Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-09-24
MRS. WARD TAKES STAND
AT HUSBANDS TRIAL
tcontinued FROM page u

to the spectators who leaned for
ward in their chairs to catch every
word. At times her 81 ere
so low when she was questioned by
Attorney General Sherman that the
court clerk had to repeat them for
the records and the jury.
Frederick Weeks, district attorney
at the time of Peters death and
the chief of the first investigation of
Ward, was the next witness after
| Mrs. Ward.
He testified that the defendant
came to him with his attorney, Mr.
Campbell, three days after Peters
body had been found, to announce
his completely in the affair. The
| group of men we're talking amiably
together about the killing, said Mr..
Weeks, when suddenly he asked
Ward:
what kind of a pistol do you
carry, a Colt automatic ?"
mo, a .3S Savage" Mr.. Weeks
said Ward replied to him.
The coroner who also was present
then suggested to Ward that he had
had a narrow escape, remarking that
Ward was lucky they didn't "get"
him, went on the former district
attorney.
Eyes, I might not be so lucky.
the next time Mr.. Weeks said Ward
replied.
Then the witness said that the
conversation with Ward ended as
Mr.. Campbell Immediately produced
a sheet of paper, saying that that
was Wards statement.
Dronadin0 Mrc wv ri m the stand
was Harry Greene, a state trooper,
who had been ordered recalled by
| Justice Wagner after the defense
had asserted Greene and Ralph Col
Inns, another trooper, had violated
| the courts order after they had tes-
tilted last week and that the two
troopers had then instructed how to
testify by the prosecution.
Greene testified that he had lunch
with Mrs. Roy H. Still, of Croton-
| Vile, a subuhb Of O~ssining, after
! leaving the stand on the day he tes-
titled and that he encountered a
newspaper man whom he knew In
| the court house corridor, passed the
! time of day with him and posed for
a photograph.
He said that later he met Trooper
Collins and asked for a morning
newspaper. When Greene took the
| chair, Mrs. Still, with whom he
| boards, was ordered from the court
room until his testimony had ended,
The staff of defense attorneys rose
| to their feet when-Attorney General
Sherman first summoned Mrs. Ward
to the chair, but they interposed no
objection. Her husband, the defend
| ant, also got to his feet and assisting
! his wife from her chair, accompa-
MED her around behind the jury box
and to the witness stand where he
gently helped her to her seat.
With an air of pathos she squirm-
ed about a minute, muffled her sobs
in her handkerchief, leaned forward
and stared straight ahead in a reso-
| lutte gaze. Her slight figure barely
fitted the huge chair on whose broad
| arms she rested her elbows.
Attorney General Sherman was
the first to question her but his in
terrogations were brief and were
made obviously for the simple pur-
pose of having her on the stand that
the prosecution might question her
after the defense had. After inquir-
ing about the nursemaid for the
Ward children, Mr.. Sherman turned
her over to the defense for cross
examination.
The attorney general had asked
her IL Lulu Beryl, the n~ursemaid,
was outside of New York state but
still in her employ and she answered
yes. After Mrs. Ward had said that
Mrs. Beryl was a nurse for her chill
dren and Mr.. Campbell held UP a
picture of a boy and girl and asked
Are these the children?"
Mrs. Ward identified the photo.
graph and then it was passed among
the jurymen.