The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1911-12-01
BEATTIE ADMITS He
MURDERED HIS Wife
Leaves Confession to His Spir-
itual Advisers.
One Minute After the Current Is APP
piled Beattie Is Pronounced Dead
-Grewsome Scenes anG m
cidentS in Prison.

At Richmond, Va, Friday, Henry c.
Beattie, Jr., died in the electric chair
at 1928 a. m. as penalty for the murder
of Mrs. Louise Beattie, his wife. I'M
mediately after the execution con-
feSsiOn under the previous days date
was given out as follows:
81, Henry Clay Beattie, Jr, being
DESTROYS of standing right before Gcd
and man, do, on this, the 23d day Of
November 1911, confess my guile Of
the crime charged against me. Ia IA
that was published concerning the de-
tails was not true, but the awful i2c
without the narrowing circumstances
remains. Fer this action | am rely
sorry, and, believing that | ar at
peace " God and am soon to n"SI
into his presence, this statene~t Is
made"
Beattie'a confession was followed I;y
the following statement by the at.c-:l-
ing ministers:
This statement was signed in tie
presence o. che two attending min
listers and is the only sta ement tAat
can and Will be made public by them.
Mr.. Reattic desired to thank the many
friends for ] ind lie ters and eED"es-
sions of interest and The pub r. for
wbatever sympathy was felt o. OK
pressed"
Henry Clay Beattle was proEcu"cci
dead one minute after the current was
turned on.
Feattie p ed a fairly peaceful nigh,
although hi sleep was bro en- Wien
he arose he dressed with his usual care
and ate sp9ri1gly. He did not appcl"
either nervous or apprebcnsiye, a.
though he was necessarily undo he
eyes of his guards, who had redo "a
their vigilance in the final nom
so that the law might not be che9+~l
During the reading of the dea.h
warrant the doomed man main: aimed
his compOsure. He stood without
tremOr.
Beattie was escorted from his cell
to the death room by two clergyman
of the Presbyterian churcl in which
his father was a decon. One was Rev.
Mr.. Dennis, the other Rev. J. J. Fix
pastor Of the church of Manchester. Ct
which his father long had been in of
fetal prominence until his sons trouble
prompted him to resign
Within the death chamber all was
in readiness. The chair, solid stIuc-
ture of oak, would ordinarily have ap-
peared like the chairs seen in scores
of libraries 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 tentacles outstretch-
ed to clasp a victim
The witnesses we're seated six
abreast in an angle OF the room
Beattie was soon strapped in the chair.
The warden raised uis hand In
stantly Beattie's body stiffened with
such violence that the straps crea' ed
with strains the clamps ratified as
though they were castanets in the
hands of death, and then that which
once had been Henry Clay Beattie,
Jr., relaxed.
TIE surgeon had gone forward and
with a stethOscope nad listened for an
other faint beating of the heart th7t
less than sixty seconds before had
lived. He stepped back.
''He is dead"
The witnesses filed out One or two
were CHASTITY pale as they stepped into
the early morning light
1t is the general belief that Beattia
died with sealed lips because Of his
father There existed deep affection
between the elder Beattie and his way
ward son. The father today is a bro
ken man as the result of his sons
crime, although he chung to the last
to the belief that the son was limo
cent