Murder

Everybody knew that Leo Hallisey hated Jack Casey. They had been glaring at each other for days. There was going to be a fight. And when, in Prof. Carl C. Wheaton's junior law class, Hallisey got up to open a window, Casey told him not to. With eyes no bigger than squirt-holes in the snow, Hallisey edged up to Casey, dragging one foot behind the other. "Lead at me," he said, "Lead--you funny fellow." He was uttering words never before heard in the law class of Prof. Carl C. Wheaton. Casey led. His fist flicked Hallisey's jaw, knocking him against the way. Hallisey, with a face of frenzy, drew a dagger, stabbed Casey to the heart. The wounded boy slumped softly down in a red puddle. Dean Alphonse G. Eberle of the Law School of St. Louis University, with Casey propped up in a chair and Hallisey pinioned down by angry students who threatened to take revenge, tried to get at what had happened. Frightened students paraded before him. All their stories were vivid. No two were alike. Some had it that Casey had got up to throw Hallisey out of the window. Some had it that Hallisey had snatched his knife from Casey. Some had it that Casey, not Hallisey, had first said "funny fellow" and other words. "But the stabber," gasped one student, "how about calling the cops?" At this point Casey opened his eyes and laughed. So did Hallisey. The blood was red ink, the dagger rubber, the fight a charade planned by Professor Wheaton for the purpose of illustrating that the tesimony of eyewitnesses can differ. On Dec. 7, in Professor Wheaton's fully equipped courtroom at the law school, Hallisey will be tried for "assault with intent to kill." Senior law students will prepare the case against him and carry on the prosecution and defense, junior law students will testify. A real judge from the St. Louis Circuit Court of Appeals will preside; a real jury of "twelve good men and true" will sit in Professor Wheaton's legal workshop.