The Washington times., 1911-09-08
WEND[NBURG IN
CLOSING APPEAL
TO BEATT|E JURY
Prosecutor Makes Strong
Argument Against
Prisoner.
(continued from First Page.)

the Judge to find him Not guilty That
proposition is made plain by the instruc-
tions as / shall show you in the course
Of this argument.
II cannot carry this argument into
new fields. There are no new fields TO
explore. Mr.. Carter has mapped and
chartered every feature of the case.
Mr.. Smith now made much of the
fallibility of circumstantial evidence as
shown. He made a point Of the dis
rupting of the testimony OF the Bon Air
dancers"
Attacks the Commonwealth.
Mr.. Smith then reviewed the evidence
OF Roland Sydnor, the Midlothian dairy
man, who saw a young man "1oodAg
like Beattie" at the scene Of the homi-
eide early in the evening. Next Mr..
Smith attacked the Commonwealth for
not making an opening statement when
the case began.
'iIt of course gives opposing counsel
in closing an opportunity to lay stress
on evidence and alleged facts to which
our attention may not have been par
ticularly directed"
Referring to the prisoner. Mr.. Smith
said:
This young man has been proven to
be a young man of more than ordinary
a good education at preparatory school
After he graduated he went into his
fathers store, and now at this early
age, he has taken charge Of the manage
Inent of two departments.
N"'You saw him on the witness stand
You heard him for several hours tell
every detail of this case. You heard
him subjected on the witness stand 70
q rigid: to a merciless, and l may say
without disrespect, to a heartless cross
examination.
However, else he may have impressed
you, gentlemen OF the Jury he has i'm
pressed you as a young man of more
than ordinary intelligence. And yet the
theory of the murder would make this
young man outs.a Ounce, an idiot in the
preparation of this scheme Of brutal
murder"
Mr.. Smith shot out the words Idiot
and Ounce like the crack of a rife,
and his high pitched but resonant voice
carried for a long distance.
Attacks the Detectives.
For II it be true that he did this
thing, no fouIer 'fiend exists in hell
They want you to believe that this In
telligent, kind-hearted young man con.
ceived this murder.
Now. gentlemen, does not such a
question stagger belief, and make the
senses reel?'
this county come here and say that
this young man is not a kind-hearted,
well-behaved young man. There is not
a woman who can do IT, not a man who
can do It, not child who can do II.
THE detectives have gone through
the county like human hellhounds, try
ing to prove that Henry c. Beattie, jr.,
is not a man Of the utmost integrity,
but I tell ycu not one man, woman. or
child. have they been able to find who
would say that he was not a young
man Of high intelligence and good char
acter."
They would have you believe that
this man, a loving son. a devoted faith
er, an affectionate husband, conceived
q crime that outclasses all the crimes
Of the Borgias. They would tell you
that for three days he lived N his faith
er's house, IN that God-fearlng home
with the thought Of that crime in his
brain. II Is inconceivable, gentlemen
and they cannot argue you out of It,
They would have you believe that this
90 brutal. so bloodthirsty, as to be
worthy the iendish mind Of an Amer1-
can Indian.
Calls Theory Impossible. q.
"If you can believe that such a dast-
ardly crime could not have been pre-
meditated by this young man, then your
-
Not guilty
According to these detectives theory,
he goes out on the Midlothian road and
hides a gun behind a stump. Gentle
men. there is no better road than that
road in the entire country.
ut is the most splendid road around
and about Richmond, a road lined with
beautiful homes, a road that is filled
at all times with people. They would
have you believe that this young man
chose this popular, much-traveled,
closely-peopled pike, as the scene OF
the crime where everybody could see
him; that he courted observations
where he hoped that people could Wit
ness the crime. Why. gentlemen, the
man who conceived the crime as they
portrayed IT to you, is no more or less
than an idiot
Then, gentlemen. they bring into
this crime the cousin Paul Beattie, this