The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1913-07-18

the most atr0ciOuS OIaii the cEiiiieS WAC
the murder last week, on the 9th inst,
Of Ida May and Lyon Yates by their
stepmother, now in the Obion County
Jail. A preliminary hearing by coro-
ner's jury at Troy brought out nothing.
MRS. Yates claimed that she found the
children in the branch after they were
drowned and undertook to remove the
bodies from the water. The little boy,
James, who made his escape, told two
citizens that Mama had drowned bis
brother, Lyon. and sister, Ida May,
and described how she had said 10 her
daughter, Floy, Let's drown them, z
and how he saw her with both Of them
by the throat, holding them under the
water, and that he ran away naked,
leaving his clothes on the bank, to keep
her from drowning him.
A terrible indictment Is this from 4
sevan-year old boy, old enough to know
the facts and yet without guile or with
out knowledge Of what effect his story
would have with the courts. Still
frightened and overcome with fear he
made the second attempt before hecould
relate the circumstances. Little chance
for any deception ia his case. The
story came straight and true beyond all
peradventure.
The confession by Mrs. Yates own
daughter, Floy Farris, IA years old, to
reliable citizens was that she and her
mother, Mrs. Hennie Yates, drowned
the children. She said that Mrs. Yates
took the children to the branch for .
NV bath, and that after they got in the
Ser Mrs. Yates said, Help me
sn them. Witness went Oh To-
~ -. ~ hat they caught Lyon as he
Nh M ling to climb out Of the water,
Choice o. to q bush, and how he Had
D'AlS'o'u ,oked and ierked around To-
Call l6o n hold, and how Mrs. Yates
0n' s9aeid his head under the water until he
ceased TO struggle; thai when bermother
attacked the oldest boy, the little boy
and his sister started out Of the water
naked and began to scream and run;
that she and her mother pursued and
overlook the girl about forty yards from
the branch, choked her and dragged her
back into the water; that Mrs. Yates
held the child there until she was dead,
Al preliminary magistrate's trial was
xvzived and the prisoners were broughtto
ian here Thursday afternoon. Sheriff
Finch and bis assistant officers state that
Mrs. Yates talked necessarily on the
road from Troy to Union City. She was
still defiant, tall, angular woman, with
long, bony fingers, like claws, dark fea-
lures, forbidding appearance hardened
with the commission Of a crime the like
al which has few parellels 10 4 civilized
community.
when the prisoners were brought to
iail the daughter begged not to be con-
tined with her mother, and since that
time she has refused to talk to her
mother. Mrs. Yates brought her baby,
the child II her last husband, Mr.. Yates,
whose children BY former wife she had
murdered. The baby was taken TO the
cell with its mother.
Quite number Of citizens visited the
iail 70 take look at the prisoners Mrs.
Yates at last yielded 70 the repeated
Questions ard confessed that she drown
I'D the children, but that she was pro-
voked to the crime because they abused
her and reviIed her with profanity. She
also connects her husband with improp-
81 relations with her daughter, Floy
Farris, and uses this IS cause q her
retaliation.
The attitude Of the woman has chang
AZ wonderfully since she was jailed.
She has broken down several 'imes
since. and expresses remorse.
The theory Of insanity has been sug-
gestea a. basis Of defense, but those
who have talked with the woman could
find nothing to show that she was IN
sane. II may, however, be urged that
she Vas insane during the commission
o. the crime.
II Mrs Yates is guilty she should
suffer the penalty d her crime No
defense d insanity made g order los