Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-01-30
WADE IS FOUND GUILTY.;
GIVEN LIFE SENTENCE
Jurors Fail to Accept Insanity PIE,
for Man Who Killed
Stcpfuther.
WITNESSES TELL OF RAGE
Enmity and Bad Blood Had Existed
for Some TiIne-Wade Captured
While on Way to Join Horse
Boat to Europe.

George Wade late yesterday after
noon was found guilty in the Circuit
court OF Iienrico County OF killing his
step-fathcr. James " Gordon. near
Wistar Station. and his punishment
hNcd at confinement for life in the
state Pcnitcntiary. The jury remained
I'm consultation for nearly two hour.
and returned verdict of murder i'm
the first degree Under a statute
enacted at the last session of the
Legislature. jurors have II right To
impose life sentence for first degree
murder rather tina nsend the murderer
To the electric chair.
Louis O. Wendenburg and T. GRAY
iiaddon. counsel for Wade, entered :,
plea of insanity in defense of their
client. urging. principally upon the
testimony of the mans mother. thai
Wade has for a number Of wears been
pronounced paranoiac. Mrs Gordon
testified as to strange acts and moods
of her So which would seem to indi-
cate that, at the time OF tn. shooting
aS'd before, he was mentally un-
balanced. Commemorative Attorney
w. w. beverley contested this plc: and
asked that Wade be sent either to the
electric chair or to the State rcnitcn-
tiary for life.
WITNESSES TELL. or wADE"S
LIFE: AND HABITS
number Of witnesses. including tho
officers who have been connected with
the case, the acting county coroner,
DR.. Moon. who viewed the body o.
Gordon and performed an autopsy: $
T. Smith, who was keeper at the
state fcnitentiary ut the time Wade
served a sentence for shooting at Dr
James buchanan. OF the Associated
Charities: and others who were ac-
uuainted with his life and habits tes-
tilted at the trial. Judge Scott did not
pass sentence Yesterday afternoon
The murder for which Wade stands
convicted was committed during III"
early part of last September while
Wades mother and the wife OF James
Nathaniel Gordon on q visit to
the home OF a nc:Ehhor. Mrs. Gordon
left her son at HON" in violent rage.
Her husband, who long before had been
forced from tho home OF his wife on
account OF tho cnmitv existing between
! himself and his stcpson. had selected
| that morning Ia call ~ his wifc'S
homo. lie was warned against doing
so. but persisted. \ shot soon WAS
| heard hy some one in tho ncichbor-
/ hood. and. when Mrs. Gordon returned
! later. she found her husband dead
still sitting erect in tho chair in which
! he was shot from room in the rear.
WAS SEEN ONLY ONrE
! AFTER TIL: TRAGEDY
Wade was seen only "ncr immc-
diately after tho tragedy. Polio" az
the county and city instituted "a sys-
tcmatic search In Richmond and the
| surrounding country. but no trace Of
| tho missing man. whom the corOncr's
| jury charged with the shooting, WAS
| found. several months later. tut"r-
nation came from some point in Abe
marie County that he was on board "a
| Richmond. Fredericksburg and l'ot"-
mac Railroad train bound for this city.
and he was taken In custody by sheriff
W. Webb Syhnor and Agent Kennedy.
! OF the Richmond. Frederick sburg and
I Potomac Railroad. at ArCa station. He
said that. following tho shooting. h"
had left home for Chicago. and was
then on his way 10 Newport News.
where he would embark for Europe on
n horse boat.