Weekly journal-miner., 1916-03-01
WOMAN DOOMED TO
 THE DEATH CHAIR

| WINSTON-SALEM, N. C.. Feb. 26.-For the first time in North Caro- lina-if nothing intervenes to avert t La woman will be executed next week for murder. She is Mrs. Ida Bell Warren, convicted with one Sam Christy of the murder of her hus- band. Both the woman and the man are under sentence to be executed next Friday.
 Petitions have been circulated all through the South asking Governor Craig to stop the execution and to commute the sentence of the woman. The Supreme court of the State has refused to commute 1t.
 c. J. Warren, a railroad man, was murdered in August. 1914, his body being found in Muddy creek, near Salem, several weeks later. Identification was not possible for many weeks, when friends determined the body was that of Warren. His widow was arrested, together with her son-in-low, Clifford Stonestreet, and s. P. Christy, her alleged para mour, the latter then living in Texas. Each of the three told a different story of the crime
 Mrs. Warren says she was born in Clcmmons, N. C., and in 1913 was married to Warren. She grew tired of nim and chloroformed him with the help of Christy, on August 17, 1914, at Stonestreet's home. Mrs. Warren was not arrested until the following April, when she confessed her share in the crime.
 | Christy said he met the woman in this city in 1908 and that they went together to Lnychburg. Va, where they lived together under the name of "Kearns." Later they went to Frank lin Junction, Va, where Christy got a job on the railroad as section hand. There Warren, also a railroad man. appeared and boarded at the house.
 One day Christy came home to find the man and woman gone and SSO of his savings also missing. He follow ed the pair, but lost their trail. He said he intended to kill them if he found them. He went to Texas. where he married and settled down. There he ,ceived letter from Mrs. Warren telling of her marriage and adding that she was in trouble and wanted him. He came north and with the woman and Stonestreet plotted the death of her husband. Mrs. Warren was to chloroform her husband while he slept and the other two were to come in then and help finish the work.
 The unconscious man was garrotcd with a piece of rope. His body was placed in trunk, carried to stream, and, after being beaten until unrecog. nizable, was weighted down and thrown into the water. A freshet brought it to the top ten days later.
 People came from all directions thinking the body might be that of some missing friend or relative, but the body was finally buried without being identified. Later the complaint of Warrer's parents that he was missing directed attention and sus- picion to Mrs. Warren and she was arrested.
 Mrs. Warren, according to the po- lice, made full confession. implicat- ing Christy, who was extradited from Texas. Christy is then said to have made a confession, in which he told the details of the murder plot. Stone street convinced the jury that he had | played only a minor part and he es' capped with sentence of three years in prison
 Chief Justice Clark of the North Carolina Supreme court affirmed the death sentences of Mrs. Warren and | Christy without comment. The peti- tions to Governor Craig for com mutation of Mrs. Warren'S sentence carry simply the pisa that she, being woman, should not be put to death. The previous character of the woman as brought out in her trial it is ex- pected will, tend to offset the effect of such petitions.