The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1913-03-20
ON TRIAL
FOR MURDER SAYS
IT WAS ACCIDENT
Rev. Beers of Kansas
Denies Intending to
Stay Wife,,
AN ISSUE
Fact That His Wife Was
Catholic Cause of Many
Quarrels Between Them.

ioI'eka, has.-Love. mystery and
rellglon-lhese three elements in the
trlal OF the Rev. w. l.. Beers for the
murder OF his wife. pack the court
room daily with i tense, swayine
crowd.
The pastor of three Methodist
churches in Kansas SAYS of his case:
~ loved Laura. She was the
mother of my three children. 1t was
an ACCIDENT that when | put my
hand over her mouth to keep her
from screaming her false teeth slip
ped down her throat and choked her
to DEATH
The state contends that, after
years OF abuse of her because she
was a Roman Catholic he deliberate
ly and maliciously thrust his hand
into her mouth and pushed her false
teeth down into her throat with
such force that the dental plate,
which was shaped like a bow, vas
forced through the muscles OF the
neck clear TO The outer skin where
its end formed a lump as big as a
robins eggs, and she ~strangled to
death and was found in a pool of
blood in her bed.
Admits They Quarreled.
The preacher admits that he and
his wife quarreled often because she
came to believe. after her~,babies
We're born, and she SAW them being
reared in the Methodist faith, that
she had lost all chance of saving
her soul and that she had made up
her mind to depart from him and his
church and go hack to the faith of
her youth and her fathers, and hat
this caused the quarrel an grapple
in the hotel room that ended in her
death, but, he says, Il did not mean
to kin her, God knows" and he
weeps in the Court-room when wit
nesses spcak ncr meme.
His Children There.
Never sinee the trial in the same
courtroom OF John Collins for the
murder OF lis father, has there been
a case that drew the people like this
Bcors trial is doing. Beers is no
ordinary man. He is tall. broad
shouldered, pink checked, with an
intellectual face. mon gray hair, md
a digni1ied, t~lerical bearing. =
Beside the accused man sit his
three brothers from Ohio. one a
banker, one a leading lawyer, the
other a wealthy stockman Behind
them sit his two daughters by a
former wife, comely young ome
school teacher in Ohio. His 4-year-
old boy. Charley, the baby and pet of
the wife he is accused of numbering,
sleeps in his arms part of the time
while his tilted chair teeters slowly
back and forth. and plays at other
times about the legs of the table n
the feet OF the six lawyers, three of
whom are seeking to convict him,
and three others trying to clear him.
\ Bal,y's Soul at Stake.
The religious training of this child
was the cause of the quarrel that
ended in the death of the preachers
wife. The father, hating the Catho-
lie Church with intense bitterness,
was determined that his boy should
b. Methodist. The mother be-
iievins that salvation only could be
found through the Catholic faith,
wished him reared in that church.
And on the black topped table, be-
tween the two sets of lawyers, lies
the little half ring of red rubber
with fourteen white porcelain teeth
set into it, the dental plate thai
Killed Mrs. .beers and was cut out of
her throat by the coronel's scalpel
after her death.
She Had Asked divorce.
The prosecution contends that
there was elaboration in the killing,
that for years he had been in the
habit OF beating his wife and of
silencing her screams by thrusting
his fingers down her throat. and of
this there is some evidence in "a
petition for divorce she filed several
years ago back in Ohio, and then dis
missed; that he sought "A pastorate in
Kansas, a state in which there is no
capital punishment, so thai if he
did kill her he could o be hanged.
and that he thought out the bizarre
way of choking her to death with her
false teeth because of its very Oddly
and the unlikeliness that any person
would choose such a method OF muir
der.
Neither Sect IN the Jury.
When the killing occurred Beers
was pastor of the Methodist churches
in Wakarusa, Berryton and Linn
Creek, hamlets in Shawnee County.
south OF Topeka. Members of his
churches furnished his bond for
$4,000. Since the killing he has not
preached, but has been preparing his
case for trial.
In selecting the jury to try him
great care was taken to not let
either a Methodist or a Catholic be
a member of it.
o
Toronto, Ont.-Dr. H. f. Fried
mann said that when he returns to
New York tomorrow he expects a
much %friendlier attitude on the part
of the medical profession toward
his treatment of tuberculosis. He