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•r trBy TOM COPE ,(Mm Tribune AssocUle Editor}MIAMI—The man up there on the wllncsg stand sounds dull as a metronome — lick-tock, lick* Cock. But whs I ho says could send two people la the electric chair Ml Halford.This is t'dward Bart Diehl, a, the ex-con from San Francisco, and he is the? second man to- 'swear under-oath that Melvin . S Lane Powers Axu “ offered money to tune his boss, \m I t 1 i o n- Cops aire Jacques Mossier, exterminated.When ho came Into the court, Diehl seemed tallish, on the thin side, a narrow man wearing a sweater over a white shirt. Now all the reporters see beyond Ihc judge's bench is Diehl's head as he Mis in the bo* answering tlie prosecutor's questions. U is a narrow head, with large ears and colorless eyes in deep sockets. The voice, too, is colorless, almost dispirited and his manner casual—even when he is asked to point out Powers and his alleged incestuous mis. tress,.Aunt Candace Mossier.Ht I* tht first ifitfl witness who will ti# thoit two with knots of testimony Rial th* logtf HoudJnt from Houston, Percy Foreman and his associates may or may not ba able to untangle.Tills is the scene that all these-people have been living in advance for month on months— some with nervous expectation, sonic no doubt with deep ami sleepless worry, perhaps with a terror worse than any migraine headache.Mel Powers looked dully back at Bart when Uie ex-con pointed the finger at him, and Candy kopl a frozen face. Then, as the lawyers started raising a storm of objections, she gave Mel a long, studying look behind their backs.The three prosecutors at one table, and the defendants and their six lawyers at two others, form a line facing the judge.Powers sits or. the etvd of one table, hq am*s length away from the man who wants to send him to the chair, State’s Attorney Richard Genleln. ,At fha ftft of Mtl sits hit thru lawyers and one of Cindy's — four men heavy enough hr football, They fend to block the view between aunt and nephew, whoi* eyes it Idem meet,.Today Mel has been intent on Uie jury from the outset. It started out as a chill day and also a day of colds. Squalls of coughing sometimes made H dif-ficul? to follow the testimony. Several of the newsmen cough* eii, Percy Foreman coughed with tremendous power, the lady lawyer Marian Rosen coughed sympathetically and the people jamming the spectator benches —about as many mei) as women, craning their necks. The young men and old girls—Ihcir eyes glittering when the four-letler words came out — set up n regular chorus of coughing.Dy the time Diehl got on the stand, which was In mtdaftor-noon, things had quieted down 1 and even though he spoke low—. being unable or unwilling to talk directly into the mike—it was possible for most of the people there to hear him swear:That when he and Mel were building a corral fence on the Mossier ranch outside Galveston In 1964 Mel said there’s $5,000MMaiprosle?JovherJaecKOmofs;Cio:
Newspaper Details
Fort Pierce News Tribune
Fort Pierce, Florida, US
Tue, Feb 08, 1966
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Ronald S.
USA 25 Apr 2017
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