Imperial Valley press., 1922-07-19
WOMAN WILL
DENY GUILT
Mrs. Phillips Attorneys to
Fight Hammer Killing
Charges
ARRAIGNED THURSDAY
Accused Begs for Husband
Who Claims Kinship
With Mellon
United Press Leased Wire

LOS ANGELES, July 19.-With an
nouncement by defense counsel that
Mrs. Clara Phillips will plead not
guilty, both camps today were occupied
in preparation for court battle fol
lowing her arraignment tomorrow on
the charge of having beaten Mrs. Al
berta Meadows to death with a ham
mer
Armour L. Phillips, husband OF the
accused woman, added sensational
angle to the ease when he admitted to
newspapermen that he was second
cousin of Andrew Mellon, secretary of
the United States treasury.
Sheriff s operatives stated that they
have located the girl clerk in five
and 10 cent store who sold Mrs.
Phillips the hammer and had obtained
a similar implement, which is of the
claw hammer type with spruce handle
such as was found on the scene of the
murder. The clerk will be held as q
material witness, it was said.
Burch Trial Tactics
Activities of the defense indicated
that Attorneys Macdonald and Thomp-
son were planning a case similar to
that adopted at the first trial of Ar
ment. That is, the contention viii be
that Mrs Phillips did not commit the
crime, but if she did, she was temper
arilv insane and not accountable for
her act.
The fact that under their advice Mrs.
Phillips has never permitted the faint
est allusion to the crime to escape her
lips will aid them in establishing that
she has no memory of it, it was be-
lieved.
DR.. r. l.. Byron was called by the
defense to give Mrs. Phillips a physi-
cal examination which was made, ac-
cording to Attorney Macdonald, i'll
order to have medical record as to the
scratches and bruises on her body,'
claimed by the prosecution to have
been received at the hands of Mrs.
Meadows.
Interested Only in Husband
There is only one subject upon which
Mrs. Phillips shows any real animation
and interest-her husband.
She is eager to talk about him at
all times, and his visits to the jail are
her chief concern.
Yesterday she refused to see her at
torneys until after he came.
Since her arrest she has been besieg
ing the matrons with requests that her
husband be permitted to stay in the
cell with her.
"Why can't he stay9 He is my hus-
band," she repeats.
Alienist Calls Her Normal
DR.. Louis Webber, county ahenist,
unofficially asserts that he had found
Mrs. Phillips sane and normal.
Jailor Cronin whose experience with
criminals has made him in some sense
an expert, expresses the belief that she
"has not the slightest realization of
what has taken place.
''If she is guilty, the force of the
emotions she experienced has swept
away the memory of the act he
said 81 believe that if realization OF
her act were suddenly forced upon her
conscience, she would become a raving
maniac
Her voice, clear and toneless, gives
many the impression of almost mechan-
ical speech, as if she had no feeling
that she is speaking.
The contrast to her conduct furnished
by Madalynne Obenchain, who occupies
the adjoining cell and weeps in mo-
ments of stress, and Mrs Helen Me
Clung, accused of murder in a quarrel
over rent, who prays ceaselessly, af
fords further grounds for speculation.