The court was densely crowded at an early hour.
THEODORE BURDETT, examined by Mr. Dwight, deposed, that he is a policeman belonging to the harbor police; I found a boat about seven o’clock on Thursday, the 22d of March, the day after the sloop was brought up to the city; I found the boat fifty yards to the southward of Fort Richmond; Hickbert and Gresler (the two witnesses) gave me information where I could find the boat; I saw the hostler of the fort; he gave me the oars and half an old boot, and a piece of an old stump of a broom; I went to the sloop and found Mr. Selah Howell, the owner; I showed him the boat as it lay at the slip; he claimed it, and took it away.
To the JUDGE.—This was at the police station.
SAMUEL J. CONOVER deposed—I am a watchmaker, doing business with Mr. Squire, No. 182 Bowery; I remember repairing a watch about a year ago for a person named Burr; it was on the 6th of April, a year ago; it was not Mr. Burr himself who brought it; it was left by a gentleman whom I saw in the court yesterday; the person who left it took it away I presume; it was a double case silver watch; the maker’s name J. Johnson, and the number 21,310. (Looks at the watch.) This is the watch that I repaired; I do not know the guard; I don’t know that I ever saw Capt. Burr.
Cross-examined.—In giving a description of the watch and its number I am aided by a record which we keep at the store; I am pretty sure I made the record before it was repaired; the record is in my handwriting. (The witness was requested to send for the record.)
HART B. WEED, recalled, deposed—That the dark hair produced is what I found in the cabin; this other (the light hair) I found forward of the mast, on the deck in a pool of blood. (Witness here selected and showed out the clothes brought from Providence in the trunk and bag.) I have now a bag in my hand in addition to the things produced yesterday; the contents were taken out of a green chest brought by the officers from Providence.
Cross-examined.—I cannot enumerate all the articles found; I did not find any jewelry; I do not know if any one took a list or description of the articles.
Re-direct examination.—I now recollect that I found the daguerreotype produced yesterday (of a young lady) in the breast pocket of this coat, (a dark frock coat).
HENRY SEAMAN deposed—I reside in Brooklyn; I was acquainted with Capt. Burr for fourteen or fifteen years; I saw him on the Tuesday before he left; I know Capt. Burr’s watch; I had it in my hand on the Tuesday; it was at my house, and he (Capt. Burr) took it away that evening; I recollect leaving Capt. Burr’s watch to be repaired at some store in the Bowery, a year ago last April; I did not go after it again; I know it by its general appearance, and by the guard, and the way the guard is knotted; I knew the sloop Johnson, and its yawl boat; I saw the yawl boat at the police station after the sloop had been towed in to the city; it was on the 22d or 23d of March last; saw the yawl boat on the sloop the time she was here before the last trip; I do not know the prisoner; Captain Burr was a man of about five feet seven or five feet eight inches in height. I found the ship’s papers in the cabin, at the head of the captain’s birth; I gave them to Captain Weed, of the Second Ward station; I knew the Watts boys; Oliver was about five feet nine or ten, and weighed about 180 or 185 pounds; he was the light-haired one; Smith Watts was taller, and weighed about 175 pounds; I do not know Smith Watts’ writing.
Cross-examined.—I had the watch in my hand probably fifteen or twenty minutes; it was on the Tuesday before the Thursday that he sailed; I don’t think I said before the Commissioner that it was the Tuesday week before he sailed; I do not know why I took the watch in my hand; I had no idea that I should be called on to identify it; I left it at Mr. Squire’s store to be repaired; I did not go for the watch; I remember the number of the watch, 21,310; the number was marked down on the boom of my cart by Captain Burr when he gave it to me at foot of Spring street; I did not state that fact before; I have since sold the cart; Captain Burr’s wife and my wife are sisters.
To Mr. DWIGHT—Captain Burr carried the watch for four or five years.
Mr. CONOVER—(recalled and produces the record).—It is as follows:
MR. BURR
D. B. Silver watch,
J. Johnson, Liverpool, 21,310.
Dld.
To prisoner’s counsel.—I can’t say to whom I delivered the watch; my impression is that I delivered it to the gentleman who left it, but I am not certain; it was there about a week.
CATHERINE DICKERSON, a girl about seventeen years of age, deposed: I knew Oliver Watts; I saw him last on the Tuesday of the week he sailed; I do not know the date; I gave him my daguerreotype.
Mr. GRAVES objected to this testimony.
The COURT said he deemed the evidence was proper and important; it had been proved that a daguerreotype was found in a coat, and if the prosecution can prove that that coat belonged to young Watts, and that this is the daguerreotype this witness gave him, it will go far to connect the prisoner with the transaction on board that sloop. The Court thought the evidence not only eminently proper, but very material and important testimony.
