Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-09-13
Or, W. A, HadIey Living in
New Mexico, IS Said to
Have Confessed CHASTITY
Crime
BY LEE LEWIS
Heased Wire Service to The Journa1.)

Copyright 1921.)
RICHMOND, Va, Sept. 10.-Once
1t is a long trail from the frozen
waters Of the historic James river,
in the hard winter of 1918, to the sun
baked desert of New Mexico, in the
summer of 1921, and yet the desert
has given up it's strange bearded man
to come back to Richmond to explain
if he can, the finding Of the ice-en-
crusted body of his. wife, stone
about her neck, three years Years ago.
It is the Hadley case and about 1t
Is woven a web of mystery, which, for
a time, baffled the best criminal
minds of the country. The county
authorities claim to have the signed
but there is no living witness against
him. The only person who could
have connected him directly with
motive for the crime is a woman
whose lips have been closed by death.
There is but a slender chain of, Cir
cumstantial evidence against the man
and yet the prosecutor believes 1T to
be strong enough to cast the CHASTITY
shadow of the death chair over the
dark and dingy cell in the Henrico
county Jail where tonight DR.. Will
marth Amos Hadley PAGES restlessly
to and fro, broken man at the age
Of SO.
For nearly three years DR.. Hadley,
who served here and at Camp Lee,
near Petersburg, as a captain in the
medical corps Of the army during the
war, has lived on a ranch near Farm
ington, N. M. under the name of
Arthur Leonard. He explained his
fight against tuberculosis and Che
haunted look for ever in his eye lent
it's tell-tale confederation to his story.
But it was the furtive look Of the
fugitive from justice and the strain
of an always possible detection took
it's daily toll of the stamina and vi
tality of the man until at last the
faltering figure which returned to
Richmond a few days ago, manacled
and thrice guarded. was little more
than the wrath of the stalwart Off
GER that Richmond and Petersburg
world hostilities.
Claim he Confessed
The police say that Hadley, after
mick trsnsfer E fo DenTer }a ana con
fessed that he poisoned his wife in
this city in November, 1918, wrapped
the body in a raincoat, weighted it,
with a heavy stone, and threw it into
the James river, five miles above the
city. A farmer on December 3d.
the cold had proved sufficient to pre-
serve it to such an extent that iden-
LITIGATION was possible by the woman
with whom Captain Hadley and his
wife had lived. This woman told
Of strange conversations between the
couple. She made affidavits to that
effect and the prosecutor has these
statements, but the woman, Mrs. e.
G. Clark, is dead.
There was no water in the lungs
Of Mrs. Hadley when her ice-covered
body was dragged from the James,
10 vel
evidence that she was dead before
the river claimed her as it's own
The heavy rock also told it's mute
but 1r eloquent He1tat story of foul n}uap play
soprano, with coloratura voice
which had given promise of a career
upon the stage. AS Sue Tinsley she
took a music course at Oberlin, Ohio,
having been born in Cincinnati. DR..
Hadley was graduated from the med
Texas in 1914, but local officials do
not know what he did between that
time and his arrival here toward the
end of the war.
the files of the war department at
Washington and cannot be found.
Pitiful Scenes
It was nearly a month after the
body was found i@S the James river
before a correct Identification was
pitiful scenes at the morgue. Men
and women came to Richmond from
various parts Of the country seeking |
lost relatives, but each one looked
in vain until at last Mrs. Clark was
attracted by the case and made the
Identification. By this time however,
DR.. Hadley had gone. He had disap-
peared as completely as if the earth
had opened up and swallowed him.
Eventually, however, a man turned
up who had seen him leaving the city |
in high-powered automobile.
The case was placed in the hands |
tient and systematic search of the
country was begun. The stranger
with the black beard at Pennington
had in some manner aroused sus-
picion. Detectives quickly were on
the trail, and when at last they con-
fronted Hadley, the man made no
resistance and readily consented to
return.
AS to motives, there are said to
be several. One has to do with an
army nurse as the third member of
an eternal triangle. Another has to
do with a mysterious CDR. Griffith"
by Hadley, in which he says he killed
the doctor" because he was annoy
ing Mrs. Hadley. There is the third
theory that DR.. Hadley had been suf-
fering in 1913 from the effects Of
an old injury, which is said to have
produced periodic attacks of aphasia.
Finally there has been a repudia-
ton Of the confession. The trial will
come up next month, and it promises
to rank with the Beattie case of a
decade ago.