The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1911-12-01
BEATTIE ADMITS GUILT
BEFORE ELECTR0CUTI0N
Young Virginian Pays Penalty In the
Electric Chair-Signs Writ
ten Confession.

Richmond, Va.--Henry Clay Beat
tie, Jr., convicted Stayed OF his wife
last July, was electrocuted in the
State Penitentiary at 1923 o'clock a.
m. One minute after the shock he
was pronounced dead. lie went to
death unshaken.
Beattie confessed his crime and
maintained his nerve to the last.
The confession that he left behind
was given to the press by the Rev. j.
j. Fix and the Rev. Benjamin Dennis,
who attended him to the chair, about
three and a half hours after Beattie
was dead They met the newspaper
men in a parlor at Murphy's Hotel
and handed out typewriter copies of
the wife-slayers admission that cir
cumstantial evidence had not gone
awTy in fastening the crime on him.
They would In no way discuss or am
plify the confession. 1t read:
81, Henry Clay Beattie, Jr., desirous
of standing right before God and man,
do. on this, the 23d day of November,
1911, 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 | am at peace with God and
am soon to pass into His presence,
this statement is made.
"HENRY CLAY BEATTIE, JR."
The Rev. John j. Fix, pastor of the
Presbyterian Church Of which the eld-
er Beattie is an officer, appeared at
the prison before dawn. With prayers
and entreaties he besought Beattie to
tell the truth.
In a torrential downpour of rain the
twelve witnesses to the execution had
toiled up the hill from which the peni
tentiary looks down upon the city.
They were conducted in silence, sim
gle file, through gates of steel to the
chamber where Beattie was TO die.
Within the chamber all was in
readiness.
The witnesses were seated, six
abreast, in an angle Of the room. They
shuffled uneasily, and when one lean
ed forward to speak to another his ac-
ton was received with frowns. Major
Woods, with two deputy wardens, ad-
dressed the witnesses, as formally de-
manded by the law. Then, with his
two men, he passed out into the build
ing where Beattie awaited the sum-
mons in his cell.
In the death chamber the voice OF
the Warden could be plainly heard
reading to the doomed man the final
summons.
The Warden's voice droned on, it
seemed to the witnesses, intermin-
ably. In reality the compliance with
the law occupied only brief moment.
Then, with Beattie between them, the
deputy wardens began their progress
toward the chair, only a few feet
away.
The Warden raised his hand. In
stantly Beattie's body stiffened, the
straps creaked. the clamps ratified.
Henry Clay BeGttie, Jr.. was dead.
Ii was Just 7.23 a. m. when the
shock was applied. One minute later
Beattie was dead
The surgeon had gone forward and
with a stethoscope listened for anoth-
er beating of the heart. He stepped
back.
He is dead"
The witnesses filed out. One or
two were CHASTITY pale as they stepped
into the early morning light
The astounding and even smiling
calmness that bore Beattie up during
his trial sustained him when he was
led from his cell TO death. He enter.
ed the chamber actually wearing a
smile on his lips. No whimper had
escaped him throughout the night
| there had been no outbursts of hys.
| terra.