Evening star., 1923-09-24
MRS. WARD WEEPS
ON WITNESS STAND
Wife of Man Accused in
Death of Peters Tells Events
on Night of Staying.
By the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
WHITE PLAINS. N: Y, September
24.-Mrs. Walter S. Ward was called
to the witness stand today by the
prosecution as a witness in the case
in which her husband is charged with
murder in the first degree of Clarence
Peters of Haverhill. Mass.
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. accompanied
her around behind the jury box and
to the witness stand, where he gently
helped her to her seat.
Mun1ed Her sobs.
With an air OF pathos she squirmed
about a minute, muffied 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 hts interro-
cations were brief and were made
obviously for the simple purpose OF
having her on the stand that the
prosecution might question her after
the defense had.
After inquiring about the nurse
maid for the Ward children. Mr..
Sherman turned her over to the de-
fense for cross examination. The at
torney general asked her If Lulu
Beryl. the nursemaid, was outside OF
New York state but still in her EN-
ploy, and she answered yes. After
Mrs. Ward had said that Mrs. Berry,
was a nurse for her children, Mr.
Campbell held up a picture of a boy
and q girl and asked: Are these the
children?"
Identifies Photograph.
Mrs. Ward identified the photo
graph and then it was passed among
the jury.
She said that the first she saw OF
her husband on the night of the kill
ing was between and 5 o'clock in
the morning when he entered her
room and awakened her. Answering
her husbands attorneys, she testified
that 1t was possible for her husband
to have been home earlier and for
her not to have heard him until he
came into her room.
Asked If, he offered any explana-
tion why he visited her so late, Mrs
Ward replied that he did. Justice
Wagner upheld the contention of the
defense that Mrs. Ward could not be
called upon to testify what her hus-
band had said to her.
WAS his explanation satisfac-
tory?" asked the prosecutor.
YES" she replied. ~.
Voice Is Very Low.
Mrs. Ward was apparently composed
as she parried the Interrogation, but
her voice was so soft that her an
swers were almost inaudibie to the
spectators, who leaned forward in
their chairs to catch every word. AT
times her answers were so low when
she was questioned by Attorney Gen
eral Sherman that the court clerk
had to repeat them for the records
and the jury.
Still suppressing her sobs, Mrs
Ward testified that when the first
grand jury began the investigation
of the killing of Peters, after 1t had
been announced her husband was I'm
plicated, she went to Bermuda After
she had been there some weeks. she
said, she cabled her husband to know
children and go to some other resort
This was arranged. she added, and
she took the children to Atlantic City
stayed Out of New York.
To the questions of the attorney
general she answered that she re-
rnained there, out of the jurisdiction
of New York state. while the last
grand jury was reinvestigating the
Killing and preparing the Indictment
under which her husband now is be.
ing tried.
Mrs. Ward remained on the witness
stand fifteen minutes and when she
returned to her seat behind her hus-
band she was shaking nervously. Be-
fore she sat down she looked fixedly
into his eyes and then suddenly buried
her face in her handkerchief and
sobbed audibly. In a moment sym.
pathetic sobs could be heard from
women scattered all over the court.