New Britain herald., 1929-04-29
NO ALCOHOL FOUND IN DEAD MAYS BODY
Undertaken Says Oliver Beards- ltt Had Not Been Drinking
CONIRADICTS YOUNG WIFE
Crowd At StratfOrd Court Room Today Disappointed at Delay In Hearing for Widow Suspected Of Sending Bullet Into Husband.

HcAr1u& TOT WlOOW SustHctcu Oi
 Sending Bullet Into Husband.
 Bridgeport. April o9 R-Disap- pointment awaited the crowd which gathered at Stratford town court this morning in hope of catching a glimpse of Gladys Foster Boards lee in the event she should be ar raigned in court in connection with the death of her husband, Oliver Beardslee, Thursday. from a bullet wound in the head.
 A number of youths of high school age. and older persons who knew Beardslee and his wife gath cred early at the town hall, and did not leave until after Judge Henry Harford had opened court to dispose of a number of minor cases which came up for disposition to- day.
 Will Await Coroner's Finding
 Police Chief William B. Nichols said that it had been decided to await the resumption of the coron- CTS inquest Tuesday before arraign- ing the woman.
 The next court day is Thursday. Whether tine coroner will make d finding in the case before that day will depend largely on the develop ments at the inquest Tuesday.
 While Mrs. Beardslee is reported to claim that her husband had been drinking with her early Thursda y morning, and that it was .e liquor that caused him to fly into jealous drunken rage, in which he accused her of being unduly interested in the bootlesger Jim" Curcio, there is one man who says that when Beardslee died little later from bullet wound in his head. there was no indication that he had been drinking D.. for to the quarrel and fatal shooting.
 Says Victim Was Not Drinking
 Undertaken James B. Potter. who prepared Beardslee's body for bur ial. is authority for the statement that there was no indication tha, Beardslee had been drinking as Mrs. Beardslee claims was the case
 When ! received the body and Potter said. in reply 10 questioning by reporter. T found no evidence that Beardslee had had anything to drink before his death.'' Undertaken Potter is the only person aside from the doctors who performed the autopsy, in a position to know whether there were indica- tions that Beardslee had been drinking.
 Dr. H. Le Baron Peters, medical examiner in charge of the autopsy on Beardslee's body, did not ex- anime the stomach contents when the autopsy was performed. he told Coroner John J. Phelan.
 "Then you don't know whether or not there was alcohol in the stom- ach," Coroner Phelan asked Dr. Peters.
 'I do not know that was the doctors reply.
 Dt'du NldU FIuNcTpTlutcu Lieutenant George Haux of the Rertillon bureau of the Bridgeport police department took finger prints | i'm pressions of Beardslees hands be- fore the body was placed in the cof- fin.
 | The fingerprint record was made for the purposes of comparison with any fingerprints that may show up on the revolver.
 Whether any fngerprint marks on the revolver will be discernible $ doubtful. The weapon is not nickel plated one. upon which such marks would show readily but is an old weapon which appears rusted and upon which it is believed such marks. even had the revolver not been handled by several persons would hardly show up. Dr. Frank Stevens. Bridgeport physician. has been engaged by the defense to make an analysis to de- | termine whether it would not have been possible for Beardslee to have fired the shot which killed him.
 Dr. Peters. the medical examiner stated at the inquest Friday after noon. that it would have been phys ically impossible for Beardslee fo have fired the shot.