East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1911-11-24

Guilty or innocent, I am proud of
my son."
In a second statement issued by
Rev. Fix he stated that Beattie de-
sired to thank his friends for their
kind letters and also the public "for
any sympathy it felt toward him"
Beattie admitted the murder was
premeditated to the ministers. He
/ said he wanted his wife out of the
way, because he wanted to live with
"a woman" probably Beulah Bin
ford, whom he did not intend to
marry.
He confessed he was glad his wife
was dead as he fought he was free.
He arranged. in advance, to tell the
highwayman story but lacked cum
ming and was not a good actor.
History OF the Case
On dark night last July Henry
Clay Beattie returned from a joyride
on the lonely Midlothian Turnpike
with the bloodstained body of his
wife held close to his side in his au-
to- But an hour before the couple
had left the home of the girls uncle.
Thomas Owen. There the body of
the body woman was taken, and there
Beattie told a story of a bearded
highwayman, who held UP his ma
chine in the road, after the auto had
nearly run him down. Beattie said
that when he started his auto to run
away from the bearded stranger. who
was armed with a shotgun. the man
fired at the machine killing Mrs.
Beattie
While the family of the dead girl
mourned her death at home Reattie.
with police officials and private de-
tectives secured the neighborhood for
traces of the bearded highwayman.
The blood soaked auto in which he
had carried his wifes body was press
ed into service and Beattie imself ran
the gruesome vehicle up and down
the Midlothian Turnpike through the
night.
Just as dawn broke on July 10.
Luther l.. Sherer, Chesapeake and
Ohio Railroad detective, brought into
the case by the girls family reached
the scene of the crime with a brace
of bloodhounds. Then the first sus-
picion of Beattie himself took root.
The bloodhounds circled wide about
the place through woods and fields.
but baying loudly they invariably re-
turned to the spot, where Beattie de-
clared his auto stood when his wife
was shot, a short time later a ne
gro nanny" found a single-barrel-
ed shotgun. Identified by Beattie as
the gun with which his wife was kill
ed, at a railroad crossing about half
way between the scene of the crime
and the owen home.
Beattie in his stories Of the killing
of his wife told widely differing tales.
He was particularly contradictory in
his description of the man whom he
accused of the shooting FOR three
days detectives worked with all their
energy without definite result. but
gathering a mass of circumstances
that seemed to point to Beattie. The
history of the young son of the veal
thy merchant. as a Lothario of South
Richmond and his relations with the
beautiful seventeen year old Beulah
Binford, were discovered. The de-
tectives unearthed the story of Henry
Clay Beattie Trout, the child born
to Beulah Bnford and Henry Clay
Beattie in 1909.
Meanwhile the body Of the murder
ed girl-wife was buried from the
church where a short year before
she had been married to Henry Clay
Beattie.
on the Friday following, Coroner
Loving began the inquest into the
death Of Mrs. Beattie. On the stand,
Beattie, under instructions from his
lawyer Harry NJ. Smith Jr.. declined
Continued on page ten.)