Omaha daily bee., 1909-12-20
MRS. MARTIN IS HISTORICAL
Woman Charged with snead Murder
Creates Scene in Court.
HEARING GOES OVER TO MONDAY
Mrs. Martin Denies Any Connection
with sister, Mrs. snead, aud Says
she Has Not seen Her
for Years.

NEW YORK, Dec. 19.-Mrs. Caroline w.
Martin astonished the court yesterday by
her denial Of any connection save that Of
blood, with her sister, Mrs. Mary Snead.
Both women were brought before a police
magistrate to answer whether or not they
would fight extradition to New Jersey,
where with a third sister, Virginia Ward
law, they are all charged with the murder
of Ocey snead. Mrs. Martins daughter.
A further hearing will be held on Monday.
The sisters stood side by side heavily
yelled as always. and robed in fold on
fold of black. Sister Mary was mute, but
Sister Caroline showed herself the fighter
of the family.
Il had not seen this woman she said.
for a long time until she came to the
Tombs. l knew little Of her. We have
nothing to do with each other. Our af-
fairs are entirely separate
Squat, broad and almost shapeless, she
planted herself in stolid opposition to the
court and the detectives, fighting for time
and public sympathy. When she lifted her
veil a face was disclosed, as brown as a
walnut shell and so wrinkled that the
eyes we're almost hidden.
Mrs. Martin Questions LAW.
The court allowed Mrs. Martin consid-
cradle latitude at first. Mrs. Martin
seemed determined that her sister should
not be dragged into the case.
When Magistrate Cornell announced that
he would have to hold both the women,
trouble began.
Il understand said the court. that the
grand jury will sit next Tuesday and you
probably will be indicted"
Mrs. Martin began to question the regu-
larity of the proceedings. She wanted to
know under what section of the code the
hearing was held. She was informed and
was led from the bridge.
Then she collapsed. She protested that
she did not want to go back to the Torabs
and resisted the officers who tried to lead
her from the court room. Crying out hys-
terically, sobbing and protesting, she was
taken out Of the room and back to prison.
An East Orange newsboy whom detec-
tives had brought here today, identified
Mrs. Martin as a woman whose handbag
he said he had carried for her in East
Orange, not far from the scene Of the
tragedy, on November %.
Prosecutor Mott said he regarded as sig
nifieant the discovery that Mrs. Martin
had visited Fletcher Snead, the long
missing husband of Ocey Snead, during the
latter's voluntary exile in st. GATHERINGS,
Ontario.
Up to the time Snead's whereabouts be-
came known all the members Of the fam
lily had asserted, to the best of their be-
lief, he was dead.
Evidence Said to he Strong.
The prisoners both manifestly dreaded
the ordeal. 1t was known tina recent
revelations have convinced Prosecutor Mott
of Essex county, where Ocey Snead, the
young victim of the tragedy, met her death,
that he will have no difficulty in securing
their extradition.
This evidence is largely that which the
prosecutor has unearthed in the tin boxes
which Mrs. Martin left with the clerk In
the Hotel Bayard, where she was arrested.
Every document, the prosecutor insists,
strengthens his conviction that Mrs. Snead
was not a suicide.
He lays stress on the fact that not one
of the letters supposedly in Oeey Snead's
handwriting found among Mrs. Martins
effects had been mailed. All are written
on fresh notepaper and apparently had
been little handled. Mr.. Mott declares
careful comparison has satisfied him that
If the note found with the clothing of the
bathtub victim was in her handwriting
these letters were not.