OCR Text |
Show 00 Rr An ! OLULAii fu If fffilf Beattie Says Indiscretions Indiscre-tions With Her Caused His Conviction -" Chesterfield Courthouse.":, SenO fcevere'TcpudlaUon oL Beulah Bin-forc. Bin-forc. as a girl fr6m whom he . ainly tried to detach himself, and direct imputatlou that the jury jud?ed him more for his Indiscretions than the tragedy Itself, come tpday from the lips of Henry Clay Beattie, Jr, convicted con-victed last night of wlfo mur ler. Any-wlero Any-wlero a jury, composed of city folk, with broader views, would have been more merciful, was his bitter lament. "Fearfully .unfair,'' he jnuttcred in his cell, when asked his opinion of the verdict. "Beulah Binford," he added, "figured largely in tho verdict, more largely than the -testimony of the killing. Theso country folic cannot understnnj how a woman ot the underworld can be crazy about you. They don't know when that happens how very hard It Is to got rid of her. "I have drifted along, ho-ilug agalnsi hope that soraothlng would occur to rid myself of that Binford girl. And once a voman of that kind feels that you no longer take any Interest in bar, sho usually scaks solace in suicide. I drifted along, nwaltlr.? for. n chance to break off relotlons with her without with-out having her hurt herself. I tried hard to persuade her in tho meantime to live a proper life. "Had this case been tried whore those things are not uncommon, this morping I would have been a free man. Interpreting Judge Wntson's Instructions In-structions to the jury. I cannot see how tho Tcrdlct could have been other oth-er than not guilty. I believe the Jury wqs influenced by the one-eldod newspaper news-paper reports before I had' a chance to presont my side of the caso I wanted to give out a statement as soon as I waH arrested, but Mr. Smith, my lawyer, advised against this. "I have not g)ven up hope because I cannot feel that an Innocent man will be permitted to suffer for this hideous crlmq." There wore many rumors abroad today to-day that Beattie would never die In th6 oloctrlc chair; -that he would find come meant) of committ'n? suicide whon all hope of fining his freedom was gone. "Bill" Sampson, his chum, and one of the important witnesses at thp trial, was quoted as saying: "Hcnrv Beattie will not die in the chair. II 'H1 be some other way." "If he Is convicted, he has nerve enough to kill himself before othors do." snld Beulah Binford just before her departure from Richmond. Fnthcr'o Deep Sorrow. CbQsterflehl Courthouse, Vn., Sept. 9. A ho:ny guard pat role 1 the little stono CnestfiVflold Jail last night, and toOnv the lone guardsmen were tho only' persons Henry Clay Beattie, Jr. convicted last night of the murder of his wlfo, baw as he looked out on tho pastoral scone which lecently has boon dotted wllfi hundreds of his follow fol-low townemon. Jailer Cogblll brought the prisoner his breakfast and ho ate It in si lenco. Peat tie's thin, pallid face woro a flickering smile as he gazed through the grated window at two newspapermen newspaper-men lolling on the grass Some time today It was expected that Beattie would' be taken to tho state penitentiary in Richmond to awoit electrocution, on November 24. or the grantln3 of a new trial by the (Continued on Pago Eight.) H BUELAH IS TO BLAME H; (Continued from Page One.) H court of appeals, which meets early BV In that month. IBS His lawyers today were discussing BB tho petition for a writ of error. Tho Bn court of appeals, they asserted, set a BBB precedent in tho famous McCuo case BB In BBB Public feeling over the crime still BBB runs high in this section and in Rich- BBW mond, whore Benttic lived". The vor- BBV diet was received with llttlo surprise BBB by the community. The loud-voiced BBS Bpeech of L. 0. Wendenburg, the pros- HHB ecutlng attorney, still rang in the ears BB of tho people today as they talked of BBS the case BBS Expressions of sympathy wero BBS hoard everywhere for tho aged father BBS of tho prisoner, a prominent merchant BBS and highly respected citizen. His BBS grief today wbb heart-rending. The BBS affection betwoen father and son, B manifested In the long days of the H trial as they sat Bide by side, wap H said by the father, on tho witness H stand, to have grown Intensely since H tho early death of the boy's mother. It H was tho theory of the prosecution that H, fear, lest bis father might learn from Hi l-o lips of Henry's wife of his renew- Hi ed Indiscretions with the Dinford -gjrl. H prompted young Bcattlc to commit' H tho crime and fabricate tho (hIc of H the bearded highvnyman. H' Rent in sorrow at the awfulncss of H, tho blow, tho, elder Beattic visited H the prisoner today. Counsel had told H( him not to lose hope, thnt they yet H might imvo his boy's life. H , Beulah Blnford'c Sympathy. H, Now York. Sept, 9. Beulah Bln- HL ford received without emotion tho news of tho verdict against Henry Clay Beattlo, Jr. Ho Is innocent," sho Bald. "I am sure ho had nothing to do with the .murder of his wifo. It's easy to kick a man when ho Is down, and every body has been against him." |