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Show HAMMER CASE j HUSBAND NOW ASSISTS WIFE Attempts to Besmirch Girl Who Was Pounded to Death BY JACK J U N G MEYER. N ISA staff Correspondent. LOS ANGELES, Oct. 20. First, he told on his wife to shield himself Now, to savo his wlfo, ho attempts to besmirch the girl she Is charged with killing. Pictured by the prosecution In this role, Armour L. Phillips, dapper young Texan, waits to testify In bchalt of his wife, Mrs Clara Phillips, after proclaiming himself a "love chameleon" chame-leon" on tho eve of his wife's trial for the brutal hammer slaying here of Alberta Meadows, attractive young widow. Phillips, whose statement or Inll-ma Inll-ma vylth the slain woman, will bolster bol-ster an' unwritten law defense for his wire, has temporarily drawn tho spotlight spot-light or public interest First, ho brought about his wife's arrest after he had helped her to flee, telling tho ofRcers she. had confessel the crime to him He said he fearou she might harm herself, and Insisted! that her fatal jealous fury was without with-out foundation Now, assuming a moral share In the tragedy Phillips has ronfesse-j. ' through Clara's attorney, that he and j Mrs. Meadows wero desperately ln- fatuated. that they were even planning plan-ning a trip abroad at tho tlmo of the murder (dltlS FAMILY ROUSED. By these dramatic inconsistencies the on' -time soldier, garage man and oil worker, promises to sharo with Mrs. Peggy Caffee. chief state witness, the heaviest legal crossfire of the. (Continued on PagcTwo) HAMMER CASE HUSBAND NOW ASSISTS WIFE (Continued front lje;e Onc trial, which Is scheduled to start Oct. 20 The prosecution declares lta be'.lvf that the confession is shockingly false. It also has aroused the fighting blt-terneBS blt-terneBS of the slain woman's family, j who c haracterize It "an unspeakable I attempt to besmirch Alberta's untar-1 nlahed name to help Mrs Phillips, j and wholly without foundation " The killing of Alberta Meadows on a lonely road, in the asserted ptes-ence ptes-ence of I'oggy Caffee, former chor;i girl friend of Mrs. Phillips, shoekfd the country' with Its ghastly details. The slate will contend Mrs. Phillips adroitly lured her victim Into the death trap, charged her with undue i Interest in Phillips, and then smoth-1 ered her terrified denials in a volley of mutilating hammer blows Tho state attorneys will declaro Phillips' latest statement was concocted con-cocted at his wife's Instigation In a desperate dilemma It will call many witnesses to refute aspersions on the dead girl's character. WIFE'S LOVE PROBED. But tho state's original Intention putting tho domestic relations of in". Phillips couple through pitiless aonlv- j sis will be carried on. The nature Df Clara's love for her husband will , bo the main lssuo, prosecutors say. The state will challengo the gen- j ulneness of her professed ardor for j Phillips, which it hitherto accepted as a matter of fact. Overwhelming love must be shown as a basis for in "unwritten law" defense. Miss Franklo Lee, former chorus girl associate of Mrs. Phillips, trie prosrrutlon admits, will bo called In an effort to strike at the very underpinning under-pinning of such an assumption of deep, unquestioned deAotion Miss Lee Is ready to testify that Mrs Phil-Hps Phil-Hps kissed tho stage manager of a Los Angeles theatre a week before the killing, the prosecution declares At that time, tho state says, Mrp. Phillips made disparaging remarks about her hushand, according to tho expected testimony of Miss Leo. MANY SURPRISES, Tnto tho trial the state will also 1 try to Introduce testimony to nhoTv the couple had a stormy domestic life. Married at Houston Texas, In i 191G, they were divorced and rem---' rled in 1918, according to etato wlt- nesses. The state 'will also seek to delvfe into alleged tempestuous scon' s ;it the Phillips home for days pre-cedlng pre-cedlng the murder, to show that Phil-1 |