Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-11-03
LISTENING TO THE EVIDENCE IN A
MITRDER TRIAL

4 BOUT two weeks ago, near Kingston,
~ Barlow county, Georgia, a most brutal
40 murder was committed. woman was
killed by her husband, leaving baby ten
months old and another child less than three
years old. The husband of the woman shot
her in the back as she was trying to get
away from him, after he had told her she
was going to be killed.
l had never been in a courthouse to see
trial of this sort carried on. Last Saturday
the weather was as beautiful as they ever
come, any day in the year, and I decided
would go to the courthouse and hear the
evidence. Also pay tribute to woman who
was so unfortunate as to be married to such
husband. She was in humble circum-
stances, worked hard to keep UP a home,
with her two little ones,-one nursing baby.
She worked in the field as well as in the
house, and was obliged to get away from the
man because he was so cruel and abusive.
Her household stuff she needed and she had
gone to the miserable home to secure a d.
vision of the stuff she had worked faithfully
to accumulate. These facts were told me by
the Woman's brother, who occupied a seat
near me.
She was accompanied by a neighbor man
and her own sister, and was met. by the
angry husband on the piazza of her humble
home, and after she was denied her appeal
and turned to go away the enraged creature
shot her in the back, from which wound she
died next day.
The two doctors who were near enough to
her to be called promptly testified while
listened Both of them heard her dying
words and she with her last breath affirm
ed that he shot her down as she was trying
to get out of his reach.
Another witness, a former neighbor said
the husband had told him some weeks ago
that she had taken her children to her moth
er's home, but she had left him for the last
time, impressing the witness that he contem-
plated violence If he met her again.
bo dofo
the other older, to relate what they saw, as
they were sitting the steps when the
woman reached the house, before the shoot
ing began. They told what they saw and
heard, but incidentally it was brought out
that the defense lawyers had visited them,
and maybe coached them. One of the Of
f1cials of the court remarked to me that the
prisoner winked at his lawyers when some
thing was asked about the neighbor man, as
it was understood the character of the dead
woman was to be attacked by the husband
through his lawyers, as his plea before the
court. Despicable as he was to kill her, he
was still mean enough to defame her good
name; and she in her grave. I looked at
his cruel face, quite long enough for me, and
then l retired and went home. If such as
he do not get their deserts at the hands
of the judge and jury we may as well dis
pense with courts as protection to the in
nocent and the helpless forever more.
= During the last few days have been read
ing over one of the best of Dickens novels
"Oliver Twist The murder of Nancy by
her paramour, Bill Skies, is one of the most
tragic things in real life or fiction. WAX
ing the woman out of sleep, the brute beat
her over the head with a pistol. When she
fell to the floor, then he beat her life out
with club.
Leaving the corpse on the bloody floor, he
left London, his dog following him, fled into
the country adjacent to London. When he
looked about him, her bloody, dead face was
before him, day and night, everywhere. The
police were chasing him and he decided to
hide himself in the byways of London But
they captured him, and even his dog forsook
him. But I believe I have seen worse