Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1904-11-03
THE McoUg CASE.

Micajsh Woods began the onening ar
gument for hesitate. In the McCue case.
McCue followed the lawyer very close
ly throughout the delivery of his five
hour argument. he seemed little NOV
ed by the powerful arrangement to when
he was subjected. Not SO with Ruby,
bis little girl Of 10 years. 1t was a ter
rible strain for her, but she was kept 10
court through it ali.
Most intense interest prevailed among
the spectators, especially the many
women, who filled the galleries. Not all
OF them escaped the weakness of tears,
charge which can be brought against
more than one of the jurors
Captain Woods Efforts rated by many
as the supreme one of his professional
career.
At the outset he told the story OF the
crime as the prosecution sees it, and con-
nected McCue with the murderin man.
ner that evidently convinced his auditors
outside Of the jury box, aud two or tbres
times they could hardly reprcss nantes
tations of approval.
when you come to reason about this
matter you have to apply common
sense" said Captain Woods. Don't
you know that If any man had any
grudge against the accused he never
would have gone unsrmed to the house
at such an hour? No outsider who
hated either Mr.. and Mrs. McCue would
have dared TO have gone 10 a lighted
house as people walked the streets.
Remember that the murder was COM
mitted about $3.50 o'clock, and that he
who killed carried no weapon with him,
but found them all ready. You heard
the account given by Ernest Crawford
of the domestic conditions in the McCue
household; of the quqnels and threats
and accusations. To refute his state
ments of an unhappy home there were
brought in letters, but one OF which was
written in the year 1901.
"Not one of you could have failed to
be touched by the tender sentiments of
the letters of the deceased. Those let
tiers, for tenderness and purity and love,
could not have been surpassed. But
what did Miss BERTHE Crawford, sister OF
the deceased, say? She told of the alb.
sence of the husband for a week and his
Indifference to her aud to her illness
upon rsturning. He gave no greeting to
bis wife, the mother of his children,
alter an absence of a eek-only HAIRS l.
ness and indifference.
Captain Woods referred to The effort
of the defense to picture the "happy re-
lations" existing between Mr.. and Mrs
McCue. He said that domestic discord
is kept strictly secret, is kept Within the
sacred precincts Of the home, where the
outside world cannot see or hear. He
quoted the testimony of w. w. Brand,
a respected Charlottesville citizen, who
swore he had heard the accused adj.
dress his wife in the toughest Ian
guage," "like he would have killed her
in second"
Captain Woods quoted the evidence
OF Lawyer John S. Whitehall when
be went to see the accused in Jail Nc
Cue said that for four or FIVE years his
life had been perfect hell" that "that
woman (speaking of his wife) was the
most jealous woman that ne ever knew. j"
The speaker then turned to another
phase OF the case. IF the accused
was not knocked senseless on that
night" he said, she certainly foully
murdered his wife,
Mr. McCue had been away from home
from Thursday or Friday before, aud
reached home in the afternoon Of that
Sunday. His wife, with her little daugh-
ter Ruby. had also been on visit to
Mrs. Anderson, near Red Hill, in Abe
marie county, and had reached home an
hour or 50 ahead of her husband. Mark
you, they had been absent aud he had
been on one of his trips.
"No one knows what happened be-
tween husband and wife in the interval
up to the time Of the supper. But we
have the testimony as to what happened
Just after. Here was this man who has
since stated that his life was hell on
earth with that woman, as he called
her. Here was a dark night, and it was
nearly O. clock.
"rhe evidence has indicated that this
husband permitted his wife to leave
that home all by herself to walk up the
street in the dark She was seen alone.
Che wandered along and without the pro-
tecting arm of her husba I'd. There must
have been something wrong there at that
time. They returned from church.
"The testimony of Charles Skinner,
who heard the screams and later the
shot, proves that Mrs. McCue did not
come to a sudden death. She begged
and pleaded for her life. Any man who
had gone 10 do Mr.. McCue an injury
would never have remained to torture
the wife of the victim. The man who
killed Mrs. McCue that night had, by
beating her, gone TO point from which
he could not retreat, and he shot her
to conceal the evidence of his brutality.
Suppose he had been Knocked tenl.
poraily senseless. There was necessarily
but few minutes which could have
elapsed before he recovered. The FIRST
impulse of every true man would have
been to raise an alarm. Although
Grady got there after Dr. Frank McCue,
the frat man 10 arrive, there was perfect
quiet in that household for sometime
after the tragedy.
"rhere are facts you cam tget around.
Husband and brother were in that house
for several minutes before any one came
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