Show SUNDAY HORNING MARCH 1 1931 THU OGDEN STAND ARD - EXAMINEE 99 - And the Bitter Lesson About Liquor Joy Rides and Revels Which Pretty Mary McClyment Teaches From Behind the Bars of Hi Prison cold dawn ti B ki B S TStfli Si S4? n ? fM i ¥ ¥ ite ft Cl A mi ' " i a i y of "ray NOawakening after a night of revels ever brought : £&' -- home a more forceful lesson than the recent trial and tence of Mary McClyment of Philadelphia To be sure retriLution has been borne on less gentle winds with less rays of warming human mercy but out of it all this girl is a perfect example of the evils i sen- i ' X i 4 ’ 19-year-- of present-da- y '' “whoo- The details of the crime of which Mary stands convicted will be apparent to the fenders as thL article But noteprogresses worthy first is her statement after sentence The jury had fonnd her guilty of and manslaughter recommended mercy Judge Samuel M Shay caught the spirit of of the jury’3 recommendation He doomed Mary to three years — technically in the New Prison at Jersey State Trenton —- but made special request to the prison authorities that she be immediately transferred to the State ' - V K s y " - v £ ' A v v ' ' ' x 4 ' sb -- s- - X S t V- "V - v v V A S ' - A Face Which Is Young and Full of Goodness But the Face Nevertheless o( ’ Mary McClyment Found Guilty of the Killing of Edward Nicholson During g Night’s Revels in a New Jersey Farmhouse building my life And when I am free again you can rest assured there will be no more whoopee parties for Mary McClyment 1” When Mary clambered into her roadster on the night of last October 7 looking forward with eagerpoint ominously at Mary McClyment ness to One by one then her erstwhile of merriment at the Van Dexter friends who had been present at the farmhouse near Blackwood party piled up damaging accusations New Jersey she had no against her Farmer Van Dexter and inkling that a scant six young Sim3 both charged her with hours later she would be in shooting Nicholson during the drunken soiree The prosecutor pointed to her jail charged with the murder of one of the guests alleged confession hinted at a clear case and refused to let reporters inIt wa3 not until a day later when the effects of terview her the liquor she admittedly The first misgivings arose when a drank had worn off that reporter gained entry to Miss McCly-mentshe fully realized a how cell and revealed that the girl denied having confessed the slaying to tragically the party had ended Edward Nicholson the prosecutor Not only did she deny the murder but told of witnessing a lay dead in the Camden between the deceased and anCounty morgue Joseph struggle Van Dexter the other reveller She did admit firing a host at the pistol three times at the ground “to Leonora Roppell and party Caththe men and make them stop frighten erine Carroll girl friends fighting” of Mary and Edward Sims The reporter another guest were behind discovered also bars as material witnesses that the county in the slaying had been unable Mary herself according to Prosecuto find the bullet tor Clifford A Baldwin reputed to have had confessed to the killing Nicholson killed Five autopsies on As Jersey justice began man’s to move with characteristic the deadfailed to swiftness body had things looked black for the young atreveal it although the wound in the tendant at the whoopee chest did not go party Penniless her roadster wrecked she seemed through entirely The to be alarmingly close to the body the electric chair theory arose that the bullet might The pity of it was that have been coughed on the morning after the no one seemed to up by the dying party man but a search have any clear recollection of the premises as to just what had hapfailed to reveal it Memories were pened Then an officer There had been vague drinks and more drinks of the law in the words song absence of Van a shot had been Perhaps Dexter the owner fired perhaps not of the farm found hidden away in the Out of each separate dark recesses of a there story might have risen a separate hypothesis Leonor IlopptU Wlio PrlicpLd Along With Mr JIcU7mnl and hi? as to the of the the Others in the Wild Whoopc in the Frmhouae d Who ’ can!? and nSr it killer But identity little by little Testified at the Trial That Van Dexter field the Sword in a rag covered with circumstances began to ilis Hand at the Time of the Affray dark stains g u - A ' would have a chance to rebuild her shattered life Said Mary: I just begin to realize that attendance at a whoopee party 'will cost me three of the best years oi my life years when I was just beginning to experience the real joy of being alive You latow all my life I had but hard work I left school tonothing to work go when 1 was only in the seventh grade When my father and mother separated 1 had to go to business to support my mother 1 worked all day in an office and the job was so hard 1 would invariably be so tired that I would have to go to bed right after supper “After years of that you can see just why I was so eager to attend parties and have good times when 1 finally did obtain a position which gave me a little liberty and time “But I wish with all my heart that 1 had not attended that whoopee party on the Van Dexter farm I wish some of the girls who were caught in similar circumstances