The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1924-12-16
''BEAST, : ELSIE
CALLSPAST0R
AFFINITY
Hight Listens BIandly-court
to Decide on Admitting
Signed Confession
BY SONIA LEE,
International News Service.

MT. VERNON, ILL.,, Dec. 16.-The
decision which may mean life OF
death to Elsie Sweetin hung in the
balance today.
It will mean the admission or re-
lection from evidence of her alleged
signed confession-a document, the
State contends in which she ad.
mitted administering arsenic to her
husband, Wilford, not once, but
again and again as he lay stricken,
when it seemed the first potion
would not serve to remove him as
an obstacle in the path of her love
for the Reverend Lawrence M.
Hight. her eo-defendant in this
trial for Wilford's murder.
Today. after nearly twelve hours
of bitter controversy. the court
will rule on the confession. II II
is admitted, there will be only
Elsie's own story from the witness
stand to sway the jury to leniency.
Nights confession that he bought
arsenic and gave 1t to Elsie to ad-
minister to MILFORD already has
been admitted to evidence in SO far
as 1t concerns him.
II Elsie's statement goes into the
record, the States victories win be
complete and its strongest bolt ad-
mittedly will have been driven into
the gallows which it holds ready
for the defendants.
Battle Over Confession.
During the better part OF yes.
terday afternoon, the jury was re.
tired while opposing counsel bat.
tied over the confession.
Mrs. Sweetin took the witness
stand to give the lie to Hight and
declare that she confessed only al
his instigation after a night OF
inquisition at the hands OF news
paper men" when he told her IL
was choice between confessinK
and being lynched by the mob,
"that is gathering outside" He
explained to her, she said, that
he would repudiate the confession
when they were safely away in
separate jails.
Her alleged confession to q news.
paper woman, admitted into testi-
mony yesterday, she steadfastly
denied-even denied she had ever
seen the girl to whom she is al
legged to have poured out her tale
In the Salem jail.
Calls Hight Beast.
She spat out the name Of the
man whom the state contends she
once loved so well. labelled him
that beast" and through 1t all,
Hight listened blandIy, balanced his
chair expertly against a rail-and
dosed.
Love between them, II it ever
existed, is dead. Each now is
arrayed against the other and the
world. Each is fighting for life
and each is seeking to clip the days
from the others existence to add
to their own.
And today, with the trial more
than a week old, the little group Of
philosophers who daily await the
dropping of a barrier which admits
them to the court room where this
strange pair is on trial, are pre-
dieting the outcome.
Hight, they say, as they discuss
the case on the street corner and
in the neighborhood drug store,
will receive no mercy.
There has never been a hanging
in jefferson county" the old timers
remark, shaking their heads, wisely,
but Hight will hang"
With the woman, they say, it is
different. A mitigating circum'
stances in her case, they feel, is her
sex.
Being a woman and therefore
weak is an accepted creed in these
parts and it may save Elsie's life.
The preacher, who should have
known better, the drug store con.
gregation holds, led her astray.
From one to fourteen years or
freedom is their prophesy for her.