The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-11-24
BLOW TO DEFENSE
OF NAN PATTERSON.
Theory of Death for Love Dam.
aged by Proof That Young
Beat Girl.
New York Sun Special Services

New York Sun S4eo1ai service.
v q New, York, Nov 24.-Ihe theory
I killed himself for the love of his pretty
Young mistress, Nan Patterson, the
chorus girl. who is on trial for MUIR
der, has been damaged, if not destroyed,
by evidence showing that Young beat
Il her in the face and cursed her on the
Ilight before the tragedy, :,
That fact, coupled with proof that
the bullet was fred downward into the
upper left breast lends an aspect of
improbabilitV to the suicide idea.
But nothing has yet been shown to
Indicate motive for the deliberately
planned murder which the prosecution
described at the beginning of the trial.
The little, whitefaeed prisoner is OBJ
wiously devoid of courage or brutality:
She is of the fearful, morbid, selfish
rather than the passionate type. 1t is
hard to imagine such a creature pos
Isessed Of a grand or heroic emotion. e
Cursed and Beat Her.
few hours before her lover cursed
her and beat her she was also sworn
lat and beaten by her tall brother-in-
ness, who is said to have bought for
her that day the very revolver which
was found, warm and smoking, in
Caesar Young's pocket as he lay dy-
ing across her knees in hanson cab
she next morning.
All thru these scenes pending the
death of her lover, Nan was crying and
end of the income, which, it is said, she
valued more than anything else.
If there was carefully laid plot
and the purchase Of the revolver seems
to Indicate a well formed design of
some sort-the evidence as to motive
thus far suggests that it aimed at some
thing short of death.
A strange transformation is going on
In the prisoner as she sits day by day
beside her white-haired father. When
she came into court at first she was
pale, with pallor Of prison, but there
was, nevertheless, a curious hardness of
her face.
Back to Her Girlhood.
Whether it is the presence Of the
stern men who are demanding her life,
the white skeleton hanging on a steel
rod and the blood stained clothing that
have frightened her back into her girl
hood, or whether it is her sense of help
lessness and the constant association
with her broken-hearted father that
has revived the spirit of her earlier
years, it is hard to say. But the traces
which life of folly stamped upon her
features have disappeared, and today
there was an almost baby-like limo,
cence in her face.
But in the courtroom was to be seen
an almost perfect example Of an order,
ly and decorous tribunal. A large
square, high-ceilinged, well-lighted
room, with a soft-spoken, alert young
II judge in black robes, and the lawyers
for and against the prisoner vieing with
each other in politeness. No harsh
words, no wrangling, no levity. The
]. first man in the audience who laughed
out at the clumsy utterance of wiz
ness was thrust from the place by order
4 of the judge.
Her Thanksgiving Day.
in her cell in the Tombs prison, Nan
Patterson ate her dinner alone today.
II had hoped to be home for Thanks
giving she said "especially on &C,
count of my mother, who is very ILL
But the celebration is only postponed u
A letter which Miss Patterson re-
ceived from her mother today said:
We expected you to be home fol-
Thanksgiving, but there can be nc
Thanksgiving for us till you are set
free