The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-09-24
EARL PEACOX,
Wife Slayer,
Tells STORY
Debonair Killer Goes on
Stand Before Packed
Courtroom.
BARES ROMANCE TALE
Defense Holds That Crime
Was Due to Mad Rage;
Not Premeditated.

By Tpitcd Press
COURTHOUSE, WHITE PLAINS,
N. Y, Sept. 24.-More than seven
hundred spectators sought admission
to supreme court today to hear Earl
Francis Peacock, smooth young radio
lecturer, tell how he beat and choked
his pretty wife to death in their MT.
Vernon apartment last April and
Their burned her body.
Peacox' defense is that he killed
Mrs. Dorothy Peacock during an in
sane rage when she spurned his at
tempt to effect a reconciliation on
their first anniversary. The state,
however, contends the Staying was
premeditated.
Only a Scant 200 of the early
Corners were admitted to the cham
bers and they faced a long wait, as
court was an hour late in con-
yen.ng.
Mrs. Catherine A. Peacox, the de-
PENDANTS mother, was the days first
defense witness. She is a short,
stout, gray-haired woman of 81, and
is employed as a housekeeper.
| After she had given brief teSti-
mony, Peacock, the young defendant,
was called. He was calm and deb
chair.
Slayer On Stand.
Peacox said he was % years old,
that he got along well in his studies
at school and was graduated from
YonkerS high school, where he took
up radio rs a special study.
He said he first met Dorothy in
1921 at a Bronxville swimming pool.
He was only ID then.
1T was quite accidental Peacock
said. Il was sitting on the side OF
the pool when one of group of
girls fell into the pool. Then
dived in and pulled her out"
He said he saw her again during
the winter and next on Sept. 10,
1926, when "she asked me to come
to her home in Bronxville, and I
decided to CO.
Engaged in 1927
Q-After this occasion did you go
around frequently with Dolly2
A-Well. l heard during the lat
ter part of September. 1926, thai
she was engaged.
Q-When we're you engaged to
her.
About August, 1927.
Q-Between the time that you
heard she was engaged and the time
you became engaged to her, how
often did you see her?
About four or five times.
GLOW old were you then?
Al was 10.
Syme then asked PeacoX If Doro-
thy told him before their marriage
that she was going to have a baby,
if she blamed another man for her
condition. and If he took her to q
physician to have an operation per-
formed.
Questions Ruled Out
Justice Tompkins ruled these
questions out on the grounds that
anything of that nature was not
pertinent. Finally, however, Peacox
was allowed to say that he had not
lived with Dorothy before he mar
ried her.
Peacock told of his marital life,
how he and his wife failed to get
along, and then how complications
/ came up. He was asked to tell what
ne meant by complications.
"One night when she had gone
away and l came home, l found
/ note from Dolly to the effect that
she had gone out--where, she did
not state. I asked Mrs. Heinzleman
what Dolly could mean by the nots,
and Mrs. HelnZleman said she did
not know.
Dolly didn't come home until 4
o'clock in the morning. When
asked her where she had been, sho
would not tell me.
Laughed at Protest
Q-When your wife came back did
you discuss the situation? A-She
laughed and said I could make the
best of it. After the quarrel she
decided that she would not sleep in
the one bed in the apartment with
me and she tried to sleep on the
floor. picked her UP and put her
in the bed and spent the rest Of
the night in a chair.
In the morning. Peacox said, she
tore up his picture and threw the
pieces in his face. Then he did
likewise with a photograph of her.
Later, he recounted. he pasted the
picture together and kept it. IL
was produced in court.
II wanted to keep it forever. be-
cause loved her" Peacox said.
Court adjourned for luncheon.