The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1911-08-31
NEWS OF THE COUNTY5 DEAD, MORE MISSING B|
BEATT|E MAKES BAD SLIP.
MAKES MOVE SHOWING FAMILIARITY
WITH THE GUN
THE PROGRESS OF THE TRIAL

Prosecution Scores Heavily With
Several Important Witnesses.
Brief Summary of Trial.
Chesterfield Court House, Va,
August 80. - The prosecution has
scored heavily during the past
W days in the trial of young Hen
" Beattie, Jr., charged with hav-
Ing murdered his wife on pub
lie highway near Richmond. De-
spite the fact that he has been
forced ti' face the most damaging
testimony young Beattie main
talns his CAIN demeanor and there
are no outward signs Of the terri
bic struggle that may be
wagiu9 III lis breast to conceal his
real feelings. Summed up briefly
the prosecution has introduced tes-
tmony to show
That Beattie concealed by the
roads de the gun with which the
gun was crime was committed.
mat he was seen near the spot
where the crime was committed
just about sundown
Ihat ii was the first time his
wife had ever been out riding
with him after dark.
Ihat a party of boys returning
from dance passed the Beattie
automobile at a spot where the
crime was committed and that
Beattie appeared to be fixing a
tire while his wife stood Oh the
running board.
That it was impossible for the
woman TO have been shot while
she was sitting in the automobile.
That blood spots in the roadway
could not have dripped through the
foot board of the automobile.
That blood hounds trailed Beattie
to the stump where the gun was
concealed, then back to the auto
mobile and the trail was lost
That Beattie's wife screamed Just
before the gunshot was heard and
that it was 10 minutes before the
automobile started.
An Unconsidered Trine.
An unconsidered trifie - Just
the flicker of an impulse to action
came nearer to wrecking the de-
fence to Henry Clay Beattie. the
young man being tried for his life
mere, this afternoon than any
thlng that has come out of the
mouths of witnesses against him
Beatt!e would have betrayed a
deeply discriminating knowledge
concerning certain exhibit Of
fered against him by the Common
wealth if the quick hand of his
counsel had not stayed him.
Commonwealth Attorney Wenden-
Durg was asking Luther l.. Scherer,
chlei Il the secret service of the
Chesapeake au' Ohio Railroad and
the detective who has gathered up
most of the evidence against Beat
tie, TO identify the exploded shell
ina: remained in the breech of the
rusty shotgun believed to be the
one with which the murder of Mrs.
beatue was done. Scherer eX-
tracted the shell from the bore, said
1t was the identical shell that
had been found therein on the
morning after the murder, closed
the breech and handed the gun to
Harry NJ. Smith, Jr., counsel for
the prisoner, at counsels request
Smith turned the old style gun
this way and that and fumbled
with the breech. Just then the
young man whom he is defending
leaned eagerly forward as if to as
sist and laid his hand on the
small OF the stock prep
atory TO breaking the gun at
the breech. His action was i'm
pulsive and swiftly sure.
Attorney Smith brushed the
young mans hand away, turned his
back on him and opened the gun,
but Beattie's action did not entirely
escape the eyes of one of the jur-
ors. Blankenship is his name and
be is of the solid jawed, ruminat-
Ing type of juryman. The juror
Ii 4
head at Beattie. But by that time
tAere was nothing for juror No. 2
to see.
This was the gun, archaic in it's
breaking mechanism and altogether
pu2zling, which according to young
Reattic's story he had in his hands
only so long as it took him to
wrench it from the grip of the
highwayman he has described as
the murderer of his wife in the
dark of Midlothian turnpike and
TO cast 1t into the rear of tn" au-
tomobile. Not since that time had
he been able to view it or learn
its mechanism.
Aso to how Henry Beattie will
stand the inquisition when the
prosecution brings out strongly the
story of his life with Beulah before
and after his marriage to Louise
Owen is not much of a question. He
has the steel nerves of a desperado.
He can face anything from the bit
ter grief of his father TO the cleo
trio chair.
l.. o. Wendenburg, special counsel
engaged by the Owen family to
prosecute Henry, has brought ter
rlbly powerful evidence against the
accused. He has brought one of the
loaded shells found in the woods
near the murder. He has brought
a witness who found the gun near
the scene of the crime He has
brought witnesses to show the mur-
der could not have been commit