Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1909-12-06
TO PROVE ALIBI
FOR BATHTUB SUSPECT
Governors Son Declares He Will Prove Miss Virginia Wardlaw
Was ia New York on Day Mrs. Snead Is Supposed to
Have Died and Will Ask for Writ.

@If Miss Virginia Wardlaw, the most
refiened prisoner ever locked up in the
Essex county Jail, is not released
within forty eight hours l will prob
ably begin habeas corpus proceedings
demanding her liberty. Recent dis
coveries more than ever satisfy me.
and should convince the authorities, of
her innocence, and she should not be
forced to wait till the scheduled ex-
animation next Saturday, at which
time the police and prosecutor will be
obliged to admit that legally they have
no evidence to hold her for the murder
of her niece, Mrs. Oscey w NJ. Snead."
Lawyer Franklin W. Fort. son of
Governor Fort, made the above state
ment to STAR reporter today. after
he had a twenty minute talk with
Prosecutor Wilbur A. Mott. Mr.. Fort
declared that the prosecutor, realizing
that the East Orange bathtub murder
theory bubble was about to burst,
would. when a few more little discrep-
ancies were explained, direct the re-
lease of the prisoner. Family pride.
Mr.. Fort insisted, caused the reticence
of the four aged women. The victim $
body will be buried in Mt. Hope Gene
W.
Interment will be made in the same
plot there Mrs. Snead's baby was
buried MAY II, 1908. Members of the
class of III of Princeton will bear the
funeral and legal expenses, and have
provided fund SO that Mrs. Martina
Eliza Wardlaw, the S0-year-old grand
mother viii, for the present at least
receive $25 a week.
p A I....- -r1xaa =
III class. So was the late John Ward
law, a brother Of the prisoner The
initiative, however, was taken by Dr-
E. d. Lyon, of Grand View, n. T.
There will be conference this after
noon in Trenton of many of the friends
of the Wardlaw family. at Which final
arrangements will be perfected in the
attempt to establish the innocence OF
the prisoner and bring about her free
dom. Mr. Fort left Newark at noon
today to attend the conference.
Mr.. Fort would not say what facts
he had to show the innocence of the
Wardlaw woman. but it is believed that
he has established a complete alibi.
The victim was found dead in the
hathtub on last Monday afternoon.
PHYSICIANS declare that the woman had
died twenty-four hours previously. Be
lief is that Mr. Fort has proof con-
elusive that on Sunday Miss Wardlaw,
he aunt, visited her mother and sisters
i'm their home on West Twenty-second
street, and did not return to the North
Fourteenth street address until Mon
day afternoon, when she discovered
the death of her niece.
The police insist that woman whom
the neighbors believed to have been
Mrs. Wardlaw was at the East Orange
house on Monday at noon. While Mr.
Fort would not touch upon the matter
it is pointed out that that person was
Mrs. Caroline Martin, mother of the
DEAD young woman II that be true
then the mother and not the aunt was
the first to discover the dead body
She might have then and there returned
to New York and told her mother and
sister, and then Miss Wardlaw came
to East Orange. and reported the case
to the police.
Mrs. Lydia Kane. of 10 Wakeihan
avenue, says that early in November
a woman whom she believes now to
be Miss Wardlaw, called to rent her
house. but did not do so on the ground
that the ''bathtub was not big enough.
Mrs. G. BAIL Hooper, OF II Wakeman
avenue also saw. the caller and believes