Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1903-06-26
CONFESS IOHORR|BLE CRIME
MRS. DE LARTicuE TELLS or
KILLING HER HUSBAND.
The Pomeroy Crime is at Last Brought
to Lisht-Evidence During Her TrI.
al Was too Conclusive and She Told
Why the Deed Was Committed
He Was Trying to XIII Her.

lOleus CONFRONTED Dy the accumulated
evidence of over so witnesses, and en-
meshed in web Of circumstantial evil
dence from which there was no posi-
BILE avenue of escape, Amanda ]. De
Lartigue went upon the witness stand
Saturday and confessed to the killing
of her husband, Henry De Lartigue, on
the night of September 20 last; that
she killed him, not with gun, but with
an axe, and that she did the deed to
save her own life. 1t was her last
card and she played 1t against great
odds. A human life, her own, was the
stake. Whether she has won or lost
| is problematical.
That this course was inevitable for
the defense was obvious when Judge
Chadwick denied their request to take
from the jury the consideration OF the
question Of the guilt of the defendant
in the first degree.
The Judge had scarcely finished the
last sentence of his ruling, when the
jury was listening to the words of At
torney Gose:
Gentlemen of the jury, our defense
is this: That on the night of the 23d
Of September, 1902, in Garfield county,
state of Washington, the defendant
killed Henry De Lartigue; that she
did not kill him with gun; that she
did not kill him in the bedroom or in
the house, and that she did not muir
der him."
| A few moments later the death like
hush that had fallen upon the court
room was penetrated by the faltering,
tremulous tones of the defendant her.
self as she told her story of the dark
and mysterious crime to the jury, upon
whose mercies she had thrown herself,
while the vast crowd of spectators, sit
ting, standing, perched in windows, re-
manned like statues, with necks craned
and ears spread to drink in every word
of the bloody story that had remained
so long locked in the woman's breast
After few preliminaries as to her
birth and childhood, in which it de-
veloped that she was IS years of age,
she said:
Il was married to Henry De Lar
tigue in 1899 and removed from the
Grande Ronde to the old Estes ranch
on the Deadman. I was living there on
the 23rd Of September, 1902, and was
there on the night Of the 23rd of Sep
TENDER"
What time did you 60 to bed that
night?" Between and 9 o'clock"
WAS Henry there at the time you
went to bed?" HE was not. had
been asleep some time when l was
awakened by something. There stood
Henry in his night clothes, with a Ian
tern in his hand. He said: 4 am GO
ing to sleep with you l replied, You
are not He said, I will sleep with
you or will kill you and with that he
struck me. l said, If you ever strike
me again 1 will expose you about the
mare you stole on the Grande Ronde.'
Il jumped out of the bed and he af-
ter me. ran out of the kitchen door
across the porch and down the side
walk. He shot at me once. I did not
look back for knew he was after me.
When l got further down the walk 1
heard something fall. looked around.
He was down on one knee getting
ready to shoot, and he said: You -
-, will kill you With
that he fired again. He was four or
five feet from me. The fash went into
my face.
Il had stopped at a poplar tree, the
root of which we had used as a chop
ping block. There was an ak there.
l reached and got 1t and went back and
struck him."
did you kill him?" Eyes, sir, did"
Did you use any gum" mo"
Did you use anything in killing him
except this ax?" mo, did not"
What did you do with the body?"
Il dragged it, or carried it, don't
know how, to a potato hole and buried
it. When l went to get a shovel to
throw in the dirt saw his saddle and
blanket. | threw them in, too"
''Was it dark?" mot very dark
starlight"
did you see any moon?" 81 didn't
notice any"
DO you know what time of night it
was" NO"
The defendant then told how she
went back to bed and arose in the
morning and washed the blood from
the AK and returned the rifle to the
house. She also admitted all the sub
terfuges she had made use of subse-
quent to the killing to conceal the deed,
including the letter to her sister, Jo-
sephine, the burning of the rawhide
rope, the removal of the pistol to her
own room and various and conflicting
explanations to neighbors and detec-
tives. All this she did for conceaIment
and said the reason she did not dis
close the facts sooner was that she was
afraid to. as she feared an unfair trial
and had no one to advise her.
The woman went into a recital Of
De Lartigue's alleged cruelty to her.
She disclaimed any malice against her
husband, but said she could not bring
herself to give herself up to the au.
liberties, although she felt justified in