The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-03
Physicians Had Remarked His Unusual
 Actions FATHER VISITS
 ACCUSED SON I Believe In You Still Says Aged
 Parent
FAMILY TO ENGAGE
 ATTORNEY AT ONCE
Guard Stationed At Bedside Of Wounded Man, Who Main
 tainS Innocence

While Dr. George T. Ed wards moaned and tossed on a cot in the T. C. I. Employees hospital last night, facing ar- rest and trial on a charge of murder as soon as he recovers from his own wounds, his medical associates revealed to Investigators that he had been under scrutiny for a month and that if he struck the blow that killed his wife as she lay asleep in their Fairfield home shortly before daybreak Tues day, he was insane or in the grip of a powerful, uncontrol- able emotion.
 Physicians who work daily with Edwards told how his queer actions during the past month had been a topic of remark among his colleagues. These disclosures gave police. deputy sheriffs and Coroner Russum their first lead in their search for a motive for the kill ing, which stirred the entie Birmingham district.
 J. I. <Reeder, chief deputy of the sheriff's Bessemer office, visited Dr. Edwards at the hospital Tuesday night Edv ards told him. he says, to come back at 1 o'clock Wednesday, at which time he would make statement that may clarify this whole situation"
 q left him sitting up in bed, smoking a pipe," Reeder said.
 Father Visits Son
 For the first time since his arrest on charges of wife-murder, Dr. George T. Edwards braced and smiled Tuesday eve ming when his aged father, J. L. Ed wards of Selma visited him in the T. c. I. Employees hospital at Fairfield.
 q believe in you, son." said the aged man, as he embraced the young physi- clan.
 On leaving his sons room, the elder Edwards said there was nothing to say for publication. He declared that every word of his sons story about the Valley road killing was true.
 Remains of Mrs. Edwards were to be taken to Montgomery at an early hour Wednesday for funeral and interment. The body is in charge of the Bell Un- dertaking company of Fairfield.~
 Ridicule Story N'e-'
 Though Edwards sobs for his dead wife and cries out that he is innocent, officials investigating the case, as well as the physicians with whom he served, ridicule his story that an unidentified intruder entered his home at o'clock Tuesday morning, cut the telephone wire, dealt his wife death blow with a blunt instrument and shot him in the hand with pistol as they grappled in the darkness.
 After horde of detectives, deputies from the sheriff's office and city po- licemen had studied the case several hours. Assistant Coroner Grove con vinced himself that it was an inside job" and ordered Dr. Edwards held.
 Edwards wound in the palm of his hand is serious, and his physicians fear poisoning. He is under heavy guard lt the Fairfield hospital.
 Some of Edwards intimates at the Employees hospital, where he was as- signed by the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company, told investigators he had recently been suspected of using irugs and Chief Deputy Sheriff Henry Hill says Dr. Edwards made such an admission to him shoStly after his ar rest.
 One Theory
 Under the influence of this drug, Ed cards may have awakened in the night in a maniachal state and followed the inclination of many temporary unbal- lnced persons in destroying that which vas dearest to him, according to a theory advanced by some of the asso- ciates of the accused physician. A careful probe by officers failed to re- real any trouble between Edwards and his wife, several neighbors testifying they appeared to be deeply in love with each other.
 Edwards small son, aged 20 months. md a 4-year-old daughter, both asleep in the home at the time of the attack, W ere unharmed. The boy was sleeping with his father and the little girl with Ter mother. Chloroform, out of a bot lc which bore laboratory label. had Ieen freely sprinkled on both beds, and he children were under its influence Or several hours. Then they went to l neighbor's home and played happily he rest of the day, not realizing that beir mother had been brutally mur- tered.
 Dr. Lloyd Noland, the first physician e examine the body of Mrs. Edwards, said she was killed instantly and by one blow. This blow was struck with an .lectric iron, which later was found in the kitchen of the Fairfield home. The
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