Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1911-12-01
BEATT|E CONFEsSES
HE slew HIS WIFE
virglnian Dies Leaving State
ment With Ministers.
SORRY He COMMITTED CRIME
Document Signed In Presence OF
Clergy Admitting He Was Muir
derer of Young Wife Made
Public After Death.

Richmond, Va.--Henry Clay Beattie,
Ir., died in the electric chair as PEN
atty for the murder Of Mrs. Louise
beattie, his wife Immediately after
the execution a confession was given
out as follows:
II Henry Clay Beattie, Jr., desirous
Of standing right before God and man,
do confess my guilt of the crime
charged against me. Much that was
published concerning the details was
not true, but the awful fact. without
the narrowing circumstances, remains.
For this action / am truly sorry, and,
believing that am at peace with God
and am soon to pass into his presence,
this statement is made"
Beattie's confession Was followed by
the following statement by the attend
Ing ministers:
This statement was signed in the
presence of the two attending minis
ters and is the only statement that can
and will be made public by them. Mr..
Beattie desired to thank the many
friends for kind letters and express
sions Of interest and the public for
whatever sympathy was felt or ex-
pressed"
In torrential downpour Of rain,
the twelve witnesses to the execution
toiled through the murky dawn up the
hill from which the penitentiary looks
down upon the city. They were quick
ly marshaled and conducted, single
file, through gates OF steel bars to the
chamber where Beattie was to offer
his atonement.
Within the chamber all was in read
fness. The chair, a solid structure of
oak, would ordinarily have appeared
like the chairs seen in scores of IL
braries throughout the land. In the
somberly bare chamber however, IT.
seemed sinister. Straps dangled from
its arms and back and shining steel
clamps appeared In the light of the
electrics like tentacles outstretched to
clasp victim.
The witnesses were seated six
abreast in an angle of the room. They
shufied their feet uneasily and when
one leaned forward to speak 70 an
other his action was received with
frowns. Major Woods, with two dep
uty wardens, addressed the witnesses
going through some small forriaitties
demanded by the law Then. with his
two men trooping behind, he pass ed
out into the building where Beattie
awaited the summons In his cell ad
Joining.
There was no delay In preparing for
the end. Beattie took his place, the
prison surgeon and the electricians
adjusted the straps. half-dozen
clamps were quickly thrown into place
and snapped. The cap, resembling a
leather football head harness, was adj
1usted and the men stepped back. The
warden raised his hand. Instantly
Beattie's body stifened with such VIC
lence that the straps creaked with the
strain. the clamps ratified as though
they were castaIets In the hands of
6eath, and then that which once had
been Henry Clay Beattie, Jr., relaxed.
The surgeon had gone forward, and
with stethoscope had listened for
another faint beating of the heart that
less than sixty seconds before had
lived He stepped back, and said:
HE is dead"
The witnesseG filed out One or two
were CHASTITY pale as they stepped into
the early morning light. No member
of the Beattie family was present.