joint occupancy of the house because he suspected his friend of "questionable habits." (Did the cock crow thrice?)

The prosecuting attorney conducted the case admirably in an effort to obtain a conviction, but unfortunately his chief witnesses, two airman of the Air Base to whom Mahon had talked the night of the murder, were so uncooperative they drew the rebuke of the presiding judge, who threatened to have them indicted for perjury. These two witnesses had made signed statements to the police shortly after the murder, but at the trial they tried to repudiate some of this testimony. One statement said Mahon had returned to the base with a cigarette lighter, silver fingernail file, door key, chain and money clip, in addition to $23 in cash, all of which the witness said Mahon claimed to have gotten from the victim. The testimony of these two witnesses conflicted not only with one another, but with the signed statements previously given by them to the police. The one fact that seemed to emerge from the conflicting testimony was that Mahon had bragged about having knocked out the victim and having obtained considerable "loot" off him.

It was never satisfactorily explained during the trial what the airman was doing in the downtown Charleston barrooms late at night dressed in dungarees and leather jacket-the costume favored by male prostitutes on the make-nor why, when "improper" advances had been made by Dobbins, Mahon had not walked out of the house as he so easily might have done if he had wished. He even had the door key in his pocket.

The defense lawyers were reluctant to put the defendant on the witness stand and did so only after their efforts to obtain a direct verdict of not guilty failed. In summing up, one of the defense lawyers ended his speech

with the corny, but effective, plea: "Give back this mother her wonderful son. Give back the Air Force its excellent soldier. Give back this young man his future and his self respect.'

The jury retired to consider its verdict at 8:00 p.m. of the third day of the trial. At 12:45 a.m., after the jury had returned once to ask about certain evidence and to rehear certain testimony, the judge called the jury to the courtroom and according to news reports told them: "We've had this trial and you are here to get a verdict the truth-in this case. If the state is entitled to a verdict in this case it is entitled to it tonight. If the defendant is entitled to a verdict he is entitled to it tonight."

Thus prodded into action by the judge, the jury at 1:10 a.m. filed into the courtroom and announced the verdict: Not Guilty. It was an emotional moment. "Wonderful boy" Mahon fell into his mother's arms; the teenage audience (what a splendid example for them, who some day might also want to defend their virtue --or need a little extra spending money) burst into applause; and the airman's commanding officer, who with his wife had sat behind the defendant throughout the trial, presumably to give him moral support, rushed forward with congratulations. Nor was that all; the top sergeant of Mahon's company climaxed the ceremony with notification that the airman would be granted leave immediately so that he might return to his home in Michigan for the holidays. All that was lacking was a Purple Heart award to a gallant soldier who had defended his outraged innocence via the murder route.

A bright and merry Christmas was in prospect for all-all, that is, except Jack Dobbins who would spend his Christmas six feet under the sod with a shattered skull. But then, of course, Jack used lavender sheets!

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