Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1899-05-11
SNE B|ANES GHOSTS.
Remarkable pp.pns o. a Girl Charged
With iatricide.
SUMMONED BY HER FATHER,
Admits Having Sinin Her Mother, hut
Says She Heard ~ Voice Call
Ing Her Before She Conn
mitted the Murder.

Pittsburg, May 1.-THE influence Of
spiritualists and their manifestations is
the remarkable defense of Bertha Bell
stein, good looking girl of II, who is
on trial here for the murder of her
mother in October last.
The girl says she received a SUM
mons" to kill her mother and that she
was utterly powerless to oppose the
spiritual influence that held her in it's
grasp when the hour Of the Summons"
arrived.
She went to her mothers bedside and
deliberately shot her four times. After
the first shot the mother rose in the
bed and cried out to her daughter:
Birdie. what are you doing?"
The reply was three more Shots as
quickly as the girl could fire them.
After that Bertha fired four bullets at
herself. One of them struck her in the
head The other shots struck her in the
abdomen and ribs. She says she re-
members nothing after the shooting I'M
til four weeks afterward.
On the witness stand Bertha related
the events leading up to the actual
shooting, and in dazed kind of way
told of the arising of the spiritual in
f1uence in her and it's power over all
her actions. She said that her mother
had taught her to believe in spiritual
ism and that while in Chicago last sum-
mer she visited three mediums there.
All of them had given her exhibitions
of their power, and these had greatly
impressed her.
Two of the spiritualists, she said,
told her that her dead father was in the
room aud t 1T he wanted her and her
mother to follow him to far side" the
other world" Of the spiritualists.
Resolved to Die.
This had a powerful effect upon the
impres sionable younY girl, and she de-
ternned to follow her ia Their as soon
as she returned home. Once there, she
bought Il bottle of laudanum and pre-
pared herself to take draft of the poi
son, but her heart failed her, and she
went to bed. She awoke at o'clock in
the morning and then determined to end
her life, so far as this world was con-
cerned. In describing what happened
at this time Bertha said on the stand
when the clock struck s, / started to
pour the laudanuln from the bottle into
tumbler. Suddenly l heard a voice
calling me, ana my arms became IKE
steel. The tumbler and bottle crashed
to the floor. | knew the order had come.
l went to the dresser and got the re-
volver. Then | went to my mothers
room. walked up to the bed and shot
her. l do MOI remember anything / did
after the first shot, and | never knew
until I was told about it last Novem-
ber"
Bertha. after killing her mother and
firing four shots at herself sank to the
floor insensible. She was thought to be
MORALLY wounded, but managed to re-
cover after long stay in hospital She
did not say in court that her mother
had spoken to her after the first shot
was fired. Relatives testified to this,
stating that Bertha had so told them.
The Beilstein family lived at Allegha-
ny in German quarter of the city,
which has record for suicides and 9TH
err violent deaths There is an average
Of five suicides year in the quarter.
David Refs. who lived with the Bell
stems, killed himself three days aftef
the death of Mrs. Beilstein, and two
months later Rerthas brother killed
himself on his mothers grave.