The Washington times., 1929-08-26
TASK now,
: To GET
JURY

OURTHOU USE, CHAR
LOTTE, N. c., Aug. 26.-The
task of obtaining a jury to
try Fred Erwin Beal, militant
generalissimo of communist
strikers in the South, and his
Is co-defendants, was started
today in Mecklenburg Superior
Court.
Beal and his aides are charged
with the murder Of Police Chief O.
+. Aderholdt, of Gastonia. shot and
killed the night of June Z when
he and other officers raided the
National Textile Workers Union
headquarters in the Gastonia strike
zone. -
A half hour after the 13 men
and three women in the case filed
into Charlotte's "million.dollar"
court house, efforts were directed
toward obtaining jury from the
regular panel of Is veniremen.
When this is exhausted, a special
panel of 500 probably will be or
dered by Judge M. v. Barnhill.
Charges Stay
During a lull in the court room
before the trial started, Solicitor
John NJ. Carpenter, chief of the
State counsel, denied to the cor
respondent current reports that the
prosecution would reduce the
charges against the self-styled
martyrs to second degree murder
The solicitor reiterated the States
intention to seek the death penalty
for Beal and the IL other men in
the case, who have been held in Jail
at Gastonia without bond since the
night of the killing.
"A month ago it was announced
that the prosecution would not press
for first degree convictions against
the three women defendants. First
degree conviction automatically
carries death sentence.
Beal and the other men were
whisked over to Charlotte from Gas
tonia early today by four dupitiesE
The women, having been free on
$4,000 bond for the past month, were
already here, after raising funds for
their defense in various parts of the
country.
Describing as ''capitaIistic" the
court before which they will be
tried, the trio--Vera Buch, Amy
Schechter and Sophie Melvin--de-
workers here yesterday that only
clared before a meeting of textile
mass pressure would enable them to
obtain justice.
All of the accused have protested
on every occasion that they are
being "railroaded to the chair or
prison on framed up charges be"
cause we started feeling of unrest
in the industrial south by organizing
the Gastonia strike"
They assert further that the COM
munistic stand on God, marriage
and the niger" has been dragged
into the proceedings to create preju-
dice against them.
The trial was moved here from
Gastonia on a defense motion for
q change of venue. In arguing its
motion the defense attempted to
show that sentiment in Gastonia
against the accused "red" slayers
was so intense they would be
lynched in event they were acQuit-
ted in CASTOR County.
The three women defendants ap
peared in the packed courtroom a
few minutes before 10 o'clock, the
time the LFlal was SSueuuIeu "
start.
They all came in together, Vera
Buch, Forestville, Conn, and Amy
Schechter, daughter of the late DIR.
Solomon Schechter, president of the
Jewish Theological Seminary. and
Sophie Melvin, 19-year-old radical
propaganda,
Garry Their Clothes
Beal and the II men in the case,
guarded by four deputies, were
brought here from Gastonia in a
school bus shortly after 10 o'clock,
in their shirt sleeves and with their
personal belongings bundled under
their arms.
They were led to the Jail on the
top floor of the court house.
Ten minutes later, at ten twenty,
headed by Beal, statuesque, sandy
haired fellow, the male defendants
filed into the court room and took
their seats in a semi-circle imme-
diately behind the desks of the at.
'torneys, most of them still in their
early twenties, the group gave the
appearance of a bunch of school
boys.
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