The Lambertville record., 1888-05-30


Gettys; have known Mrs Gettys always; Getty
! moved from New Hope to Iambertvile q year ags
last March; before that they lived two doors IRON
where we live; this was on Mechanic street.
Questionable you ever see 1ir, Kitchen ~
| Mrs. 0ettys' house I'm Lambertville.
objected to by Commonwealth
By the Court-The objection is sustained.
To this ruling defendant excerpts. Bill sealed.
Witness-Gettys' family consisted Of boy aud
girl; think the girl Is abou years old; called
at Mr.. Gettys' house the Monday evening before
the shooting; Mr.. Jones. Miss opdyke, Mr.. and
Mrs. Gettys were the people that were there;
\ saw nothing wrong in their conduct; they seemed
| like husband aud wife; there was an engagement
made for rag anniversary on Thursday evening
1 of the next week
Marriage certificate offered In evidence and ad-
mitted without objection.
Mrs Nora Gettys, sworn-I am living In Lam
bertyille; am IS years old the 2Sd day Of August;
was nafrie1 x n s & my ~ :
| 4 Sailor lately he has been working for the
Phoenix Bridge Company have little boy Har-
| ry and little girl, Nellie; Harry will be IL aud
Nellie years old; we moved to Lambertyille on
the 10th OF March last year. my husbands bust.
ness took him away from home great deal he
went w M away was January Sd, 1851; think he went
! to Tennessee; he was in Arkansas; he was away
1 ten months on his last trip he came back in 0e-
| tober; lived off my husbands money Mr.. Sim
| mons, of the Ph@nix Bridge Company. sent me
| 1850 every two weeks my husband was not
/ home when we moved to LambertvIlle; got coal
! in and Mr. Gettys paid for 1t when he came home;
| he was not feeling very good when he came home
| he complained of pain in the back Of his head;
| he looked wild out of his eyes, was a great deal
| thinner and very pale; he did not act right; did
not seem to have much to say; did not eat much
| on Tuesday; he did not eat very much when he
! first came home; he bought dress for me and one
| for my niece, and also some hosiery; ne bought
| -four and other things when he came home; he
| bought me a bedroom suit, / knew Charles T,
| Kitchen; first got acquainted with him after
went there to deal at his store after moved
/ from Buffalo; we were living near his store; Mr..
| Kitchen would sometimes bring the things TO our
house from the store; told my husband about my
relations with Charles I. Kitchen, my husband
asked me II had q friend, and told him yes
| told him Mr.. Kitchen my friend and he ask
! ed me how could do such thing against him. 1
| asked him to forgive me; he asked me what did
with the children when Kitchen came; told him
they were always abed; told him nobody knew
this hui that was not true; he asked me how often
| he came, and told him he came on Wednesday
evenings. lodge nights, and sometimes Saturday
| evenings after he closed the store; he generally
| came about the time the train was going down;
| he asked me II had any love for him and told
him no; think this WAS all that said; he asked
| me whether ever took him upstairs, and i told
him no; don't think we said any more that
| the shooting was the Esd, wednesday, the
| Tuesday on the 22d; we were In the parlor of
| our house while this conversation was going on;
we had not been in bed that night; think IL was
| between and In the morning, and we talked on
till daylight; neither of went to bed that night
during that day l kept asking him to forgive
me; we talked good deal about me and Mr..
Kitchen; my husband ate no dinner after dinner
went and laid down upstairs; during the after
noon asked him II he would take me TO Arkansas
with him. but he did not seem to want to talk very
much with me; don't think we talked any more
about 1t; on Wednesday morning my husband was
In the parlor; we had no talk on Wednesday
morning; called him to break fast, and he came
out and drank cup ofcotee; asked him why he
did not eat his break FAST and he said he did not
want any he then got up quickly, and went back
lounge, looking wildly and crying then went
out of the room and upstairs; l heard him come
up to the bedroom. and jumped up and said,
"Oh Harry, what's the matterf" and he said,
"Go away from me;' said to him, "Where are
you going?n and all the reply he made was 81
am going;n this was about twenty minutes after 8
in the morning, just time for the train, and
thought he was going away on the train; WANTED
him 10 take me to Arkansas with him. because
had not done right; he said to me, what win you
him; then he said, well II he comes. what will
you do?n and l said IL he comes don't know
hardly how would resist him.
