New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-10-28
BEUTINGER JURY
IS OUT ALL NIGHT
Gets Case in Afternoon
Lawyer Says Wife Shot
in Defence

From 1902 yesterday afternoon until
after II o'clock last night the jury
which is to decide the fate Of Mrs. Mar
garet c. Beutinger, on trial in Newark
for shooting and killing her husband,
debated the case. At that time Judge
Martin, informed by telephone that no
decision had been reached, came to the
courtroom from his club. He then or
dered the jury locked up for the night,
announcing that if a verdict were
agreed upon it would not be read until
court convened this morning.
Mrs. Beutinger's five children,
wearied as night wore on by TEDIOUS
court arguments and convinced at last
that their mothers promise that she
would be home to supper would not be
fulfilled, dropped off to sleep-all ex-
cept the oldest girl, Margaret. AS
the children were being placed in an
automobile Margaret protested at leav-
ing. She said she didn't want to go, as
a little supper had been "all fixed up
for mamma"
Robert H. McCarter. counsel for the
defence, in his summing up, reviewed
the entire married life Of the couple
TO show that, driven to desperation,
Mrs. Beutinger had shot to protect her
life.
Her husband, "a big masterful, hand
some man, weighing more than 26O
pounds" had acted the despot and the
bully from the day of their marriage IN
1908, he said, until the night before he
met his death, when he twisted the legs
of his little daughters doll, while she
wept into her napkin at the supper
table.
Mrs. Beutinger, married when she
was eighteen, had suffered martyrdom
under the alcoholic brutalties of her
husband, who, she declared, was "the
physical counterpart Of Jack Johnson,
but, unlike Johnson, in being willing
TO fight only women and children
Prosecutor Newman asserted that
when her husband entered Mrs. Beut-
ineer's room on the fatal morning she
could have escaped. Instead she fired
the revolver, which she had purchased
only twenty-four hours before. The
recent date of the purchase tended to
show premeditation, Mr.. Newman ar
gued. He pointed out that the course
taken by the bullets showed they were
fred from above and that Beutinger
probably was either seated or lying
down when he was killed.
Julia Ann Gasco, one of the few wit
nesses yesterday, was greeted with rap
turous kisses thrown by the small Beu-
fingers from their seat in the court
room. She had been a servant in the
Beutinger household in 1915, and testi-
fed that Beutinger had tried TO throw
her down a fight of stairs when he
learned that she had told his wife Of
advances he had made to Julia. She was
fourteen years old at the time.
Two years after his marriage Beu-
finger had threatened TO take his wife's
life if she continued 10 talk of leaving
him, John II. De Baus testified. He
was a passenger on the boat they took
to the Philippines, and said Beutinger
tried TO persuade him to sign state
ment that he had seen a man in Mrs.
Beutinger's stateroom.
T wonder why they are so long,"
Mrs. Beutinger kept asking, according
10 Miss Florence Bell, a court attend
ant. 81 am sure they will acquit me.
Please tell the reporters my husband
left me no fortunc-only bad debts
The general opinion expressed as the
curious crowds filed out of the build
ing for the night was that there would
be "A disagreement.