Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-11-24
Beattie ConfesSes to
Murder; Dies in Chair


i afternoon his father, his brother
Douglas, his sister Hazel and his aunt,
Mrs. Sarah Bowman, came and re-
manned more than an hour outside the
door of his CELL Beattie told them
he was not afraid to die. He said
that soone or later the real murderer
would be discovered, and the family
honor vindicated.
The guards yielded to his weeping
fathers request and allowed Beattie
to step into the corridor for a final
farewell. With tears running down his
cheeks. the father clasped his son in
his arms and sobbed c last good-by.
Then Beattie was smothered with
kisses by all his relatives. Then he
went back into his cell, and. throwing
himself on the cot. sobbed violently.
Story of His Crime.
The crime for which Henry Clay
Beattie, jr., was executed today was
one of the most sensational in the
criminal history of Virginia. Interest
in the murder was countrywide, owing
to its unusual features and the swift
movement of justice.
On the night of July 10 last Beattie
drove his automobile into Richmond,
carrying with him the body of his wife
which had a gaping shotgun wound in
the head He declared that a tall,
bearded mar had acosted him on tho
Midlothian turnpike, five miles from
Richmond, and when he had requested
the man to make room for him in the
road the stranger, without warning,
had fired the shot which killed Mrs.
Beattie. He added that he had CRAP
pied with the man but was overpow-
cred, and that HI murdered had fled,
leaving the gun behind. This story of
the crime was maintaine by Beattie ta
the end.
For O brief time Beattie's story was
given some degree of eredence, but
within a day or two suspicion began to
point to him and he was kept under
the closest surveillance. Bloodhounds,
taken to the scene of the crime, refused
to leave the place, circling around the
~bloodspot on the road.
Beattie. it eventually transpired, had
thrown the shotgun into the tonneau
of his automobile after. the shooting,
but in passing over some railroad
tracks not far from the scene it had
been jolted out and was picked up later
by a negress. This gun, which Beattie
alleged q belonged to the mysterious
highwayman, proved the mean of
sending the young man to the electric
chair.
Weapon Identified
At the coroner's inquest the weapon
was identified by Paul Beattie, a Sec
ond cousin of young Henry, as the
he had purchased for Henry
with money furnished by the latter.
Beattie vas arrested Immediately after
the inquest. This was on July q and
on August 10, one month after the day
OF the murder, the trial was begun be-
fore Judge Walter A. Watson, in the
picturesque little Chesterfield county,
court house, sixteen miles from here.
The trial moved swiftly, though
witnesses testified. and on Sep
TENDER s, after IS minutes of consid-
Grafton and prayer, the jury. in chorus,
instead of through its foreman, de-
clared Beattie to be guilty of the muir
der of his wife. Motion for a new trial
vas denied and November "a set as the
day for the execution.
On November 10 the Virginia Su-
preme Court of Appeals refused to
grant an appeal on a writ OF error, and
two days later Governor Mann. who
had been appealed to for Communication
or reprieVe, ssued a statement declar-
ing that the interests of the people of
Virginia demanded that Beattie should
die i'll the electric chair.