OCR Text |
Show it H BEARDED I Important EvidencePor SH Defense in the i;H Beattie Case - H Chesterfield -Courthouse, Va , Aug:. u jH 30 Hasty preparations were made , overnight by the commonwealth to ll combat the testimony given by fifteen- M year-old Alexander Robertson yester- day that he had seen on the Mldol. 'H thlan turnpike bloodspots other than -iH the pool of blcod where Mrs. HenT JH C. Beattie, Jn, is alleged to have il been killed by her husband. The slg- -'H nlflcance of 'the lad's declaration .is 'H that if it should be proven that thero ' ,M were jnany blood spots on the road, M it would support the contention of, , the defense that the first pool of H blood dripped from the machine from 11 the bleeding woman, who was alleged . by Beattie to have been shot while 'H in the front seat. H On the other hand, the prosecution 'jH wished to show that there was but 'H one bloo-1 spot, that no blood could :'H have oozed from the machine and that '1 the large pool resulted from the shoot- H ing of Mrs. Beattie while she was i 'H standing either on the running beard h 1 or in the road. H Detective Scherer, wtho has been H active in working up the case for the ! IH prosecution, was selected by the com- J 'H monwcalth to refute today the test!- 'H mony of young Robertson. H W.1 P. Howland, a quarryman, said JH on the witness stand today that ha H saw a bearded man with a shotgun H on the afternoon beforo the murder. H Howland lives near tho scene of the lH tragedy. Til Miss Louise Reams, maid of honor ' jH at Mrs. Beat tie's wedding, "was the JH first witness.- She identified the hair- j pin said to have been worn by her jl friend on the night of the murder aa stll being similar to the kind used by Mrs. J H Beattie. ' -; Detective Jarrell testified that he jl had" found no blood between the Owen house and the scene of the murder. 'H i couldn't find but the one spot," he ' H said, Ijfjl VDid you know that Alexander Rob- ,i SjH ertson claimed there were any mojre Jj H blood spots?"' ilH "No." ';!H "After the machine .was . brought to ll'll Tom-'Owen's, "how long :before it was i ;H moved0" ml "It stood there until after 13 1 d'clock." "Did any blood drip on the ground rlfl in front of the house?" 1 )M "No." M "It is in testimony that an elliptical ! blood spot, 20 by IS Inches, was irr ' jM front of Mr. Rices house on the Mid- fM lothian turnpike. Was such a spot H there on Wednesday?" , M "No." '3H Detective Scherer testified he had 4H made several searches of the road 11 on Wednesday and on certain portions ' M on Friday morning and found no blood H spots. M Major James D. Patten corroborat- H ed Scherer's testimony, having ac- i M comnanied the detective in an auto ? H mobile in his search. J ' Ben P. Owen, another uncle of the H 1 murdered woman, who assisted in the j H search for blood spots, testified: L "I made a careful examination of S jl the road from the scene of the crime 11 to my brother Tom's house and saw H no blood except the first blot." H Thomas Wrenn. another detective, H gave more corroborative testimony of rH the absence of additional blocJspcts. '(Continued cn'Fage Eight.) ( H BEARDED MAN SEEN (Continued from Page One.) Other persons, among them several county detectives, also testified along similar lines and at "noon the prosecution prose-cution announced that It rested its case. A brief rpce3s then was hold, while counsel for tho defense argued a point regarding certain evidence introduced in-troduced bv the prosecuting attornoy. Court re-convened at 12:50 p. m. Judgo announced to the Jury that a motion had been Introduced by the defense to remove from ovidence all testimony relating to the hairpin and tho court had sustained tho motion. Judgo Watson added that a motion of tho defense had likewise boon sustained sus-tained to eliminate all evidonce concerning- the action of the bloodhounds at the seen of the crime. Paul D. Beattle was recalled to the stand by the defense as the first witness. "Did you bara single barreled shotgun in your possession while a watchman?" asked Mr. Smith. "No." l Hero G. W Booth was summoned. Mr. Smith said to Paul Beattle, pointing point-ing to Mr Booth: "Did you havo a conversation with this man concerning the murder?' "Yes " "Did you tell, this man that you didn't think your cousin Henry killed his wife because he loved her too well?" - "No." v j "When you testified before you said you had no conversation -with Mr. Booth. ' - .;. . v "I didn't knowHhe man by name, but bv slghu" - Paul was excused and Mr. Smith examined Mr. Booth "Did you have any conversation with Paul Beattle on the. Wednesday following the homicide?" -Yes " "What did ho say?" "Ho said, 'Well,' what do you think of Henry? I said I didn't know what ho meant. 'Well,' ho said, 'I don't think Henry killed h.s wife. Ho al-ways al-ways spoke' weli of her to me.' That was all that was said." "Did Paul Beattle begin conversation conversa-tion concerning this'" "Yes." "Who was present during jour con-ersation?" con-ersation?" asked Prosecutor Wenden-burg Wenden-burg in cross-examination 'No one. Two men camo up later." Just before court recessed, H. H. Smith, Jr., counsel for tho defense was shown a report that one of the Jurors was a friend of the prisoner. "It's all a lie," said Mr Smith, and the prisoner himself loaned forward and denied the report emphatically. "'Tho story of the juror,' said Henry Clay Beattle, Jr., to newspaper mou sitting below him, "was started just to keep up the prejudice against me. There's nothing in it" |