The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1911-11-24
BEATT|E CONFESSES
BEFORE EXECUTION
Rev. Dir. Fix knelt in prayer
with the condemned man. lie prayed
for divine forgiveness for him. Beat.
tie appeared affected.
No Member Of Family There.

tie appeared affected.
No Member Of Family There.
No member of the Beattie family
was present at the execution nor at
at the penitentiary when the death
the reception of Douglas Beattie,
brother of the doomed man. had been
made in the superintendent office,
but the young man did not appear.
The failure of any members of the
family to be present was welcomed
by the prison authorities, for they
feared their charge might break down
at the last moment.
In downpour of rain, the twelve
witnesses to the execution toiled
/, through the murky dawn up the hill
. the penitentiary that looked down
the city. They were quickly con-
IT. I single file through the gates
,oM bars to the chamber where
0cL" as to offer his atonement.
TIL n 20 conversation.
WI, le chamber all was in read
mess. ne chair, a solid structure of
oak, would ordinarily have appeared
like the chairs seen in libraries. In
the somberly bare chamber, however,
it was sinister.
The Chair a Grewsome Sight.
Straps dangled from its arms and
back, and steel clamps appeared in
the light of the electric like tentacles
outstretched to clasp the victim. The
witnesses were seated six abreast, in
an angle of the room. They shuffled
their feet uneasily and when one
leaned forward to speak to another
his action was received with frowns.
Mai Woods, with two deputy ward
ems, addressed the witnesses, going
through some small formalities de-
manded by the law.
Then, with his two men trooping
behind, he passed out into the build
ing, where Beattie awaited the sum-
mons in his cell adjoining.
In the death chamber the voice or
the warden could be heard plainly
reading to the doomed man the final
summons. The warden's voice droned
on, it seemed to the witnesses, inter
minably. In real length, the compli-
ance with the law occupied only a
brief moment.
All Dark But the Chair.
Then, with Beattie between them,
the deputy wardens began their prog
ress toward the chair only few feet
away. When the procession, followed
by Supt. Woods started, signal was
given which plunged the death cham
Der into darkness, save for a single
light Immediately over the chair. This
was so hooded that it outlined the
chair in a circle of blazing radiance,
so intense that the remainder of the
room seemed in utter darkness. The
witnesses scarcely could see each
other. The prisoner saw nothing but
the chair.
There was no delay in preparing
for the end. Beattie took his place
the prison surgeon and the electri-
clans adjusted the straps, half dozen
clamps were quickly thrown Into
place and snapped. The cap, resembl'
ing a leather football head harness
was adjusted and the men stepped
back.
Death Current Turned On.
The warden raised his hand. In
stantly Beattie's body stiffened with
a such violence that the straps creaked
with the strain, the clamps ratified as
s. though they were cast by hands OF
Nd hot urbi had
been Henry Clay Beattie, jr., relaxed
1t was just 1928 a. m, when the
shock was applied. One minute later
Il Beattie was dead.
The surgeon had gone forward with
stethoscope, had listened for an
e other faint beating of the heart that
less than sixty seconds before had
{ lived He stepped back.
r "He is dead"
The witnesses filed out. One or
e two were CHASTITY pale as they stepped
into the early morning light,
o Carriages were waiting for the wit
:. nesses, and they We're driven rapidly
away The identity of but few was
It known. After the formalities had
been complied with and the witnesses
had gone, the body of Beattie was re
h moved from the chair and taken tC
the mortuary room adjoining. Here
d 1t was laid to await the coming OF
the coroner, who arrived shortly
" afterward The Rev. DR.. Fix remained
as the sole watcher.
All preparations had been made fol
d. the removal of the body, The elder
Beattie last night sent to the under
> taker the brown suit which his sor
is had worn in court when the jury de
clared his guilt. In this the body was
r clad for burial.
Story of the Crime.
y" The crime for which Henry Cla!
ID Beattie, jr., was executed today wa
one of the most sensational in thu
criminal history of Virginia. Interes
in the murder was countrywide owini
to its unusual features and the swift
id movement of justice.
On the night of July Is, last, Beat
e. tie drove his automobile into Rich
mond. carrying with him the body O