Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-04-10

posed to Josephine She said she would
marry him. At first the uncle ragged
| and raised a row. Then when the
young italian faced him down and said
II was no crime to get married in
America, when you could support
wife. the uncle consented with leer.
Our little Josephine will come back
! 10 us soon, he said. Go ahead and
marry her If you want to-
/ II y
THAT uncle was a prophet. He
didn't realize quite how much a
prophet he was. Josephine married her
young sutton. The whole neighborhood
was glad that she was to be freed
from the drudging slavery in which
they had seen her for so long. Joseph
inc and her husband went to the little
home he had furnished. And that
night, innocently as a child would tell
of any casual thing, she told him OF
what had happened at her uncle
/ house through Gil those long and hor-
rible months. The young husband
rushed out of the house distracted. He
did not return.
Josephine had fallen to the floor.
Two days and two nights she lay on
that floor, in an abandon of grief, fully
clad. just as she fell. Neighbors said
afterward that they thought dog was
sick or hurt somewhere in tie neigh
borhood. They heardj this amending
moaning, like that of a wounded ami
NAL
Then Josephine arose She went
out searching for her husband She
couldn't find him. Hours on hours
she rode around in street cars. Con
{ ,4,y 1of
they had seen her, dazed, sitting there
and riding to the end Of the line.
Then her Italian soul famed. All
night long she had ridden about town.
She got a knife-a long, strong
kitchen knife, sharp as a razor. In
the dawn she went to her uncle's
house. She met him coming down
the stairs to give orders in the bakery.
Without word, she thrust at
him He was a big, fat, gross man.
With one terrific slash, she literally
disemboweled him. Her aunt heard
his cry and came rushing out. With
another slash, Josephine slew her ex-
actly as she had slain the man,
THE coroner told me il took almost
superhuman muscle TO deliver two
such slashes with a knife and infiict
two such CHASTITY wounds on human
beings heavily clad. But Josephine
had almost superhuman muscle. BY
the drudgery in which they had kept
her for years her uncle and aunt had
built up the strength that was their
own destruction.
And" continued Dorothy Dix, II
went back to my office, the only re
porter In the world who had that
story. 1t rocked New York. Some
said it shocked the world. Acquit
her? OF course, we did.
THAT clean beat on Josephine Ter
ranova, you see, was pure luck. The
second came because ! gave man s.
when he was bvoke-a newspaper re-
porter
= *
esTNHE only name can remember in
that case, as l said, was that OF
Beulah Binney, mistress of the hus-
band who killed his wife. / can see
Beulah just as though she were stand
ing before me today. You know the
kind-big. buxom, II years OLD, but
with the mentality OF a baby, If she
had any mentality at all. Glorious
yellow hair, satiny skin and color in
her cheeks--she was just like newly
blossouned poppy. I never would make
the mistake of calling her immoral.
She wasn't immoral; she was just I'M
moral.
THAT murder was caused by the
social ambitions of boys father and
the money-lust of girls mother. The
fathers name is simply gone from my
memory. In Richmond they still
called him a carpet-bagger. He had
gone South to Virginia after the war
and had built up a great fortune. He
owned a chain Of furniture stores, as
1 remember. And, strangely for a
man. he was insane with social amDi-
ton. The goal of his life was to have
a grandchild who would be recognized
az an F. #. V.--among the First Fam
lilies Of Virginia.
sHis son was a handsome, wild
Young profiigate He had fiat, in
which Beulah Binney presided as his
mistress. He wanted to marry her.
He was insanely in love with her. But