The morning after the first session of the Kinrade Inquest all three Hamilton daily newspapers vied with each other to have the most complete account of the session. The Times’ headline, in large type, read “Florence Kinrade’s Story Unshaken” accompanied by large drawing of Florence Kinrade as she appeared in the witness box on one side of the front page a drawing of Crown Examiner George Tate Blackstock on the other,
Helpfully, the Times included an overview of the testimony on the front page under the heading
Points Brought Out at Inquest
“T.L. Kinrade in his evidence testified;
That the Kinrades were a most affectionate family and never quarreled.
That he never had an estrangement with his son Ernest.
` That all members of the family were opposed to Florence going back to Virginia to sing on the stage.
He did not think he used the expression : ‘I have expected this for a long time,’ and if he did it was because he believed that it was Florence who had been murdered.
Florence Kinrade in her testimony said :
That she had made numerous long trips with a Miss Marion Elliott, who ‘had made herself known to me,’ and with a Mrs. Kenneth Brown, of Syracuse, who introduced herself at Toronto.
That Jimmie Baum, of Portsmouth, one of the moving picture company, proposed to her, and she treated it as a jest.
That she had grown very tired of stage life, and had abandoned it for good when she returned to Hamilton last December.
That she had never had any trouble with any member of the family, but was always on the best of terms with all.
That she saw the murderer the second time when she returned to the house; that he did not look like a tramp nor like a gentleman.
That she had never seen the man before, and that she did not know who he was.
That ‘I would gladly tell if I could.’1
1 Hamilton Times. March 11 1909.
The full account of the session including a transcription of most of the testimony would fill almost four pages of the Times:
“T.L. Kinrade, father of the murdered girl, was the first witness to be examined . He stepped into the witness box before 8:15. Mr. Kinrade had been standing for half an hour or so when Mr. Blackstock, acting on the suggestion of his lawyer, Mr. Hobson, proposed that the witness sit down. Mr. Kinrade at first replied that he preferred to stand, but he accepted the chair.”1
It was a very prolonged and, at times, a severely combative interrogation by the Crown Attorney. Occasionally, Mr. Kinrade was evasive in responding to questions. He became very annoyed with the Crown Attorney’s demands for specific information on various matters. For example:
” ‘Am I to understand that since the first conversation you had with your daughter Florence a short time after you got home on the day of the tragedy , you have not spoken to her, and she has not spoken you, and you have never heard her discuss the matter with anyone?
‘That’s right,’ said Mr. Kinrade.
“Mr. Hobson, the Kinrade family’s arose at this point and said he did not think Mr. Kinrade understood.
“ ‘I was just going to remark,’ said the witness that after going into the room where the detectives were questioning her one day, I found her on the lounge in a state of delirium, and she pointed at one of the officers as the man who did the shooting.
“ ‘Please don’t bring in these extremes . I ask a specific question. Did you have any further conversation with your daughter about this matter or did you hear her discuss it?’
“ ‘I answer that specifically, I have not,’ said Mr. Kinrade, with the first display of warmth he showed during the night.”
Mr. Kinrade was then asked if he had a theory as to what occurred as regards the tragic occurrence. In response, Kinrade answered, ‘None whatever.”
Then Mr. Kinrade tried to divert questioning off on a tangent about a letter he received from a friend in Sunderland who said that he had seen a man fitting the description Florence had made about the supposed intruder :
“ ‘That will do Mr. KInrade,’ said the Crown examiner. ‘It is all we will require tonight, and the murdered girl’s father stepped out of the witness box after an examination that lasted from *810 until 10:30.”
Then it was the turn of the main character in the murder story to take the stand:
“ “Florence Kinrade,’ cried out Policeman Lentz, and all eyes in the crowded court room turned to the entrance where it was expected that the chief figure in this sensational murder would appear. There was a minute of silence during which one could hear a pin drop, and then Florence Kinrade, pale and composed, supported on one side by her fiancé, C. Montrose Wright, and on the other by the nurse, Miss Walker, entered the court. She was obliged to climb the steps to the platform where the coroner sat, and pass behind him to get to the witness box, the space in front being so crowded that it was impossible to pass through. She immediately sank into the chair in the witness box, and caused those in the court to surmise that she would not stand the grueling ordeal of a four hours ‘ examination. She stood up a minute later, and calmly took the oath.
“Miss Walker, the trained nurse, remained in the witness box with Miss Kinrade, standing behind her chair. It was the intention of the family that she should remain there throughout the examination in the event of Florence collapsing, but Mr. Blackstock promptly objected.
“ ‘If the nurse will be good enough to retire, we will proceed.’
“Mr. Thomas Hobson, the Kinrade lawyer, protested against this.
“ ‘Dr. White, the family physician tells me that in the interest of the health of the witness, he thinks it absolutely necessary that the nurse should be there. It is for you as coroner and medical man who understands these things, to say whether she should stay there.’
“Said Mr. Blackstock, ‘It is quite easy if necessary to recall the nurse. I don’t intend to examine this witness with the nurse standing in the box.
“Miss Walker stood by her guns, as if acting under instructions, until the coroner nodded to her, and then she stepped out of the witness box, and went to an adjoining room, to be close at hand.
Another individual connected with the Kinrade family, especially Florence was also a focus of attention before the Crown Examiner’s questioning could begin:
“When Mr. C. Montrose Wright had assisted his fiancée into the court room, he waited on the steps leading to the throne to hear her give her testimony. Constable Lentz went up to him and asked him to leave the room as there was an order to exclude all the witnesses until they had testified. Mr. Wright refused to go, and seemed rather angry with the officer for attempting to make him leave. Lentz went direct to the coroner and stated the case. The coroner’s views coincided with the officer’s in regard to Wright staying in, and he was led out by the officer. He went back to the magistrate’s room, where the family of the dead girl were gathered together.
Before recounting almost every word of her testimony, the Times reporter gave the following description of her:
“The paleness of Miss Kinrade’s features were made more noticeable by the deep mourning in which she appeared. She wore a large black hat. While the discussion whether the nurse should remain or not was going on, she kept her eyes fastened on the coroner or on the floor of the witness box, and did not once look at the curious crowd, of whose gaze she was the target.
“When her fiancée, Montrose Wright was busily engaged whispering to Coroner Anderson, Mr. Blackstock handed Miss Kinrade another chair. “I think you will find this more comfortable,’ he said.
““It was just 10:30 when Mr. Kinrade’s examination was finished, and exactly five minutes later when his daughter began to answer the questions, which Mr. Blackstock bombarded her for nearly four hours. But she passed through the ordeal in a manner those who had expected to see her break down long before the examination was concluded.”
(To Be Continued)
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