The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1913-08-22
WIFE WAS LONG ANGRY
FELT THAT JUDGE GODBEE HAD
SECURED PROPERTY THAT
BELONGED TO HER.
FILED SENSATIONAL CHARGES
Staying of MilIen Man and His New
Wife by Divorcee Followed Bitter
ness Engendered by Marital I'm
happiness Before Separation.

/ happiness Before separation.
MILLEN, Ga.-Bitterness and ami
mostly engenderad by long years o
marital unhappiness, before the fina
separation, litigation over property
which finally went into the hands Of
the man, though it belonged original
ly to the woman, charges and count
err accusations of a sensational nature
directed in divorce proceedings
against the regulations of each, and
spectacular legal battle for the pos
session of a little girl of IA years OF
age, are ascribed by friends of both
parties to the tragedy as the real
motive for the killing Monday in the
Millen postoffice by Mrs. Edna Per
kins Godbee of her former husband,
Judge Walter NJ. Godbee, and the in
Fiction at the same time of fatal
wounds to the then present wife of
the man who was slain.
A Chaotic Condition.
Out of the general chaos of ru-
mors and reports of an inaccurate
nature, which are always in circula-
ton following an affair of this kini,
there is apparent from the stories Of
friends of both sides of the tragedy,
backed up by records in the office Of
the clerk of the superior court Of
Jenkins county, a tale of sorrow and
grief which runs over a period Of
nearly twenty years. The tragedy is
the outgrowth, so these records
would indicate, confirmed by III :
judgments entered in the various Ht-
igations, of man and woman mis-
mated, of entirely different tempera-
ments and dispositions, each, though,
entirely unyielding in the stands they
took and proud to the extent that
they would not bend an inch regard
less of the wounds which may have
been inflicted when affection was still
strong, when love made the future
seem bright, regardless of the mis-
understanding and the controver-
sizes which arose.
Friends who are equally in the
confidence of both factions and have
been intimately associated with the
tragic story which found its terrible
climax in the shooting Of Monday,
blame both the man and the woman
for the outcome of the affair. They
think both were at fault and they
have sympathy and sorrow only to
voice in any discussion Of the affair
into which they enter.
According to one of the closest
friends of both Mrs. Godbee, the wo-
man who is now held in the Jenkins
county jail charged with the murder
of her former husband, and of Judge
Godbee, the man who came to such
an untimely end when there were APP
lparently still before him many hap
Ply years, the whole trouble is the
outgrowth of the action of Judge
Godbee in the nineties when he ac-
CURED the entire rights to property
which belonged to Mrs. Godbee be-
fore they were married. This prop
rty Judge Godbee, they say, sold
and the proceeds reinvested in such
manner that when he died yester-
day he drew an income of $3.50 pei
month independent of all other bus.
/ mess connections and enterprises
Then, too, when Judge Godbee was g
resident Of Burke county he became
involved in difficulty with a brother
of Mrs. Godbee, whom he finally
killed. The Judge, however, was &C.
quilted when he was placed on tria
for his life.
Tracing the thread of the tragic
narrative it appears that the troub
lie began to loom upon the horizon Of
the Goddess again about ten years
ago, when the woman alleges in the
bill of complaint on the grounds o.
which she secured a divorce, he hui
inflated her before her children
drove her from his room, nailed III
the entrance between the two cham
bers in which they lived, and barred
her, apparently from his life. There
were many reconciliations and ole
quarrels were forgotten time anC
again. it appears, only to crop fortF
in the absolute Incompatible of the
two, like the eruptions of a sup
posed1y extinct volcano.
Threatened by Wife.
The woman in her bill of complain
cited numerous instances, she alleged
to be true, in which Judge Godbe'
threatened to beat her and shook hi
fist in her face; when, she says, h
mortified her before strangers ant
friends; before her own children ant
in the presence of everyone VIII,
would witness the demonstrators
She processes in the bill of complain
in her divorce suit that she did ev
erything possible to ameliorate tn
harsh temper she claims her husban,
had; to soothe him in his moods o
anger and to be a loving and dutifu
wife to him in every respect. How
ever, the bill of complaint continues
her efforts were of no avail, and con
EDITIONS finally became so unbearabl