The age-herald., 1900-01-06
JULIA MORRISON i STATES HER CASE Sensational Testimony Brought Out in Pending Trial. SAYS SHE WAS PERSECUTED The Actress Says from the Time Just Prior to the Shooting She Has
 No Recollection ot What
 Occurred
SAYS SHE WAS PERSECUTED

Chattanooga, Tenn, January 5-The case of Julia Morrison, the actress charged with the murder of Frank Leiden on the opera house stage in this city. September 9, 1899, was resumed in the circuit court this morn ing.
 Miss Morrison appeared attired in a black dress and sat with her attorneys Mrs. Geo. J. Antz, sister of Leiden. the murdered actor, was in the court and sat with her attorneys. Both women are very handsome and the honors will be easy on the question of sympathy and sentiment as between the two women.
 The first witness called today was W. J. Patterson, the stage manager of the local opera house, who testified to the killing of Leiden by Miss Morrison.
 He stated that Miss Morrison had not changed her dress to appear in the play booked for that night, and in which she was the leading lady. That at the request of Leiden he had found her and warned her that it was time for the curtain to rise and that the company was waiting for her.
 She then went to the stage from a lower toilet room by a back stairway, reaching the stage exactly at the point where Leiden was standing to superintend the lights and raising of the curtain.
 Before she reached the top of the step and while she was within three feet of Leden.ss .ssshe began firing, and shot three times, the first one glancing the top of Lefden's head, the other striking him in the face at the side of the nose, and after he had fallen to the floor she advanced two steps and shot him while he lay on the floor the bullet penetrating the neck and ranging upward.
 He died from his wounds in a few min- utes. He had not heard Miss Morrison and Leiden quarreling, but Leiden had told him that there was an unpleasantness between them.
 Leon Joseph, electrician for the opera house, J. H. Womble and other employees of the opera house testified to the main facts of the killing to the same effect as Patterson. With these witnesses the state rested it's case for the present.
 Miss Morrison Testifying
 At the afternoon session of fthe court the defense began the examination Of wit nesses, and Miss Morrison, the prisoner, was the first introduced. Miss Morrison's testimony was exceedingly sensational, and she frequently requested the court to per mi. her to put some of Leiden's language addressed to her in writing rather than re- utter the words. She said:
 My name is Julia Morrison. am an ac- tress I was born, to the best of my knowl- edge, in Kansas. My parents died when l was an infant. and have known only fos- ter parents, whose name was Dale. l was married ito MT. James by a justice of the peace in Memphis under the name of Rosa line Dale. I afterward learned my real name and was again married under my right name in Louisiana"
 She continued, saying in substance that after she joined the "Mr. Plaster of Paris company Leiden was very friendly until he found out that she was married and that her husband would accompany her on the road. From the time he found out that, he began his systematic persecution. He made improper proposals to her. and insulted her frequently; had frequently corrected her in her lines without cause; that he ire quently called her foul names, and had per sisted in his course of abusing her until she lost all control of herself. On the evening of the shooting she stated that Leiden had goae to the toilet room while she was sick and offered an indignty which she told to the court, and which is unfit for print
 She said that when he did this she lost control of herself, and that when she went to the stage by the rear stairway, just as she reached the top of the steps Leiden ap- preached her with an upraised cane in his hand, as if to strike her, and called her a foul name.
 She stated that from that moment she has memory of what happened; that the time between that moment and when she found herself in the station house was blank in her mind.
 Explaining why she had the pistol on this particular evening. she stated that she al ways carried a pistol in her bosom.
 On cross-examination she stated that she had borne Leidens insults until she had learned that she was to be supplanted in Atlanta Toy another woman, and that then she had become desperate.
 At this point the judge adjourned the court until tomorrow, when Miss Morrison will be subjected to a rigid cross-examina- tion.
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