Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-08-22
Richmond, Va, Man, Form
ally Arraigned and Enters
Plea; Claims Wife Was
Shot by Bandit.
SECOND WOMAN IN
CASE is WITNESS
State Has Held Beulah Bin
ford Prisoner Since Mrs.
Beattie's Death, as She
Furnishes Motive.

Chesterfield, Courthouse, Va. Aug.
21.-Bareheaded. chewing gum and
smiling. Henry Clay Beattie, Jr., swept
up to the Chester county court house
in an automobile at 10 o'clock this
morning to answer the charge that he
killed his wife in a motor car on a
turnpike near Richmond q month ago.
Judge Walter A. Watson arrived
shortly before the prisoner to convene
court.
Beattie's aged father had reached
Chesterfield half an hour earlier. In
court father and son sat side by side
and exchanged whispers. Beattie
then began to talk with his lawyers.
Judge Watson spent several min,
utes talking with the army Of special
newspaper correspondents and ar
ranging seats. Beattie talked lightly
with those around him. The father
sat silent. Dark circles showed un-
der the prisoners eyes, but otherwise
he looked trim and cool.
The room was 1ammed as the pro-
ceedings began at 1920 and to dis
courage the curious and idle the court
ordered all disfnterested spectators 10
stand up and remain standing. The
case was formally called and the
prosecution asked that the prisoner
be arraigned.
Hill Carter, for the defense, asked
| that the case go over until August
%, on the ground that the Gefense was
not ready to go on trial.
The request was denied and the
trial ordered to proceed. In denying
the request of the defense for post
ponement, Judge Watson said the mat
ter Of continuance might be consider.
ed after the trial proper had begun.
The court overruled motion to quash
the Indictment and Beattie was for,
mally arraigned, pleading not guilty.
The task Of selecting a Jury was
then begun.
6eattIe's Story Of Crime.
At the coroner's inquest Beattie
testified that while on the Midlothian
road In the automobile with his wife,
a man stepped out into the road.
Beattie stopped the car when he saw
him.
when leaned over to turn the
battery switch, intending to start the
car, he raised his gun and fred"
Beattie continued. my wife fell
over behind me. jumped for the man.
and he hit me with the gun on the
nose. I pulled the gun away from him
and fell in the road.
when I rose he was gone. I went
back and found my wife lying on the
floor of the car. lifted her to the
seat and ran the car back to the home
of my aunt Mrs. T. b. Owen"
The theory that Mrs. Beattie re.
preached her husband with his rela,
tions with tho Binford girl, and threat
ened divorce on grounds which 1t was
said would have made the elder
Beattie disinherit his son, may be
claimed by the state as Offering pos
sible motive for her murder.
The slight wound which Beattie
bears on his nose, and which he says
he received in the struggle with the
mysterious man who murdered his
wife, may be the strongest evidence
against him. A friend OF Beattie
told the police the young hus-
band frequently had been bruised
in exactly the same spot on the nose
when firing gun that Kicked"
Girl Admits Relations With eBattIe.
Under severe sweating" the police
declare Bulah Binford admitted that
she was the mother Of Beattie's dead
son, born July "A, 1909. and that she
has been lately paid money by the
scion of the south to keep away from
Richmond. She returned three weeks
ago and on at least two occasions Just
before the killing OF Mrs. Beattie she
was seen, according to Chief OF Police
Louis Werner, in the automobile OF
Beattie, which carried the latter's wife
to her death.
REII. ROY IC ON TRIAL.