USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. THE FREEMONT MESSENGER BALONI TELLS STORY OF SHOOTING Walking up and down in the jury box, turning his head so each jury man could see, John Baloni, Wednesday exhibited the place the bullet entered his head, which he says was fired by Reginald Crosston, with intent to kill him. Then Baloni, a swarthy, undersized voluble and excitable Sicilian got down on all fours in the court room to demonstrate how he managed to reach the home of the man for whom he worked after he had been shot. Reginald Crosston, a slender, white faced youth of nineteen, is on trial for shooting Baloni. He was arrested soon after the shooting affair occurred neat Clyde, and has been in jail for seven or eight weeks awaiting trial. He came to this vicinity from Canada. Nothing is known of his family or previous history. At the time of the shooting he and Baloni were employed by a man named Shackelford on his farm about two miles west of Clyde. Baloni was the first witness in the case. He told a straightforward story and it was not shaken in the least by the cross examination of George Kinney, who is assisting Thomas McSheehy, appointed by the court to defend Crosston. The case is being tried before Judge S. M. Young, of Norwalk, Judge Garver being busy with the Busch will case in the library room. The jury was impaneled in the morning and some testimony taken, but the testimony was taken over again in the afternoon because of the failure of the interpreter in the morning to make good. Prosecutor Mead was unable to get the interpreter he wanted, and he accept the services of a young man named Sannavino, who is employed by Swint Bros. and lives on Stony Prairie. Is soon developed that he needed and interpreter as badly as the witness. The examination was suspended until another interpreter could be secured. Thomas A. Amato, of Sandusky arrived in time for the resumption of court at 1 o'clock. Amato's work was perfect and was a feature of the trial. Baloni is able to speak only a very limited amount of English. Baloni, in his story on the stand, said that he had worked two days on the Shackelhof farm before the shooting took place. In the evening of the second day Crosston asked him to go to Clyde. They went. In a saloon they had two glasses of beer each. Then Baloni bought a bottle of whisky, which he let Crosston carry. The two then went to visit a brother-in-law of Baloni's who lived in a box car. While there Crosston exhibited a revolver and a box of cartridges. From there the two went toward home. On the way they stopped at the Martin home, where the Sicilian had previously worked. He changed his clothes and they went to the Shackelford home. Then Crosston induced him to leave his clothes, an accordion and a revolver on the porch while they went up the road a ways to "see a couple of girls" he says Crosston told him. Then he lured him into a cornfield. Baloni's story of the shooting was dramatic and was illustrated by numerous gestures. Once he laid down to illustrate what took place after the shot was fired, and again he knelt on one knee to show how Crosston had knelt on him after he had shot him. "He asked me to light some matches," said Baloni , "I did. He lit some. Then he shot me. I fell. He came and knelt on me. I was dazed. He went through my pockets; He found no money. He said ____ _____ it---have I killed a man for nothing, I can't find his pile of money." In his story of stopping at Martin's to change his clothes, Baloni said Crosston had seen and examined a pocket book containing $125. This is what he says Crosston was searching for. It was hidden at the time of the shooting in Baloni's right sock, where Crosston failed to search. When Crosston failed to find any money he got up. "Help me up, boy, help me up, boy" Baloni said he called to him. "Go to ___, you ___ __ _ _____" Baloni says he answered. "Come back," Baloni called to him. "If you die I'll come back and dig a hole and put you in." Crosston is said to have replied. Then Baloni crawled back to Shackelhofs on his hands and knees and told his story. Crosston sat unmoved while Baloni was reciting the events of the night, only smiling slightly when Baloni became excited in telling his story. With Prosecutor Mead, at the trial table, Marshal Sanders of Clyde is sitting. Miss Myrtle Hite is court stenographer in the case, Percy Howe being busy with the Busch case. Marshal Sanders, of Clyde followed the complaining witness on the stand. He told of arresting Crosston, taking him to the scene of the alleged crime and fitting his shoes into the tracks in the cornfield. They fitted perfectly, he said. His description of the surround- ings tallied with that of Baloni, and he found blood spattered and corn knocked down at the scene of the shooting. Crosston tried to muss up the tracks at first, Sanders said. PIONEER WM. PATRICK SINKS TO REST AT GOMER Wm. C. Patrick was born near Columbus, O., June 9th, 1828, and died at his home in Bomer, O., March 27, 1901, aged 72 years, 9 months and 18 days. Mr. Patrick came to Allen county with his parents when five years of age and has resided here continuously till the time of his death. He was converted and united with the church ten years ago and has lived a consistent Christian life, and has borne his affliction of three years duration with Christian fortitude and resignation to the Master's will, and has left evidence behind that he has gone as one of those "who have come out of great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." The funeral occurred Friday at 1 o'clock from the Congregational church, Gomer, where a large congregation of relatives and friends were assembled to pay their last tribute of respect to one they lobed. Rev. Lloyd Roberts read the scripture lesson and Rev. Mark Williams offered prayer, after which Rev. Grant Sower, of Cairo, delivered the funeral address. The church choir rendered appropriate hymns, which was supplemented by Mrs. Friend S. Robinson, of Mendon. He leaves a devoted wife and five children, two brothers and one sister to mourn their loss. ----