Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-09-11
Walter Ward to Go on Trial
for Staying of Former Ma
rine - Every Legal Re-
course Exhausted
By ROBERT T. SMALL
Ueased Wire Service 10 The Journal.
Copyright 1928.

Copyright, 1926
NEW YORK. Sept. S.-The ques-
ton can a rich man shoot poor
man to death in New York and not
be tried for it," has been answered
in the mega tive. Next week Walter
S. Ward, millionaire son of George
s. Ward, president OF the nationally
known Ward Baking company, goes
on trial for the killing of Clarence
Peters, formerly marine, on the
night of May 16, 1922.
A million dollar defense fund is
back of the hayward young ma IN
whose own story of the shooting
shows him to have had many evil
associates along the thoroughfares
of the greater city where the lights
burn both white and red. Ward :
own contention is that he killed Pc
ters in self-defense. He said he was
being made the victim of a black
mail plot. The courts have decided
he must tell that story to a jury of
his peers.
Every legal .subterfuge has been
resOrted to in the effort to keep
young Ward out of court, where the
sOrdid story of his life and of his
companionships now must come to
the surface. Some of the story has
been told in the sanctity of the grand
jury room. The minutes then were
made available to the public, but
parts of the testimony were so in
credible and shocking that much of
mystery remains to be revealed be
fore the jury. This is all the more
trueSin view of an announcement by
the state prosecutors today that they
have much additional testimony
against Ward which was not pre-
sented to the grand jury.
Languishes in Jail
Ward, indolent, wilfuI, scattering
the money an indulgent father Law
ished upon him like the proverbiai
pre-Volstead sailor, languishes now
in the West Chester Jail He has
been spending some of his time MAX
ing wooden mouse traps to catch a
couple of diminutiVe rodents who
have been nibbling 1t the cook s
flour bags. This is the first and
only evidence of the bakers instinct,
so strong in the father, having de
scended in any manner to the son.
+ On two occasions it has seemed
that as the result of the cleVernesS
and SmartneSs of the moves of his
counSel-a dozen or more lawyers
already have had hand in the de-
fense-W was to go free without
ever having had to tell his story in
court. The case has revealed anew
the difficulties in prosecution in the
face of unlimited funds for the de-
Tense of a person charged with even
the capital crime of murder.
The prosecutors are not charging
| the various Ward lawyers with any
illegal or questionable move, but
they have taken advantage of every
possible technicality, carefully
searched out and magnified.. to keep
their client out of the colA't where
less wealthy, less influential man
una would have been rail-
roaded in a very few weeks
Peters, the obscure marine, was
shot to death in May, of 1922. Six
days later, as the trail of the Slay-
ing grew warm, young Ward sur
rendered and told a story of self-de-
Tense. He obtained his release on
10000 bail. A month later a grand
jury returned an Indictment charg-
ing first degree murder. Ward was
rearrested and locked up. But once
more he was released on bond. In
January of this year Wards coun-
sci obtained an unqualified dismissal
of the indictment and the supreme
court justice who had previously adj
mltted Ward to bail, set him at lib
ertY without charge of any sort
against him.
Then the mother of the obscure
marine, living in Haver Hill, Mass.
took hand in the case. She visited
Governor "Af' Smith in Albany and
made plea for justice. After con.
siderlng the matter short time, the
governor ordered a special inVestiga-
ton by the attorney general of the
state. Then a special grand jury and
a special term of court were author
lied. Evidence hitherto denied to
the grand jury was ordered pro-
duced. On July 26, a new indict.
ment charging first degree murder
was handed up
Once more the arm of the law
reached out for the millionaire shoot
er and he was again lodged in Jail.
Once more the army of lawyers set
about to take q new indictment and
to set the millionaire free without a
trial But this time their efforts
have proved vain. They tried to get
the indictment dismissed on the
ground of lack of sufficient evidence
behind it. They tried to get the first
degree murder charge reduced to sec
ond degree. They tried to get young
Ward out on bail.
Justice Wagner, handling the case
for the first time, has denied all the
motions and ordered the trial to pro-
coed next Wednesday.
The issues involved, including
that of self-defense," he said, "are
questions of fact. to be determined
by a jury upon the weight. charac-
ter and credibility of the evidence
produced"