The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-10
Mother of Dead Officer Makes Charge of Murder h
 Her Letters
DECLARES DEAD SON TOLD
 HER HE VAS MURDERED
Hot Wranale Ensues in the Naval Court Owing to the Objection of Mrs. Sutton's Lawyer to Read
 Ing Certain Letters.

Annapolis. Md, August a.-No sooner had Mrs. Sutton taken the stand today to testify in the inquiry into the death | of her son. Lieutenant James N Sutton. l United States Marine corps, than Major l Leonard, judge advocate, demanded that the letters of Mrs. Sutton, read at the ] closed session of the board last Saturday, be read in public. along with the record 1 of the whole meeting.
 We have been accused of holding a 1 tar-chamber session" declared the judge i advocate, and besides there are sundry l other mothers who are entitled to know i why their sons are accused of crime
 A hot wrangle ensued Lawyer Davis, counsel for Mrs. Sutton. did not offer ] an open objection to the reading of the letters but he argued against the neces- sty of making them known. inasmuch as they had no actual bearing on the evil dence in the investigation. The letters were four in number, and they were written to H. M swartz. a clerk in the marine corps paymaster's office in Wash i ington, D. C., by Mrs. Sutton. The court decided that they be read. Sensational Charges. In the letters Mrs. Sutton, in a dra- matic manner, declared that her son.s l companions conspired at Carvel Hall to beat the young lieutenant that Lieuten ant Utley was the prime mover in the plans; that he, Adams and osterman set upon Sutton and beat him until he was almost dead, and that her son was shot to cover the alleged vicious attack upon I'm fatta
 l might be described as the expression of Mrs Sutton's fixed beliefs as to the 1 events incident to her sons death. en- ], trely aside from the question of the ! adequacy of the grounds for such beliefs. 1 They contained little that was really new. although showing very hitter-feel-
 Ing on her part against number of the i officers of the marine corps and bristled 1 with eondemnations of Sutton's brother officers and the finding of the first in- 1 quest relative to Sutton's death Under the cross examination that fol- lowed. Mrs. Sutton bore herself well. To- day three more witnesses were sum- moned one of them a resident of this city, Charles H. Russell. Another Is Corporal Todd of the marine corps cor poral of the guard on the night of Sut- tons death, and who was present in the office of the guard when Lieutenant Ut ley reported to Lieutenant Bevan, ac- cording to the testimony, that Lieutenant 1 Sutton was creating trouble in the camp The third witness Is a Washington man whose name was not divulged at the ses- sion of the court today
 All Letters Made Public.
 All the letters of Mrs Sutton. which were ordered made public, were addressed to Swartz and altogether make about 5000 words
 In the first one she wrote: "I want to speak to you in confidence but don't feel that can do until hear from you and if you were not Jimies' friend I will admire you the more so for you to say so than not to be, and make belief that you were. These brutes that killed him are alive and seemingly doing well. while my boy is dead five months today. Tell me I can trust you and that you would have liked Jimmie and I will write you"
 In the second letter, which was written on April 9, evidently to Swartz, Mrs. Sut- ton says that after Jimmie was killed Captain Mark and Lieutenant Utley took his keys and went through his trunk and everything. Can you tell me if they had right to touch anything? To make it more horrible Utley was with Adams and Osterman when Jimmie was killed I believe he engineered that fight; that 1t was all planned" Mrs. Sutton then de- scribed the meeting of the officers at Carvel hall the night of the tragedy and laid emphasis upon the fact that while her son was talking to Miss Stewart and Dr. Coleman. of the academy. Oster- man and Adams withdrew and had a talk.
 Now. at 1 o'clock Sunday morning. the letter continues Jimmie was beaten to death. That shot fired to hide the crime His forehead was crushed. nose broken. lip cut open, teeth knocked out and an incision in the head half an inch long. Just think what my poor boys suffering must have been he was beaten to death by those wild beasts Good God MT. Swartz. this was the work of wild men and this on their own sworn testimony and still they are walking the streets today while my poor boy lies in the grave stamped a suicide"
 Hatred of Officers.
 Referring to the l-fated automobile ride, Mrs Sutton declared that if Jim mie' had been himself he never would have asked them (Adams, Utley and Os- terman) to ride with him. Adams and Utley hated him. she declared. Mention is also made of Lieutenants Potts. Sum ner and Shearer who were in another au- tomobile on the night of the tragedy She speaks of money transaction between her son and Shearer and several times during her correspondence with Swartz expresses a strong dislike for him in un- complimentary terms.
 .On october l." she wrote, Jimmie borrowed $311 from the bank. On Octo- Der he gave Shearer check for S13O. and l wrote Shearer and asked him what it was for. He said he had Just cashsd 1t for Jimmie. I don't believe him and wrote and told him what thought of six men who would let man in a helpless condition be taken out and beaten to death"
 On subsequent occasions when she had written Shearer his replies were curt, she