

if he committed the murder and gets off unpunished? That

is what everyone, almost involuntarily, instinctively, feels

at heart.

‘Yes, it’s a fearful thing to shed a father’s blood — the fa-

ther who has begotten me, loved me, not spared his life for

me, grieved over my illnesses from childhood up, troubled