FRIDAY MORNING.
The court room was crowded with 1900 persons
throughout the entire day.
Samuel Parsons, of New Hope, testified that he
acted as Kitchens emissary and frequently carried
messages to Mrs. Gettys. He advised Kitchen on
Gettys return TO keep away from the latters wife
or he would be shot.
Mrs Gettys was then recalled and subjected to
a rigid animation by the District Attorney
for several hours. She told how she finally In
duced to make the disgraceful revelations to her
su spectinR husband. She confessed TO her hus.
band her guilt and mentioned the places of as
signation She pathetically related how she
threw her arms around her husbands neck and
,Norah, how can /? You have disgraced me and
the dear little children. have been as true to
you as there is God In Heaven" Mrs. Gettys
was several times removed from the stand from
sheer grief and exhaustion.
Dr. H. T. Sharp, from Arkansas, was the next
witness Mr.. Gettys was afflicted with what Is
there called swamp fever, and under the doctors
treatment Dr. Sharp said he observed marked
change coming over him, The mind became af-
fected with Observation-Disclosures and malancholia
He likewise became emaciated, complexion sailows
DIT. Charles K Mills, an expert on insanity and
professor at the University of Pennsylvania, was
next examined. He testified that man In the
impaired condition Gettys was under when he re-
turned and the cafamitous information he had
just received was sufficient TO oyerturn his mind
and produce temporary insanity. Other phys-
clans test flied to the aggravated nature of swamp
fever and it's influence upon q victim. Numerous
persons from Philadelphia New Hope and LAM
havior The Commonwealth then offered evidence
In rebuttal, which continued monotonously for
several hours.
SATURDAY MORNING.
Promptly at 0 o'clock the Jury filed in
to their seats in charge of the Constables
After calling the Jury In the box, Nathan
@. James, Esq, began the closing speech
for the prisoner. For an hour and q
quarter lie pleaded, not only for the life,
but for the absolute freedom OF the priso-
ner at the Bar.
At half-past ten Hugh b. Eastburn,
Esq, the District Attorney, began bis
speech for the Common wealth.
Mr.. Eastburn concluded his remarks at
II :25 and the Court then began its charge
to the Jury.
CHARGE OF THE COURT.
The Court, in tho opening of the charge,
dwelt at length upon the responsibility OF
the Jury and their duty as protectors OF
society and indicators of the law to dis.
charge 1t, He then defined the degrees
of murder under the Act 1794 and gave
the legal definition Of malice and also Of
manslaughter. He then came TO the de-
fense of insanity, and said that In Grim
inal case where the prisoners mind Is in
such condition of alteration that he is
unable to distinguish between right and
wrong, he shall not be convicted, but the
| Jury shall return a verdict of not guilty on
the ground OF insanity. If they found the
elements of either murder or manslaugh-
ter To exist, they must next inquire
whether the prisoner was responsible for
crime at all; whether at the time he COM
mitted the act he was able to distinguish
| the difference between right and wrong.
! If they found that he had reasonable
ground to apprehend that an assault was
about to DO made upon him by Kitchen,
putting him In imminent peril OF life or
| limb, and that there was no escape, ex.
| ceDtinc to shoot his assailant, AS it ap-
peared to him under the circumstances,
he would be justified in taking the life Of
the assailant.
| The Court then reviewed the evidence
of the confessions made by Mrs. Getty 8
to her husband during two or three days
prior to the killing.
The prisoner had been suffering from a
terrible disease, and the evidence of the
physicians was that his mind was there
by impaired.
1t had also been shown by his business
associates that he failed to grasp business
matters as he had been wont to do, and