Witness continued.—When I gave him the daguerreotype he put it in his coat pocket; I saw that coat since in the District Attorney’s office (coat produced in which Captain Weed found the daguerreotype); I think this is his coat and this the pocket he put it in; he then jumped into the cars (daguerreotype produced); this is the same one I gave him; I don’t remember any of the other clothes of Oliver but the coat.
Cross-examined.—The coat was shown me in the District Attorney’s office; they showed me one coat and asked me if it was Oliver’s, and I said not; they then showed me the other, and I said it was Oliver’s; I identify it from the yellow lining in the sleeves, and the cloth being worn off the button; it was on the sidewalk, right by the cars, I gave Oliver my daguerreotype.
HARRIET ROBINSON (mother of the last witness)—My former husband’s name was Dickerson; I knew Oliver Watts for three or four years; he used to stay at my house when home from sea; he had not all his clothes when at my house last; he had a pair of pants which he took away with him; he wore on that Tuesday his best coat; I should suppose this (the coat in which Captain Weed found the daguerreotype) to be the coat; I know it from the lining, etc.; he said he gave $16 for it; the other I think was his every day coat.
Cross-examined.—Nothing material elicited.
ABBEY HUBBARD deposed—My first husband’s name was Watts; I am the mother of Smith Watts; the last time I saw him was on the 7th of March; he started to go with Captain Burr to Virginia (identifies a portion of the clothes belonging to her son, Smith Watts); I patched this shirt myself; this bag has the initials of my present husband, Lorenzo Hubbard, on it; I put my son’s clothes in it that morning myself; I knew the shirts; I cut them myself, and had them sewed; he was very large, and could not get shirts to fit him; I cut them in the old fashioned way myself; I have had no tidings of him since, only that I suppose he was murdered. (Sensation in court.)
Cross-examined.—I reside at Islip; I am not any relation of Captain Burr’s family, but I was acquainted with him for fourteen or fifteen years.
Re-direct examination.—Witness exhibited further signs in stitches and patches, by which she positively identified her son Smith Watts’ shirt; the pantaloons have a new pocket, which I put in, as he had worn out the other one; all those things that I have identified my son took away with him in the bag which has my husband’s initials on it.
The cross-examination was a mere repetition of her direct testimony.
To Mr. DWIGHT—(Handkerchief produced by officer Nivens, shown to witness)—This was Smith Watts’ handkerchief; I have washed and done it up for him for two years, and never saw one like it.
Mrs. HUBBARD, who gave her testimony clearly, and maintained her self-possession on the witness stand, burst into tears, and continued to weep for some time after she retired from the body of the court.
DIDEME BURR (the widow of Captain Burr, dressed in deep mourning) was called to the stand and deposed—My husband, Captain George H. Burr, left home on the 8th of March last; I have never received any tidings of him since, save in connection with this affair; I think I should know his watch from the case and its general appearance, and by the guard (watch handed to Mrs. Burr); this is the same kind of a case; I should say it is the same watch; he carried it some nine years, as near as I can say; (ship’s articles produced) I think the filling up in this paper is in my husband’s handwriting; I saw some of his clothes in the Second Ward station-house; (Kossuth hat produced) he had a hat like this, which he wore from home; this was his shirt; he took this from home with him; I know it by a piece across it, which he put in himself, on board the sloop; those pantaloons I think were his; the suspenders are precisely like those he had on when he went away; he had a vest the same cut and color of this produced; he did not have it home with him the last time; I could not say positively, but I think it is his; this black handkerchief was his; I hemmed it myself.
Cross-examined.—My husband had more than one coat; he often bought clothes, and brought them on board the sloop; I first identified these clothes at the station-house.
Mr. DWIGHT said that these were all the witnesses for the prosecution, with the exception of Captain Nickerson, of the brig which had had the collision with the sloop E. A. Johnson. He had been telegraphed to Boston, and as he was a willing witness, they expected him by every arrival. He sails between Philadelphia and Boston, and it may be possible that he (Captain Nickerson) had been detained at sea.
The counsel for the defence intimated that their testimony would not occupy much time, and they would probably close to-morrow. They preferred, however, that the prosecution should exhaust their case first.
The Judge said he would allow a reasonable time for the appearance of Captain Nickerson.
Mr. DWIGHT said that Mrs. Hubbard wished to correct her testimony as to date.
Mrs. HUBBARD again took the witness stand, and said that she saw her son, Smith Watts, last on the 13th of March, Tuesday, and not on the 7th; she was confused when she first came up, and made a mistake as to the date.
The Court then adjourned to ten o’clock on Friday morning.