ow he was well dressed, the hat was brown, if they ask did he
have a mark on his hand? Say no, he had a ring with a black stone,
how many times did you see him, say that after your work you were
going around Mott Street and you saw me again and how it was eight
o'clock or past eight and you saw me with a handkerchief around my
hand, and you said to me, why I had my hand so. And he answered
that some one struck him, I asked if it hurt much, he said he did
not feel it, did both of you go to drink. No. Where else did
Strollo go, Strollo said he was going at the Bleecker Street Hotel
to sleep, did you see him again. No. Nothing else, if you want to
help me reflect well, but you don't need any more words from me say
just what I have said and I hope, with faith of a brother not a
friend, I am ever your Friend,

A. STROLLO.

It may, and probably will, appear to the reader that a clearer case of
guilt could hardly be established, but the action of juries is always
problematical, and this was a case composed entirely of circumstantial
evidence. The jury would be obliged to find that no reasonable
hypothesis consistent with the innocence of the accused could be
formulated upon the evidence. Thus, even in the face of the facts proven
against him, some "freak" juryman might still have said, "But, after
all, how do you _know_ that Strollo killed him? Some _other_ fellow
might have done it." Even the "faking" of a defence does not prove the
defendant guilty, but merely that he fears conviction, and is ready to
resort to feigned testimony to secure his freedom. Many innocent men
convict themselves in precisely this way.

Accordingly it was by no means with confidence that the People went to
trial, but throughout this remarkable case it seemed as if it must have
been preordained that Strollo should not escape punishment for his
treacherous crime. No defence was possible, not even the partially
prepared alibi was attempted, and the only thing that savored of a
defence was the introduction of a letter alleged to have been received
by the defendant while in the House of Detention, and which, if genuine,
would have apparently established that the crime had been perpetrated by
the "Black Hand."

The offering of this letter was a curious and fatal blunder, for it was
later proven by the People to be in Strollo's own handwriting. It was
his last despairing effort to escape t