The Sentinel=record. (Hot Springs, Ark.) 1900-current, 1914-10-23
MRS. CARMAN ON
WITNESS STAND
WOMAN ACCUSED OF MURDER
INSISTS ON TELLING HER
STORY 10 TIE JURY.
Denies the Testimony of Her Negro
Maid and Leaves the Stand in the
Highest Spirits.

Mineola, n Y, Oct. 22.-Mrs Flor
ence Conklin CaIman took the wit
ness stand in her own defense here
| late today and entered a denial of tAe
| charge that she murdered Mrs. Louise
| Bailey. She went over the story OF
Celia Coleman, the negress in her en-
| ploy at the time of the tragedy in the
| Carman home in Freeport last jan
uary and declared false every accusa-
ton made against her
"a fabrication rom beginning to
end was, in the essence, her charac.
terization of the maids narration yes
terday of the account OF the night
Mrs. Bailey was shot in the office or
Dr. Edwin Carman, husband of the
defendant, and of subsequent happen
ings in the Carman home.
The story told by the negress was
Offered by the prosecution as tending
directly to connect Mrs. Carman with
the shooting, and the efforts of Mrs
CaIman"s counsel today in question.
ing his client were designed chieflj
to discredit the servants testimony.
Mrs. Carman responded with alau,
rity and seemingly with entire frank
ness to the questions of her attorney.
Her demeanor was that of a woman
in complete command of herself On
one occasion she smiled. Again her
face wore an expression of sadness
as when she mentioned her visit to
the morgue to visit the body OF the
woman the state claims she killed.
She looked into the faces of the
jurors with steady eyes when she de
sired to impress them with some par
ticular point and she seemed resent
full when certain points in the story
of the negress were under discussion.
she was on the witness stand nearly
an hour under direct examination.
She will undergo cross-examination
| tomorrow.
The defense sprang surprise when
George NJ. Levy, her attorney, asked
her TO take the stand. The court had
been adjourning every day at 4:S0
O'Clock The crowd in the court room
had been listening with little appar-
ent interest to stories told by wit
nesses called in an effort to break
down the testimony offered by Frank
| Farrell, another of the prosecutors
| important witnesses.
Many OF those who had been in at
| tendance throughout the day had left
when the defendant was called, near
| ly Is minutes after the regular clos
ing time.
The wife of the Freeport physician
admitted that she had installed tele.
phonic instrument in her husbands
office, but she denied that she was
'insanely jealous" She said she had
heard people ask her husband how
all the girls were Sometimes he
had stayed out all night Because OF
her daughter, she said, she did no,
want to obtain a divorce But If hel
husband was as bad as he had been
painted to her she wanted to know it
If she found out what she had heard
was true, she said, she had deter
mined that she would continue to live
in the same house with him as Il
nothing had ever happened, hut thai
Silc NOulu never opGsth " Ilin dSdiA
Then, on the morning after the muir
der, she declared, she tore out the
device that the district attorney haC
termed mechanical eayesdropper,
because she thought her husband a.
| reedy had enough to bother him. She
had an explanation for every act
Mrs. Carman even corroboTates
some of the states witnesses by ad
: hitting that on the evening Of ti,
" murder she had called to her daugh
u ter, Elizabeth to stop playing tn,
= piano, But she did this, she swore
! because she had a headache and not
u as the prosecution had minated be
. cause she wanted to listen over tn,
mechanical eavesdrOpper to what he
husband was saying to a woman ii
= his office
When Mrs. Carman stepped from
the stand she was apparently as fresl
as when she went on. She walked
around the rear of the jury box, tool
little Elizabeth UP in hsr arms ant
Kissed her repeatedly.
oh" she said. turning to Ael
mother, Mrs. Plat Conklin. Il do 81
hope they will believe me. | tolC
everything | knew. | told the truth
i. | A.. ........-4 -