The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-11-17
Detectives Tell of Spencer
Statement at His Trial.
PRISONER IS NEAR COLLAPSE.
Springfield (Mass.) Man Accused of
Young Woman's Murder Interrupts
Trial, and Cruelty Is Resorted
to In Forcing Quet-M other
and Sister Attend Court.

Springfield, Mass, Nov. 16.-In the
quiet of the superior court one Of the
Massachusetts police officers was dron-
ing through his testimony at the trial
of Bertram G. Spencer, who is accused
of the murder of Martha b. Blackstone
on March 81, 1910. "And then l heard
Spencer say explained the detective
as he recounted the confession of the
prisoner on the morning after his ar.
rest and admitted into evidence, "the
authorities can do anything they like
with me so long as they don't send ME
to the electric chair" ..ro'.e.
Spencer sprang to the front of the
cage, raised a trembling arm and
screamed at the top of his voice:
"Why don't you tell the truth?" ,s.
His whole body shook, his face
twitched and his long, sticky hair fell
down over his forehead. 1t took a
strangle hold to force him into his
seat, and then, as the paroXysm
passed, he sat there in heap, whim-
pering like a cold puppy. Again he
asked, this time querulously, "Why
uldn ne tell the trutnF" p,
A little later on the attorney as
signed by the commonwealth to defend
Spencer made his opening address. He
referred to the incident which by its
uneXpectedness had shaken the nerves
/ of the courtroom as an example of the
outburst to which the man known as
the gentleman burglar" had been liza
BILE all his life. But it wasn't upon
these impulses alone that the insanity
plea was advanced. His lawyer
sketched the history of his ancestors.
five on his fathers side and five on his
mothers side, who had either been
committed to institutions or had died
of maladies kindred to softening of the
brain. In addition, he reviewed Spen-
GERS early life and told how his father
had whipped him when he couldn't
learn his child's prayer; how the boy
had been beaten by his father with a
horsewhip until the whip broke and
the child of nine lay for several hours
in pool of his own blood; how his
father had tied him to a tree in the
woods near their home and had whip
ped him and then left him tied there
for long time; how he had been sent
away from home and upon returning
had been found by his father, and how
at this time the fight between the two
had ended in the older Spencer stand
Ing in his doorway and firing five times
at the figure of his son running down
the road.
The combined stories of three de-
tectives made a pretty full history of
the way in which he lost his nerve af-
ter one night in jail and asked them to
let him get his burden off his mind
They agreed without question that he
admitted the murder of Miss Black.
stone and that he told them that he
was the man who had been breaking
into houses of Springfield for the two
years before his arrest.
Spencer has the look Of man on the
verge of going to pieces. The most
noticeable outward expression of his
condition is a continuous trembling OF
the foot that is crossed over the other
Most of the time he sits with his
eyes fixed upon row of books above
Judge Crosby's head, and he appears
to be giving little attention to the tes
timony.
Spencer's mother and sister are il
court and the latter speaks to him oc
casionally, but she seemed to have toe
little control Of herself to offer mucl
encouragement.