Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1921-10-06
ARMED men GUARD
ALLEGED SLAYERS
Husband Of Dead Woman and
Nurse Saved From Mob.
DEMAND QUICK JUSTICE

People Scott at protestatlons Of In
nocence in Which. Prisoners Per-
sist.
Colonial Beach, Va. Hurried
away from the frail little jail of Mon
tross, the county seat near here, in
7 which they cowed as an armed mob
from here threatened lynching, Roger
D. Eastlake and Miss Sarah E. Knox
sit quietly in cells in the police station
at Fredericksburg.
The sturdier walls of this jail in
tn town of 5000 are defended further
by a squad of armed men, pressed into
service as aids to the police, to~guard
against the possibility of another
lynching party in this sparsely set
tied country.
The residents of the Colonial Beach
section are determined the prisoners
shall pay with their lives for the MUIR
der of Margaret Eastlake, Rogers
wife, who was slain here on Friday.
They scott at the mans and woman's
protestations of innocence, in which
the prisoners unwaveringly persist.
The leaders of the mob insist that
the legal authorities either surrender
the husband and the "other, woman"
into their hands for summary ven
geance, or else make sure legal justice
be done promptly.
The transfer from the. two-room
Montrose Jail to the Fredericksburg
police station was made at the order
of Governor Westmoreland Davis, of
Virginia
Mrs Eastlake, the daughter of VIE
liam H. Thorne, of Philadelphia, was
found hacked to death by Ratchet in
the kitchen of her home here. Her
husband is q chief machinist's mate in
the navy, stationed at the Dahlgren
proving grounds near here.
What goaded the mob to fury, and
at the same time strengthened the
case of County Attorney Mayo, in
charge of the investigation, is the
growing mass of evidence that the
nurse, stout, matronly in appearance,
and Al, and the 34-year-Old naval man
with the pretty 30-year-old wife were
intimate.
The county. attorney ais, believes
the nurse was cocaine addict, as
large quantities of narcotics were
found among her belongings, along
with love letters from Eastlake. and
evidence she had advance him money
and given him a motorcycle.
An intense love for EaStlake and
q hatred of Mrs. Eastlake, because the
latter had discovered their Illicit love,
is the motive for the staying. the cOun-
ty attorney announced.
One of a half dozen letters which
passed between the nurse and Eastlake,
which the authorities have found, in
Inmates that the chief petty officer in
structed Miss Knox to come here to
assist him in a plot to get rid of his
wife
For five years, the investigators say,
Miss Knox has been friendly with
Eastlake. Their intimacy was discov-
cred six months ago, when the wife
consulted a lawyer and inquired If
she had grounds on which to base a
divorce suit
The 5000 debt and the purchase of
the motorcycle were disclosed when in
vestigators ripped open the seams of a
fur-lined broadcloth coat, belonging to
the nurse, which was found in a clump
of bushes near the handbag, together
with blood-stained Ratchet, thirty
two-calibre pistol, a blood-splotched
raincoat and butcher knife, one side
of the blade bearing spots resembling
blood.
Eastlake had scrawled a promissory
note for 5000. He was obligated to
wipe out the debt last July.
The love letters, couched in ELUSIVE
terms, were found in the Eastlake bun
galow or in the nurses handbag