The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-09-06


young man under the focus of so many
eyes grew more and more fidgety. His
eyes shifted nervously from face to
face of the jurymen before him. He
could not see his counsel without turn
ing his head painfully, but more and
more often he sought to catch Smiths
eye before answering, like a fighter
looking through the ropes for a tip
from his trainers.
The prisoners counsel hurried
through to the end from this line of
questioning, anticipating the attack Of
the commemorative prosecutor. Smith
had his client say that on the night
following the murder when his cousin
Paul was at the Owen home, he had
instructed Paul to carry message to
the Binford girl.
paul told me Beulah was sorry for
me-" Beattie said, "and l told him to
tell her not to bother me-to leave me
alone"
"Did you tell Paul to warn Beulah
that if she told what she knew you
would kill her if it took 100 years."
81 surely did not"
Beattie also was led to say that on
the second night after the murder he
had received an intimation that his
arrest was imminent he phoned to his
cousin Paul to learn if the police had
yet arrested her as a witness.
At the end of six hours on the wit
ness stand Beattie found himself
shared by the relentless cross eXami-
nation. He was sitting clad in a coat
bespattered with the blood of the wife
whom he is charged with having muir
dered The examiner had insisted that
he put it on. BY him was shirt, also
bloodstained. Before him stood Louis
Wendenburg, commemorative prose
cutor, driving at him question after
question relating to those blood stains.
Young Beattie faltered for the first
time His nerve had been unusual,
his answers up to that time ready al
most to the point of glibness. But at
this critical point he could not lift his
eyes to meet those of the questioner,
his tongue clicked against dry lips.
And Just when the prisoner was
foundering at his worst Judge Wat
son announced that court stood ad-
| journed, the cross examination of the
witness to be continued. Had there
been any sports present they would
have said that Beattie was saved by
the gong.
The climax came Unexpectedly. In
the little closed space not more than
three feet wide, where the dense jam
that had filed the courtroom parted
to give the witness room to place his
feet, bits of grewsome drama were
spilled while all in the courtroom held
their breath.
Beattie had endeavored to indicate
to the prosecutor just how he had held
the body of his wife after she had been
shot by the highwayman who he says
was her assassin. He spread out his
left hand and indicated with his right
hand the motion of manipulating the
steering wheel of an automobile.
"There, take that little boy" COM
manded Wendenburg, "and show the
Jury by using his body how you sup
ported your wife after she had been
shot"
A barefooted little farmers boy, who
had been acting as copy runner for the
reporters, drew hastily away from the
young man in the chair as he stretched
out his hand to seize him. Then the
impulse to be the center of all eyes
overcame the lads timidity and he al
lowed Beattie to encircle his waist
with his arm. Beattie's left hand
spread out across his back just above
the buttons on his cut down trousers.
$50 that is how you supported your
wife's body after she was shot. l ask
YOU now to look at the left sleeve of
this shirt, which you wore on the night
of the murder, and tell me if you see
any blood on it."
Wendenburg passed the shirt up tc
Beattie The witness touched the gar,
ment gingerly, and as he turned it oveI
and over the muscles of his cheeks
kept pulsing, pulsing. He found nc
blood on the left sleeve.
"Now look on the left breast and the
left shoulder of that jacket" the prose
cutor commanded, "and point out Il
the Jury the blood spots that were
made when your wife's head fel
against you as you have indicated"
, Beattie craned his neck to look at tn,
shoulder and sleeve. There were NJ
i dark stains there, although one coult
) be seen In the middle Of his back ant
another on the tail of the coat at tn,
3 back.