New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-07
Jury FREES GIRL
TN GANG MURDER
Verdict of Not Guilty Is
Brought in After
Two Hours
CONVICT FIANCE
EXONERATES HER
Accused of Luring Man to
His Death to Avenge
Insult

/ Edith Ward. eighteen years old, who
was charged with murder in the first
degree in connection with the shooting
Of Edmund Maher on June is, was &C
quilted last night in Justice Cal
laghan's branch OF the Brooklyn Su-
preme Court The verdict was returned
at Gals o'clock, after the jurors had
delibersted for two hours and FIVE
minutes.
No spectators we're permitted in the
courtroom, but the corridor outside was
packed with gsngsters of the Green
point section, in which the girl and her
fanc6, Robert Katzenmuller, now serv-
ing life sentence at Sing Sing for the
Maher murder, lived.
After the Jury had filed out she had
sll but collapsed and was half-carrled
from the room, but II was feared she
would suffer another breakdown. But
as soon as the jurors came IN their
smiling faces told her that she wss not
10 20 to the electric chair or even to
prison.
Girl Thanks Jury
"Thank God, it's all over!" she cried,
clasping her attorneys hand and hug
ging the Jail mstron. Then, turning TO
the jury box, she cried: 81 thank you
all, gentlemen
AS she left the court she said she
was going 10 spend the night with an
aunt in Richmond Hill. The day had
been an ordeal for her. ,
She had heard Assistant District At
torney William P. Allen picture her as
q plotting. scheming companion OF eN-
convicts who had called Eddie" Maher
20 the door of a Greenpoint dance hall
that her fsnce might shoot him IN the
back as revenge for an alleged insult
10 her. She had sobbed quietly as
Matchmaker, known TO the "Savages
Of Greenpoint as "Silent Louie had
taken the stand snd told story shield
, ing her and taking full responsibility
| for the crime. Then she had testined,
contradicted her statement to the po-
/ lice and the Assistant District Attorney
/ after her arrest, and dehantly denied
remembrance of points detrimental TO
the defence.
She had been passing along the
street, she said, when Maher, one OF a
] y
called her names. She had told Katzen-
muller, a member of the gang known
as the Kent Street Savages," who al
ready had served a sentence at Elmira.
Katzenmuller said she must demand
an apology from Maher, or he would
not marry her. That evening they went
10 the Old Homestead dance hall, at
North Henry Street and briggs Avenue,
where the "Calumets," clan 10 which
Msher belonged, were dancing.
Asks Apology; Gets Blow
Edith Ward sent a stranger, Thomas
Kelly, into the place to ask Maher TO
come out. He came, and she demanded
an apology. For answer he struck her.
Then came the shot. She became fright
ened and fed when Katzenmuller shout
ed in her ear: run, Eide, rum"
Then she had sobbed as her attorney,
William A. Robinson, pictured her as
q child who had grown up motherless
since she was eight years old, girl
whose "Vassar and Wellesley" had been
"the pencil factory and the cork fac
tory"
"She knew but one thing, her loyalty
to the man she loved" he said. "And
honor her for It. If she lied, she lied
to save him. Every bit of evidence
produced against this child-and a
mere child she isis based on sus-
picion. / defy the Assistant District
Attorney TO ask you to send her to the
electric chair And he can do nothing
else. | ask you to do nothing else.
Either send her TO the chair or acquit
her"