Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-07-13
VOWS REVENGE
FOR CHILDREN
WIFE DROWNED
Husband of Woman Who Killed
StepChiIdren Says He Will
See Her on GaIIows.

UNION CITY, TENN. July "a
Remorseless, dry-eyed, deserted by
every relative and every friend, look
ed upon with horror by the people of
an entire State, Mrs. James Yates, who
forced her young daughter to aid her
in drowning her two stepchildren at
Troy near here, Wednesday. sits to-
day in the Obion County Jail here. by
no means safe from the vengeance Of
the country people, who still are muir
muring threats to renew their at
tempts to lynch her.
The woman will be tried in Sep
TENDER. She has engaged no attorneys
and refuses to discuss her crime or
to defend herself. Insanity probably
will be her plea.
Her husband will be the chief pros
ecutor. and states that he will do
everything in his power to send his
wife, the mother of mis- youngest child,
to the gallows.
Hated Husbands Children.
The crime was committed Wednes-
day and she and her daughter con-
fessed Thursday. Possessed of a deep
and intense hatred of the two chill
dren of her husbands former wife
she caught them wading in a creek
near her home and. with the assist
ance Of her daughter, Floy Farris,
child Of her former husband. stran-
gled them and held them under the
water until both were dead.
The victims were Ida May Yates. a
girl of u, and Lyon Yates, a boy OF
10.
Soon afterward their bodies were
discovered by the father. He imme-
diately accused his wife. and a Coro-
ner's Jury was summoned She was
held for first degree murder and her
daughter as an accessory. That night,
when news of the crime became gem
eral, a mob gathered and went to the
county Jail. Sheriff Finch had been
warned, and when the mob arrived
the mother and daughter were being
taken out by a back passage They
were placed in an automobile and
brought to Union City.
The woman Indignantly denied the
crime.
Daughter Breaks Down.
In the Union City Jail Thursday she
still chung to her story. but the lit
tie daughter, who is barely 16, told
everything she knew. The mother
then reluctantly confessed.
She said that since she married
Yates several years before his chill
dren had been the bane of her exist
ence. She said that she came upon
them wading I'm the stream. They be
gan to call her vile names. and she
could not resist the temptation to
drown them.
The story Of F1oy Farris was far
more narrowing in detail than that
given by her mother. She said she,
with her mother. came upon the little
children while they were wading.
Let's drown them, Floy," the moth
er Is alleged to have said The girl at
first objected strenuously, but de-
clares that when her mother choked
her and told her she would drown
her also If she did not help. she said
she acceded and helped hold the girl
while the mother pushed the little
one under water.
Girl Pursues Boy.
The boy had climbed out on the
bank in the meanwhile, said Floy, and
she ran through the stream and
caught him. She brought him back.
and her mother succeeded in holding
him under the water alone.
The woman has "A 16-month-old
child by James Yates. The infant she
kept with her in the Union City prison
the first day Of her incarceration. brit
when she confessed the little one was
taken from her.