had called from their cells to warn me 1 am innocent of the murder Nicholson was deliberately killed by other persons than L “This three-yea- r sentence 1 do not consider a punishment for the murder of Nicholson because 1 am innocent of that crime but I do look on it as swift retribution for attendance at a whoopee party Perhaps other girls who read of my case and the swift punishment that has visited me will be deterred from attending similar affairs If this proves true then my three years incarceration for a crime which I did not commit will not be in vain “I am grateful to Judge Shay for his kindness in having me sent to the reformatory 1 instead of to the State Prison hold no ill will Prosecutor Baldwin because I against realize he was only doing hi3 duty a3 he saw it For the friends who stuck by me dunng the trial I am grateful for thosd who turned against me 1 hold no ill will Everything i3 past now and I to sPend these three years ar? allotted to me in repentance and m re-- J v for Reformatory Women where she arroll Who Was Present at Forgotten” Whoopee Party and Testimony Favorable to Mary Mcuyment at the Sensational Trial s VVi V ' pee” Uie s ’s 67-year-- iffathd Nwpapr Feature Service lilt The Artist’s Conception the Wild Party at Which Everyone Became Sufficiently Intoxicated Not to Recall the Details of The Sword Cane Found In a Closet in the Van Dexter Farm House — Beside Stained Cloth— Days After the Slaying of Edward Nicholson The Cane x Figured Prominently In the Trial Since no One Seemed to Know Just What Weapon Killed the Luckless Whoopee Victim At the trial Eddie Sims 17 years at the fatal party took the role of chief witness for the He told coolly how he prosecution saw Mary draw a revolver and fire three times at Nicholson when he refused to stop fighting with Van Dexter Things looked pretty dark for the girl Then prompted by a message written upon a small piece of paper and handed rum by a reporter defense attorney Varbalow asked Sims if he had been offered a job by the prosecutor The boy answered that he had but that he had not been asked to change his story Physicians testified that the bullet might have been coughed up There was much discussion as to whether or not the wound could have been inflicted with the sharp sword cane Catherine Carroll testified that Eddie Sims was inside the house at the time that he swore he was outside watching the fight Leonora Roppell told of seeing Van Dexter take a long thin from a closet and go into the object yard prior to the fight Van Dexter had previously testified that he and Nicholson were fighting over a shotgun and that he had not touched the sword cane for a “year or “In my experience” Baldwin I have always noticedreplied that the guilty person will deny an affair when first questioned and later admit it admitted firing the pistol late Mary that the Killing 1 of Edward Nicholson Everything Was in a Whirl a Daze - Three Shots Drunken Laughter Arrests Then the Gray Dawn im old but an attendant so” To this contention the defense parried by placing Robert Montgomery a Blackwood church sexton on the stand He testified that he had seen Van Dexter with the sword cane walking down the road a month before the slaying And In a further attempt to shift the blame from the shoulders of his fair client defense attorney Varbalow called Prosecutor Baldwin to the stand “When you arrested McClyment you arrested JosephMary Dexter and some other at the same time did you not?”people Varbalow asked “Yes” “When they were first brought into your office both Mary and Van Dexter denied the shooting did they not?” “Yes” “Well why did you believe Van Dexter’s denial and not Mary’s?” j night” “Did you know Van Dexter your star witness was an t?’ “No” However when the evidence was all in the jury of seven women and five men required only an hour to reach their verdict Guilty? Yes that is what the jury round — guilty of manslaughter with a recommendation for mercy Poor Mary McClyment I But she la satisfied with her sentence— not for the killing of Edward Nicholson— for she denies that but as retribution for her attendance at the revels on the farm Nothing can bring back the life of 'Eddie Nicholson who was dead when the alcoholic fumes of the before had been dissipated in thenight cool morn-in- g air Nothing can restore the vivmg members of that party to the state of mind which they enjoyed before it But nearly everyone who has followed the trial of Mary McClyment is thinking sober thoughts They agree that the whole Bacchanalian affair has resulted in a lesson such as only dire tragedy can teach Before that night last Autumn probably no number of reformers given all the eloquence in the world could have pointed out to Mary the dangers which lay in her path Life she had learned consisted in this enlightened age of mad jazz in the gin And she wanted life tempo She knows better now although she probably realizes that even before her sentence will be up many other young s will have led themselves into traps just as bad as that into which she feiL But she passes on her words of warning: “If I could speak to all the young girls in America today I would say: ‘Think of me think of poor Eddia Nicholson when you get an invitation to a whoopee party I’ j & ' V |