Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1905-02-23
WATSON CLEARED.
Found Not Guilty on Second
Ballot

AIuduuu' NuS (llS IlOl hlhS Wv
clared not guilty by the jury.
After the conclusion of the ar
guments ~ the case, at 10 O'Clock
last night, the - men in the case
were locked in their room, in
charge of bailiff, with instruc-
tions to return verdict this morn
ing, or as soon after as possible.
AS soon as court convened this
morning the jury announced thru
bailiff, that it had reached ver-
dict.
The news spread rapidly, aud
by the time the prisoner had been
brought in and the y jurors had
fill ed into their places, the court
room was crowded.
There was Il breathless silence
as the clerk read:
We, the jury, fiud the defend
ant, Taylor Jones Watson, not
guilty, as charged in the indict-
ment." "
The defendant burst into tears
as he turned and grasped the prfo-
erred hand of his counsel, Judge
Roy, and later accepted the con-
graduation of the small circle Of
| friends who have remained loyal to
him thruout the proceeding.
The jury wds polIed aud each
man announced that the verdict
was his. Later it was learned that
the acQuittal had been agreed upon
on the second ballot.
On the fifth day of last July DR..
Taylor Jones Watson took his
wife, Amanda, for drive in the
vicinity of their old home at
New London, Mo-, to which place
they had but recently returned
on Il visit from their home in Den
yer.
On their return the couple had
to cross the long bridge over Salt
river. near New London.
At dusk that evening DR.. Wat
son was found unconscious on the
bridge, the horse grazing ii short
distance away, and later the body OF
Mrs. Watson was found floating
on some rubbish in the river, be-
low the bridge.
When DR.. Watson recovered
consciousness, two days later, his
wife had been buried, and when
asked for an explanation he said
that the only thing he remembered
was driving on the bridge and
seeing a newspaper blow under the
horses feet, starting the animal to
plunging.
Later upon the instigation of
Mrs. Watson's father, an investi-
CATION was started and the body Of
Mrs. Watson was eXhumed and an
autopsy was held, as a result Of
which Dr.. Watson was indicted
charged with the murder Of his
wife by poisoning.
Tie motive set out was that he
had tired of his wife, and was in
fatuated with Miss Ada Burks. a
young milliner of Denver, and
wished t 0 secure h i S
wife's $50 600 life insurance.
After being reinterred the body
of Mrs. Watson was again eX;
humed that the attorneys for the
defense might have evidence.
For months the preparation for
a great legal battle went on and
thousands of dollars were spent
by the state and the defense in Sc
curing evidence.
Expert chemists, physicians, bac-
teriologists and toxologists We're
enlisted, and, on Jan. %, the case
was called before Judge Eby-
Almost week was consumed in
securing jury, so widespread had
become the interest in the case in
Rails county. where the case
was tried.
1t was the contention of the
state that DR.. Wasson had, while
Eon the drive on that fatal after
noon, given his wife poison-pre-
sumably morphine-and, after the
drug had done its deadly work
driven to the bridge over Salt riv-
er, thrown the body over, given
the horse cut with the whip aud
then feigned nnconseiousness,
The successful contention of the
, 80, . tlot tLa bn,sa b,I