Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-11-30
BEATTIE CONFESSES
He SLEW HIS WIFE
VirgInian Dies Leaving State
ment With Ministers.
SORRY He COMMITTED CRIME
Document Signed in Presence of
Clergy Admitting He Was Muir
derer of Young Wife Made
Public After Death.

Richmond, Va.-HenTy Clay Beattie.
Jr., died in the electric chair as a pen
atty for the murder of Mrs. Louise
Beattie, his wife. Immediately after
the execution q confession was given
cut as follows:
I Henry Clay Beattie, Jr., DESTROYS
Of standing right before God and man,
do 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 I am truly sorry, and,
believing that I am at peace with God
and am soon to pass into his presence,
this statement is made"
Beattie's confession was followed by
the following statement by the attend
ing minister's:
This statement was signed in the
presence of the two attending linis-
tiers and is the only statement that can
and will be made public by them. Mr.
Beattie desired to thank the many
friends for kind letters and express
sions Of interest and the public for
whatever sympathy was felt or ex-
pressed"
In a tOrrential dOwnpOur of rain,
the twelve witnesses to the execution
toiled through the murky dawn up the
hill from which the penitentiary looks
down upon the city. They were quick
" marshaled and conducted, single
file, through gates of steel bars to the
chamber where Beattie was to offer
his atonement. There was no CON
Yersation
Within the chamber all was in read
mess. The chair, a solid structure of
oak, would ordinarily have appeared
like the chairs seen in scores of Ii
braries throughout the land In the
somberly bare chamber, however, it
seemed sinister. Straps dangled from
its arms and back and shining steel
clamps appeared In the light of the
electrics like tentacIes outstretched to
clasp victim.
The witnesses were seated six
abreast in an angle of the room. They
shuff1ed their feet uneasily and when
one leaned forward to speak to an
other his action was received with
frowns. Major Woods, with two dep
uty wardens, addressed the witnesses,
going through some small formaIities
demanded by the law. Then, with his
two men trooping behind, he passed
OFT into the building where Beattie
awaited the summons in his cell ad-
joining.
There was no delay in preparing for
the end. Beattie took his place, the
prison surgeon and the electricians
adjusted the straps, a half-dozen
clamps were quickly thrown into place
and snapped. The cap, resembling a
leather football head harness, was ad-
justed and the men stepped back. The
warden raised his hand Instantly
Beattie's body stiffened with such VIC
lence that the straps creaked with the
strain, the clamps ratified as though
they were castanets in the hands of
Ceath, and then that which once had
been Henry Clay Beattie, Jr, relaxed
The surgeon had gone forward, and
with a stethoscope had listened for
another faint beating of the heart that
less than sixty seconds before had
lived He stepped back, and said:
''He is dead"
The witnesses filed out. One or two
were ghastIy pale as they stepped into
the early morning light. No member
Of the Beattie family was present.