The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-12-11
MRS. BRADLEY, IN TEARS,
Tells HER STORY
Testifies About Her Acquaintance
With Arthur Brown, Of Utah.
RECITAL AFFECTS THE JURY

Yielded to Protestations Of Love
He Promised to Make Her His
Wife-How He Finally Refused
Near Physical Collapse.
Washington, D. C.-With hundreds
Of eyes levelled at her and the son
Of the man she killed gazing stead
lily into her face Mrs. Annie M. Brad
ley took the witness stand in her own
defense in her trial for the murder
of ex-senator Arthur Brown, Of Utah.
in the Raleigh Hotel last December.
Mrs. Bradley ross almost willingly
when the bailiff called her name,
She took the oath and firmly mounted
the two steps leading to the witness
chair, but when she faced the curious
crowd she turned deathly white and
seemed about to faint. There was
no one neal but a court Official and
as she gave her full name in answer
to a question it was impossible even
for him to hear what she said.
For nearly two hours the court
ste~nographers were compelled to re-
peat Mrs. Bradley's answers 1t
seemed impossible for her to gather
the strength to make herself heard.
When court adjourned at 8 o'clock p.
M, by careful and steady questioning
Judge Powers, chief counsel for Mrs.
Bradley, had directed her through
the entire course Of her affair with
Brown, from the time she met him in
the spring Of 1892 until the end OF
November, 1906, a few days before
he started on the journey to Wash
ington that ended in his death.
1t was a pitiful story that Mrs.
Bradley told, a story Of an infatua-
ton that forced the woman to give up
family, home and friends for the man
who constantly promised to make her
his wife, who professed undying de-
votion to her continually telling her
that she was "the only bright spot in
his life" yet who dragged her through
the mire and forced her name upon
the lips of every man in Salt Lake
City.
Mrs. Bradley said she was thirty
Ave years Of age; that she was born
in Kansas City and educated in Den
yer; that she had had smallpox and
pneumonia, and had been badly hurt
by a blow on the head when a child.
She went to Salt Lake City in 1890,
and had lived there ever since. She
had occupied a clerical position in
the Salt Lake Water Works for three
years and eight months.
Were you ever married?" she was
asked by Judge Powers.
Eyes, sir; I was married to Clar-
enca Bradley a week after I left the
water works" Two children, a boy
and q girl, resulted from this union,
che said.
Mrs. Bradley Joined several liter
airy and political organizations, and
through them became acquainted
with Senator Brown. She began to
take an active part in Republican pol
ttics in Utah, where women vote, and
became secretary Of the State Com
mittee. She was divorced from Brad
ley in 1905. Weeping so bitterly
that what she said could hardly be
heard, she confessed that her intimate
relations with Brown had began in
1898, and that she learned to love
him beyond expression At one
time he wanted to get a divorce and
marry her, but she would not consent
to break up his home, and tried to
break off the relationship between
them.
She cried, she said, when Mr..
Brown made his first race for the
United States Senate and was de-
feated, but he cieered her with the
assurance that, whatever happened,
they would stay together.
Mrs. Bradley told about the birth
of two boys; of how she had agreed
in 1901 that Brown should get a di-
vorce and marry her, and when she
had warned him that it would cost
him his position he had declared that
he cared for nothing but her. She
went to Grand Junction, COL, in that
year, and Notwithstanding the place
was 900 miles from Salt Lake City,
the Senator came to see her every ten
days.
While they were at Grand Junction,
Mrs. Bradley continued, Brown as
sured her that his arrangements for a
divorce were progressing, and that a
compromise with Mrs. Brown had
been agreed upon. Mrs. Bradley said
che told him to give the wife and her
children all his property. He then
gaze Mrs. Bradley q ring.
Nearly every member Of the jury
showed the effect of Mrs. Bradleys
testimony. Few of the jurors could
keep back the tears as she soooed
out her pathetic story. Max brown
the dead mans son., did not take his
eyes off Mrs. Bradley's face from the
minute she took the stand, and in all
In the sea of faces which Mrs. Bradley
confronted there was not n Oh
which was not written the reflex OF
the feelings Of the lone little figure
in black barring her soul to the world