The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-09-01
DEFENSE BEGINS.
Witness Tells of Armed Man
Night of Murder.
CONFIRMS BEATTIE'S STORY.
Stranger Carrying Shotgun Seen by
Quarryman TaIIies With Prisoners
Description of Slayer of His Wife
on Turnpike Near Richmond.

Chesterfield Court House, Va, Aug.
31.-The grave business of Henry
Clay Beattie's defense against the
charge of wife murder commenced
after the commemorative lawyers
had rested their case.
Before his lawyer, Harry Smith, Jr.,
had been long at work on the build.
ing of combative evidence against the
serious case made out against the
young man by the prosecution, he had
introduced a witness who swore that
on the evening Of the day when Mrs.
Beattie was murdered on Midlothian
turnpike, he had seen rough looking
man following in vague way the de.
scription of Mrs. Beattie's assailant,
as the prisoner himself has given 1t,
who was walking along the tracks Of
the Southern railroad, three miles
away from the scene Of the homicide,
with a single barreled shotgun over
his shoulder.
No further tstimony tending to trace
the movements of this armed man
from $50, the hour when the witness
saw him, up to near II o'clock, when
Mrs. Beattie was fired upon, had been
entered. Another witness. who seem.
ed to be very vague as to his facts.
had taken the stand to testify to hav-
ing seen an unusual looking man on
the turnpike on three separate oc-
murder, but that was as far as he
went.
So far as Beattie's defense revealed
itself, 1t was shown that no attempt
will be made to dodge the story which
the prisoner has told Of his wife hav-
ing been slain by the charge of u
single barreled shotgun, fired at
range of about six feet by a man un-
known to Beattie. There was no hint
given of possible defense Of insanity,
which had been rumored during the
early days of the case; no attempt to
establish the ground for a verdict of
involuntary manslaughter through the
mishandling of the gun in Beatties
own hands
w. B. Holland was the witness who
laid the chief foundation in defense
VI DCdSItC olOly VI luc VI Ills
wife.
Holland is employed in the Quarries
along the James river by the tracks
of the Southern railroad. He gave
his direct testimony in a simple,
straightforward manner, With no in
dications of eagerness to be of assist
ance to the white faced youth behind
the rail SO badly in need of assistance
at this time.
Hollands story was that between
$50 and 6 o'clock on July Is he had
seen a man who was a stranger to
him walking along the tracks in the
direction of the crossing with the Mid
lothian turnpike. He carried single
barreled shotgun over his shoulders
a circumstance that struck the witness
as unusual because all game laws are
IN force at this season. He was about
thirty-eight years old, he said, nearly
six feet tall, as he remembered, and
had weeks growth of sandy beard
on his face.
The other witness who backed I'D
the mysterious stranger line of testi-
mony was Eugene Henshaw, a milk
man, who lives on the turnpike sew.
eral miles from the place where the
homicide was committed. Henshaw,
who is Mormon and who, because of
that fact more or less a self appoint
ed hermit among the folk of Chester
field, did not add great weight to the
defense. All that he could say def
nitely was that on three different oc-
casions in the week preceding that in
which Mrs. Beattie lost her life, he
had seen a wild looking man who act
ed like a lunatic, either walking along
the Midlothian turnpike or sitting by
the side of the road. The man carried
no gun.
Before Attorney Smith had proceed
ed far In the defense, he raised an
issue which was hotly contested by
Louis Wendenburg, the common
wealth's prosecutor, and finally COM
promised by Judge Watson. Smith
put Herbert Richardson, chauffeur. on
the stand and was asking him to de-
tail the circumstances of a holdup by
an armed man, which he had expert
enced on Petersburg turnpike, ten
miles from Richmond, a year ago.
Wendenburg instantly objected.
Judge Watson ruled that Mr.. Smith
could introduce enough evidence to es-
tablish the fact that the highways In
Chesterfield county were actually rem
dered dangerous by the prevalence of
an antiautomobile mania, and he would
allow this evidence to go before the
jury, otherwise it would be stricken
out Of the records.