Murder: Circumstantial Evidence

Circumstantial EvidenceIn the court room in Vinton, Iowa, on Novem ber 10, 1897, Frank A. Novak sat beside his at torney.Across the table was the county attorney.The two had not seen each other for a little more than a year, when the younger man was cam paigning for election.Then, Novak had actively supported his candidacy and those efforts were a factor in electing M. J. Tobin to the office of County Attorney of Benton County.Friends then, the situation was now reversed.The roles were prosecutor and accused.At Tobin's side sat Louis Boies, a skillful Waterloo lawyer who had been engaged by the State to assist the young county attorney.Afterwards Tobin often expressed his appreciation for the skillful help of Boies, and his gratitude for Boies' generosity in giving his younger associate all of the favorable opportunities for credit.Novak's counsel was Tom H. Milner, a fiery lawyer from Belle Plaine, whose stationery bore the colorful inscription."The red headed legal Napoleon of the Slope" "Fees are the sinews of war.