The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1914-05-01
GIRL GOES EREE;
MAN CONVICTED
End of Pendleton-C Clement
Case At Spartanburg-
Mercy recommended
Jury Arrives At Verdict
After Deliberation OF
Two Hours.

Two Hours.
Spartanburg, April 27-"Cyde
Clement guilty with recommendation
to mercy; F'leda Pendleton not guilty"
was the verdict in the case against
Clyde Caldwell Clement and Laura
Fleda Pendleton, charged with the
murder of the two-months-old infant,
Virginia Virl alleged to have been
their daughter, who was drowned in
Whites mill pond at Lawson's Fork
here on the night of january 80. The
indictment was handed to the iury
at 5:26 o'clock this afternoon and at
7:10 o'clock tonight the verdict was
returned.
When the verdict was announced,
there was demonstration in the
crowded court room. Many of those
present cheered ana clapped their
hands. When the jury filed in young
Clement Strengthened up, his muscles
tIghtened and his face whitened
When he heard his fate, he fell over
on the breast of his aged mother
weeping. The Pendleton girl retained
her composure, and when the ver-
dict was announced, she sank into
her chair as if relieved of a great
strain. The face of her mother, Mrs.
j.. H. Pendleton of Durham, lighted
up with joy.
In summing up the evidence the
lawyers consumed practically the
whole day in arguments to the Jury.
The speeches are said to have been
the most eloquent ever heard in the
Spartanburg county court house.
Counsel for Clement will probably
make aH>appeal for new trial. Judge
Shipp reserved sentence.
In her testimony the girl admitted
that she accompanied Clement to the
mill pond on the night of January
30, but she denied that she knew
what was to be the fate of the baby.
She claimed that she came from
Greenville to Spartanburg under the
supposition that she was to marry
Clement, and that he was taking her
to q boarding house. ~ s--T7.f1
Clement, in his testimony, asserted
that he accompanied the girl to Law
sons Fork, but he was under the
opinion that they were to discuss
the Pendleton girl suddenly threw the
baby over the side of the bridge be-
fore he could stop her.
Both the defendants testified that
they did not report the murder be-
cause each desired to shield the other.
The body of the infant was dis
covered on the morning of January
81 by "Buck" Seay, the miller, and
the girl and Clement were arrested
almost simultaneously on February 3,
the former in local boarding house
and the latter as he was nearing the
North Carolina line on his way home.
When the aged mother of Clyde
Caldwell Clement swas led to a wait
ing automobile by the father, Robert
G. Clement, to take her to her home
in Polk county, N. c., she had to be
supported and she moaned for her
son, sobbing in heart broken anguish:
guish:
"Oh, my God, spare my son. Oh.
will they kill him? Oh, save him."
Quite different was the demeanor
e of the other mother. She was all
smiles, and she and her daughter took
supper at Spartanburg hotel From,
there they went to the home of a
Spaltanburg family, where they will
stay until Wednes day, when they will
depart for the home of the Pendleton
family at Durham. N. C.
Tonight hundreds of women of
Srartanburg visited the girl and on
graduated her on her deliverance.
The funeral services over the body
of the dead infant, Virginia Viri,
which has lain in a Spartanburg un-
dertaking establishment since it was
discovered in Whites mill pond by
Buck" Seay, the miller, on the
morning of January 81, will be held
at lakewood cemetery tomorrow af-
ternoon at a o'clock, the Rev. C. c..
Herbert, pastor of Central ,Metho-
dist church., who has befriended Miss
Pendleton since her Incarceration in
the county Jail since February 8, of
fiiciating. The interment will i'm
mediately follow. Both the grand
mother, Mrs. j. HI. Pendleton, and the
mother will attend the funeral.
Spartanburg, April 28-Clyde Cald-
we'll must spend the remainder of his
life in the state penitentiary for the
murder of his infant daughter, Vir-
ginia Virl, while Miss Laura Zelda
Pendleton, charged with the same Of
fense was freed by the twelve purors
in whose hands the fate of the two
young defendants in the infanticide
case that has attracted the attention
Of the entire country.
~ -
What's Become of Her?
What has become of the good old
fashioned woman who used to sit at
L. - n a u