The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1912-12-21

mp p Burton w. Gibson, the lawyer
shall be convicted Of the muroer
III Of Mrs, Rose NJ Szabo it wall De
~ hacause of a very little tnlng.
svrttas Charles Someryille in the ne"
yorh World. The list is long OF men
1and women too) who have gone 70
gallows, guillotine. garote and electric
chair through some little inadVertence
in well-laid scheme OF murder
some apparently trifiing accident sha'
has developed into giant Oh cohoeI-
natory circumstances.
IF Gibson be found guilty, then 1t
will have been shown that, having se
cured Mrs. Szabo's signature to VIII
in favor of her mother in Europe, ne
fured the woman out on Greenwood
lake In rowboat and there strangieo
her In a brief struggle, using mys~
FERROUS, little-known method OF ssrah-
guIation accomplished by the silghe
pressure of the thumbs On the carot1d
arteries at the neck. This Is the con-
kention OF the prosecuting attorney.
OF course a jury will have to DECIDE
IT. Gibson says that the boat upset.
that Mrs. Szabo and he We're nuhs
into the water; she drowned ana ne
was barely able to save himself Then
as her attorney and administrator ne
possessed himself of her fortune OF
about $4,000. But when Mrs. Szaoo 5
hody was exhumed the physicians re-
InS yonf din6
drowning. There was no sign OF Wa
ter In the lungs. She had been stran-
e1ed before she went into the water,
they said.
This strangulation by the thumbs
on the carotid was alleged in a muir
der case once before, when Private
William C. Howard, U. S. A., was tried
at Sueverville, Tenn, two years ago
for the murder of his wife as she
slept. Private Thomas A. Doyle swore
that he had once explained to Howard
how human being could thus be
slain and the killing, Il done deity,
leave only SO slight a bruise on the
throat that the embalming would re-
move all trace of it.
Small Thing May Convict Gibson.
But when Gibson heard the result
of the autopsy declaring that Mrs.
Szabo had died Of strangulation be
cause there was no water in the
lungs he only smiled. He confidently
advanced the suggestion that the I'M
dertaker who had embalmed the body
had with instruments drawn off the
water fram all parts Of the interior
of the corpse. The undertaken said
( The had dbnes this.
But the doctors said this was no
explanation at ALL They called at
'tention to- the scientific and thorough
lly established fact that when water
lis drawn Unto the lungs by a living
creature the lungs inevitably show
lsigns Of congestion. Mrs. szabo's did
mot.
So, If Gibson shall be declared
tguilty, this little fact will have been
pivotal In swinging the jurys verdict,
flor the embalming fluid left no tell
tale scars of thumbs adroitly pressed
ion. the victims neck
One single ill-considered statement
from the lips of Henry Clay Beattie
1.-THE Richmond, Va, wife murderer
first directed against him the suspi.
icion Of investigators who had gone to
the scene of his crime, unsuspecting
Ny, In all friendliness and sympathy
toward the youthful husband. He had
told his story OF how as he drove
with his wife III his motor car at night
salong the lonely Midlothian turnpike
Va man had halted him with shotgun
mnd berated him for careless driving
When he made angry retort the man
hn the road had answered with q
icharge of buckshot which STRUCK
IBeattie's young wife in the face ant
KILLED her.
He was really aiming at me, bu
pust the instant before he fred I hat
tIeaned forward to throw In the clutch
land start the machine and the charge
lstruck my wife"
The relatives of his wife's parents
10 whose home he had brought he
body, believed his story. Her uncle
IAN influential man, begged the as