The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1920-07-29
FRENCH. WOMAN BRUTALLY
MURDERED BY ITALIAN

I Mrs. Martha Latham, %, was stab
bed to death shortly after 2 o'clock
| Friday morning in a room at the
home of her father. w. T. Hagley, of
No. 10 Ward street, and Frank Pee
tter, an italian, about As years old,
I VINO has been guest IL the Hagley
home for week was arrested thr =.
hours later, near jamestown by Dep
uty Sheriff J. E. Wagner, and con.
fessed, according to the authorities
that he killed her.
I Confronted by an Interpreter E;
police headquarters, Peeter, VIII
! speaks little English, told the Officer
how he slashed the woman's thro,
and stabbed her through the breast,
although he said he loved her AMI
had been living with her in New Jer-
sey. for several months. Jealousy
over another man was ascribed as the
motive.
Officers answered a call to the
house on Ward street shortly after
two o'clock Friday morning, and
found the body of the Latham woman
lying on Peters bed in the same
room occupied by the Italian and her
two brothers, -. Arthur and Walter
Hagley, with two wounds in the body,
one deep wound in the neck with an
ugly cash through the throat and
another deep thrust just over the
right breast.
Search was Immediately instituted
for Peeter, who, the boys said, they
saw leave the room, and he was
arrested at five o'clock on the South
ern right-o-way just this side OF
jamestown. He had on him at that
time knife, the four inch blade and
half the handle of which had been
STEPPED in blood, and also a razor.
A pay envelope from some firm in
New York was also found on him.
Investigation showed that he had
been in High Point only a week, and
hGd done no work since coming here.
-Peeter was carried to the Jail at
Greensboro about noon Friday.
Peeter admitted his guilt according
to the officers, and later told the in
terpreter "a complete story. He said
that he had been living with Mrs.
Latham for months in Philadelphia
and in Camden, N. j., and that they
CdT0u LOT each OLu0T anu were 10 U0
married.
Two weeks ago she left him to
come to High Point to see her par
ents, telling him that if he cared for
her, he would follow. Peeter said
that he give her money to get to
High Point, and then followed her a
week later. He had been staying at
the Hagley home since coming to
High Point. He says that Thursday
night she went off with someone else,
and told him not to follow
When she returned, Peeter said she
refused to say where she had been,
but said she was going to leave him
today. He entreated with her, anu
she threatened to kill him, according
to the confession. Words passed be-
tween them, in which she made re-
peated threats against his life. He
told the Interpreter that he simply
lost his head and killed her, that he
didn't remember what time it was,
just how he killed her, or where he
had started after he left the house.
Peeter is an ignorant foreigner; he
has been in this country, he says, for
II years, and cannot speak English;
but his story is corroborated by the
facts in the case.
Mrs. Latham came to High Point
nearly a year ago. She had been
married to soldier and had one child.
> According to statements made by
her brothers before the coroner, DR..
George B. Robertson, at the inquest,
she had returned to High Point only
stay in the north, and that
PETER had followed her a week later.
Walter Hagley alleged that she had
had relations with the "reds" in Phila-
delphia, and that she had said she was
afraid to go back again, for fear that
they would kill her. He advanced the
theory that Peeter was sent here by
a gang for the purpose of killing his
sister, but officers put little credence
in his story, following Peters con-
fession and the story he. relates.
The coroner's jury heard the evil =
dence and returned verdict that Mrs.
Latham met death at the hands
of Frank Peeter and did not attempt
to ascribe any motive.
Peeter is being held for trial with
out bond, and it is expected that his
trial will come up at the next term Of
superior court, September 20.
Further developments in the Latham
murder case, when Mrs Clara Maud
Latham, white woman, Il, was stab
bed to death by Frank Peeter, an Ita1-.
an, at her home in this city early Fri
lay morning, were presented in the
statement of George T. Hagley, uncle
If the murdered girl, who brands as
Utterly false the motive of jealousy as
;ribed by the Italian, and says that all
circumstances point to the fact that.
PETER was sent, t,here from northern
,ity to get the Latham woman out of