The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-11-24
ADMITS ALL.



Continued from Page aOne-)
of the coroner who arrived shortly az
terward.
The Rev. DR.. Fix remained as sole
watcher while preparations were made
for the removal of the body. The
elder Beattie last night sent to the un-
dertaker the brown suit which his son
had worn in court when the jury de-
cIared his guilt In this the body was
clad for burial
Forbidden to Print Details.
One feature of the Beattie execution
that aroused a great deal OF interest
and speculation was the attitude to be
assumed toward it by the Virginia
newspapers which are forbidden by a
state statute to print the details Of an
electrocution.
As part of the law which substi-
tuted the electric chair for the hang
mans moose, the Virginia legislature
wrote this paragraph into the stat
ute:
mo newspaper or person shall
print or publish the details of the ex-
ecution OF criminals under this act.
Only the fact that the criminal was
executed shall be printed or pub
hshed."
The legislature however, failed to
provide a penalty for a violation of the
section Hitherto the law has been
complied with out of respect to state
authority but the Beattie case has so
Snlnrall6Q the state curing the past
several months that there were indi-
cations today that many newspapers
would feel compelled to disregard the
statute on this one occasion and give
as many details as could be obtained.
The Be5ttie family has consented to
allow the Rev. Benjamin Dennis to
make public the statement which Henry
Clay Beattie Jr-, gave to the preacher
before his death. Douglas Beattie says
the statement is a very brief one and
at the request of Henry will be made
public just as the dead man wrote 1t.
No Funeral Arrangements.
There is some doubt as to just where
Beattie will be buried. 1t was thought
by the Beattie family that way had
been made clear to bury the body in
the family plot in Maury cemetery,
South Richmond. The family, it is said,
had planned to place the husband as
near as possible to the body of his wife
But no permit for the burial has been
issued by the trustees OF the cemetery.
This may OF may not be an oversight
but none of the officials of the ceIne-
terry association would discuss it, the
city ordinances forbid the burial of the
bodies of executed criminals in city
cemeteries. In anticipation of the en-
forcement of this rule Councilman L.
C. Patram of South Richmond, friend
of the Beattie family, put through the
city council a special permit suspend
ing the ordinance in the case of young
Beattie- Tie gloom of The death cham
Der was accentuated by the gloom of
the day.
The chamber is below ground. 1t
has no windows and because of its iso-
lation and the death cells adjoining, is
as silent as the tomb itself.
Into one corner of the chamber a
black cable dropped. 1t was the
heavy main wire leading from the
dynamos of the city lighting plant, a
haIf-mile away, for the prison author
tiles do not depend on their own
dynamos-
Death Was Instantaneous.
over this cable poured 900 volts of
deadly. When the executiOner- turned
on the full voltage and the body re-
sponded to the fearful shock the wit
nesses gasped. There was no warning
For a full minute the current raced
through the condemned man. For FIVE
seconds it was kept at its maximum
power and then was diminished slowly
during about u seconds. When the
needle ca the indicator pointed to 200
volts it remained stationary there three
seconds and then slowly moved around I
a gain to maximum where it remained
Migratory for the three seconds, back
to the maximum twice again it took it's .
course until, at the expiration of a full /
minute the current was cut off.
Beattie's death was instantaneous,
according to the prison surgeon. The ,
care had been taken in the |
preparation of the electrodes and in
seeing that the straps and clamps
were prepared to Withstand any strain.
In his home in South Richmond. the
father, surrounded by his other son,
Douglas, his daughter, Hazel, and
two aunts of the condemned man,
awaited word that all was over.