The Washington herald., 1918-08-12
MRS. BURGESS
BEGINS FIGHT
FOR HER LIFE
GirLWife's Trial for First
Degree Murder to Open
Today.

In the little Alexandria county
court house this morning. the curtain
lifts on the second act Of one Of the
most sordid tragedies that has ever
been staged in the vicinity Of Wash
ington-Kathleen Burgess will begin
her hght for life and freedom.
A hundred yards or more back of
the court house. the man she loves,
Earle Gamble, waits in the county
iaiI. under sentence of death for the
same crime for which she is on trial.
Gamble, army dcseTter, has been
pronounced guilty by an Alexandria
county Jury Of the murder of John
y Werres, a \. ashinSt0n jitney driv-
or on a lonely country roadside. last
May.
In the cell adjoining CANDLES. Rob
ert Newman. the third of the trio,
Is awaiting his trial. which will take
pIace ten days after his friend dies
in the electric chair at Richmond.
C.annbIe's c--ecution is fixed for Oc-
tober IS.
kathleen Burgess is charged with
first degree murder.
Kathleen Is Forgotten.
The seventeen-year-old girl will be
a mother for the second time in De-
reuber. Her first baby died short
time before she went away from her
Tstber's home with Gamble. Down at
Ouantico. the father of the child that
- TO come, and of the dead baby. is
serving as a marine in the L. :.
service. Since the reports of his girl
ha
have been published. he has made no
attempt to communicate with her or
with her family.
In the poveTty-stricken home In
Laurel, Nd. the girls father refuses
10 mention her name-to him his
Youngest child is dead. Not once since
her arrest in May has he attempted
10 see her or her attorney. or asked
~ she needed anything. Only the
aged mother Of the girl-wife remem-
bers her. and visits her in her cell.
i. She Responsible.
William Cloth. counsel for the
unfortunate girl. declares that she
will go free. He stated yesterday
that there are not twelve men in
Virginia who would convict her on
the evidence. 1t is Judge Cloths s
BELIEF. ana 'Ine Dellel Ol hdlL lHe
DeopIe who have talked with the
girl, that she is not responsible.
Born in poverty, with decided
streak Of feeblemindedness. her at
torney declares that the girl has
never had a chance to learn the
meaning Of right and wrong.
She does not seem half to under
stand the charge against her OF
the seriousness of her situation.
To a Washington Herald reporter
the girl said yesterday that she
"hoped to go free.
But" she added hastily. Il hope
1 never see an automobile again"
OF her baby that is to come she
speaks with a pathetic hopelessness
she seems to feel that she is
doomed to never have the child as
her own. Her other baby was
taken from her by her mother al
most at its birth and the girl was
never allowed to handle it.
Judge Cloth believes that il will
be impossible to secure a jury to
try the case in Alexandria, and that
the Commonwealth must go out OF
the county to secure the necessary
twelve men,
The girl is innocent" he stated
yesterday. ''and 1 am going to make
every effort in my power to prove
10 the jury that she is. am GO
ing into this fight with my coat Off.
sand my sleeves rolled up. to prove
70 the State of Virginia that Kath-
ieen Burgess II not guilty of the
charge against her.'